IS WINNING NOW TOO EASY?

Tom Chilton was pretty impressed when he stepped from his Motorbase

Ford Focus after winning race three to be told that he was part of modernday BTCC history.

“It’s pretty cool,” said the 33-year-old when he was told that he had become the 14th different race winner of the season.

It is an old argument. While it is great that so many cars stand a chance of taking victory, the flip side of that coin could mean that it is now too easy to win a race. Former champion and now ITV4 BTCC commentator Tim Harvey agreed: “I think it is possible, with so many factors involved like weight, tyres and reversed grids, that it is now easier to claim an individual race win. But that also means that it is so much harder to win a championship now, with attacks coming on any given weekend from any angle.”

That is true – but the championship fight always boils down to the best drivers on the grid. Look at the top three in the points this season: Colin Turkington (BMW), Tom Ingram

(Toyota) and Ash Sutton (Subaru). It would be hard to argue against these three being the best of the crop this term, even though Turkington has only won one of the 24 races so far.

The technical infringement that both Sutton and Ingram had in race two at Knockhill could well have ripped the heart out of the title battle for this year, though. Losing all those points (and the subsequent struggles it prompted in race three) means that both have seen Turkington zoom to a healthy buffer with just six races left.

Given the way the championship is now, there is no guarantee that any of those three will be at the front and grabbing the big points in any of those events. That is just the landscape of the modern British Touring Car Championship.

“IT IS POSSIBLE THAT IT IS NOW EASIER TO CLAIM AN INDIVIDUAL WIN” TIM HARVEY