Five things we learned from a dramatic BTCC Silverstone weekend

Sutton Stands Tall

With Colin Turkington suffering from some terrible luck at Thruxton, Ash Sutton went into the Silverstone weekend holding a 16-point lead over the four-time champion. Having qualified behind the BMW man, it was game on for Sutton, as he looked to pull out yet another Sutton-esque drive through the field. A two-position gain in race one saw Sutton bring the Infiniti Q50 to fifth, directly behind Turkington in what could be seen as a damage limitation charge in terms of championship points.

It all went to pot in race two, however. Having pulled off a fantastic move around the outside of Turkington at the start of the race, Sutton began to drop down the field after contact early in the race, and was lingering around tenth for the vast majority of the 25-lap encounter. Then, with just five laps to go he dramatically plummeted down the field with a puncture, giving him his first non-score of the season. As if things couldn’t have gone worse for Sutton, race leader Tom Ingram suffered a puncture at the exact same point, handing the lead - and race win - to title rival Turkington.

Starting from 26th on the grid for race three, it was always going to be tough for Sutton to get anything from it, but this is Ash Sutton we’re talking about. He’d managed to gain 12 positions by the time the red flag halted proceedings, and in the restarted 12 lap sprint just continued to claw his way up through the field in what can only be described as a champion’s drive - finishing second at the line. A time penalty for gaining an unfair advantage dropped him back to third, but he still pulled back enough points to hold a slender four-point lead at the top of the table.

Edwards debut marred by Neate

A lot of the pre-event chatter was about the newest addition to the BTCC grid, Jade Edwards. Stepping into the turntable of the Power Maxed Racing seat, which has so far seen Mike Bushell and Rob Austin return to the championship, Edwards made history as the first woman to race in the BTCC since Fiona Leggate in 2007. Having to start with 45kg ballast as a result of the PMR driver change, it was always going to be an uphill task for the third-generation BTCC driver, but considering she was new to the car and the championship, she held her own incredibly well.

Starting from the back of the grid she made her way through the incredibly physical lower positions and up into 20th, before being removed from the position by Andy Neate, who was on particularly fine form. She made no secret of her displeasure at Neate after Race 1, and the two came together in all three races, with the Motorbase driver eventually ending up in the tyre wall in the race three melee.

Hopefully this wasn’t a one-off for Edwards, who wasn’t really given a fair shot given she seemed to have a target on her back. With three rounds still to run this year, it’d be great to see how she can do with a weight-free car in qualifying.

They make them strong in Scotland (and Motorbase)

Back in 2014, Silverstone was the scene of one of the more dramatic crashes in recent memory, when Rob Collard went flying through the air in his West Surrey Racing BMW on the Wellington Straight. This year it was the turn of Rory Butcher to hark back to the days of RAF Silverstone and attempt to take off. Running down towards Maggots, the Motorbase Ford rubbed with Honda’s Matt Neal, sending the former skidding towards the barrier and catching it just at the wrong point, causing massive airtime and creating an incident that you’d expect to see Ott Tanak climbing out of, rather than a BTCC driver. Rolling across the infield, the Ford came to rest with a heavy thud right in the middle of the link road on to the Wellington Straight, miraculously avoiding every other car as the field streamed through Aintree.

Butcher was cleared of any injury at the medical centre shortly after the incident, as was a marshal whose quick thinking to dive out of the way saved him from serious injury - the Ford hitting the barrier just at the point of a marshal’s post.

It’s said a lot these days whenever an incident of this nature happens, but it doesn't make it any less true, that this was testament to how much motorsport has come in terms of safety. Looking ahead to Croft, the thoughts are now with Motorbase and their incredibly tough rebuild project.

Race of the year

No-one wants to see accidents like we saw in race three, but it certainly set up one of the greatest races the BTCC has seen in years. Not only did we have the fantastic display of Sutton carving through the field like a knife through hot butter, but there was action everywhere. No matter where you looked, an overtake was taking place. There was probably as many overtakes in that one restarted contest than the entire Thruxton weekend. At the sharp end Ollie Jackson was desperately trying to bring some positivity back to the Motorbase garage as their two other cars sat in various states of disrepair at the side of the circuit, but had a hungry Tom Oliphant, who continued to prove his worth in the WSR BMW squad, breathing down his neck.

The battling for the lead was so intense that it allowed the chasing pack to catch up and at one point there were no fewer than five cars all with a shout at the spoils come the chequered flag. It would be Jackson, however, who managed to hold on to the end and scored his first ever BTCC victory, (becoming the 9th different winner this year) in the process. Sutton managed to pass Oliphant on the final lap of the race, but was adjudged to have gained an unfair advantage by using too much run off, and the positions were reversed post-race.

Title race hots up

While Sutton was able to hold on to his lead at the top of the table, Silverstone managed to bring the title race much closer together. After the first five meetings you could have easily said that it was a two-horse race between Sutton and Turkington for the championship and no-one would have batted an eyelid. Now, though, it’s very hard to count out Dan Cammish, or even Tom Ingram, both of whom have a lot of momentum going for them.

Cammish has only finished one race outside of the top six since Knockhill, taking a trio of top five finishes at Silverstone - including a win and a second - while Ingram started the day in Northamptonshire finishing as runner-up to Cammish in a role reversal of Thruxton. He was also on course for a race win in race two, had it not been for that puncture which put an end to any potential big scores in the remaining two races.

The next round at Croft on paper favours the rear-wheel-drive cars of Sutton and Turkington, but with just nine races to go, Cammish sits just 17 points behind Sutton and will be desperate to make up for his heartbreak at the end of the 2019. Meanwhile Ingram may be sitting 25 points behind Cammish in fourth, but the late season pace of the Toyota can’t be ignored and you just feel like there’s yet another turn to come in the story of 2020.

Images courtesy of Motorsport Images.