BTCC REACHES CRUNCH TIME AS THREE GO TOE-TO-TOE AT BRANDS
Trio of drivers separated by just a handful of points as season’s finale approaches
Seven points separate the top three in the fight for this year’s British Touring Car Championship as the series will reach boiling point at Brands Hatch next weekend.
A win for Jake Hill (MB Motorsport BMW) at Silverstone last weekend and one for the Excelr8 Hyundai i30 N of Tom Ingram, plus a second place in the finale for Motorbase Ford man Ash Sutton means that the top three have closed up and will go into the races in Kent ready for a battle royal. Reigning champion Sutton, who is on top of the pile with just three races remaining and is gunning for his third crown in a row, said: “I am looking forward to it. We are in a really good place with the car, we have dialled it in and chipped away at it and I couldn’t be in a better place going into the final rounds.” BMW driver Colin Turkington, who went into the penultimate meeting at Silverstone last weekend on top of the points, suffered a torrid weekend and has slipped to 27 points away from the title summit.
The final meeting takes place at Brands Hatch on October 8-9.
As Sunday dawned at Silverstone for the annual visit of the BTCC to the Northamptonshire circuit, a BMW driver led the title race. By the end of the afternoon, a BMW driver had starred. Business as usual? Far from it.
WSR driver Colin Turkington watched his championship lead become fourth place, Jake Hill was the driver of the day to move into second place in the championship in his MB Motorsport BMW 330e M Sport as Ash Sutton put himself at the head of the table in the Motorbase Performance Ford Focus.
Brands Hatch promises to be a thriller in two weeks’ time.
Race 1
After finally nailing a first pole position of the season, Rory Butcher (Speedworks Motorsport UK Toyota Corolla) bolted away to lead the pack into Copse on lap one of the opener, eager to break away as the rear-wheel-drive BMWs around him struggled to get heat into their tyres. As the Scotsman built a healthy lead on the opening lap, the battle raged behind between Hill, Adam Morgan’s Ciceley Motorsport BMW 330e M Sport and
Tom Ingram’s quick-starting Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N.
Ingram dived past Morgan at Brooklands at the end of the opening lap, but then tagged Hill a lap later on his rear corner. Ingram did the right thing, slowing to let Hill through, but Ting felt Hill had retaken the place rather slowly which meant that others were able to attack Ingram as well. Such is the way of the championship at this crucial stage…
Morgan moved back ahead and tried everything to dislodge Hill to no avail, but after five laps the gap between Butcher and Hill was coming down: the BMW had tyres that had now switched on and Hill was on the attack, despite the omnipresent Morgan applying pressure behind him. Ingram, for his pains, had copped a whack from Sutton’s Focus that sent the Hyundai sideways at Luffied and added to his woes. Thankfully, little damage was sustained and Ingram battled on, as did his aggressor, Sutton recovering from what he called a “dog poo” start.
But there had been even more drama in the pack on the opening laps of the race and it was here that Turkington came a cropper. Having qualified 10th with no hybrid allowed, Turkington was the victim of a busy road after Dan Cammish (Motorbase Ford Focus) hit Ricky Collard’s Speedworks Toyota at Brooklands and fired him wide. As Ricky re-joined the road, the gaggle of cars compressed and Turkington was spat into a spin.
He rejoined, but in his efforts to make up ground, he tangled with Jack Butel’s Excelr8 Hyundai at Luffield and damaged his steering plate. Repairs were affected, nine laps were lost and although he rejoined he wouldn’t be classified as a finisher. Zero points to Turkington.
And while the WSR mechanics toiled for Turkington, so the safety car was on track after Ash Hand (whose Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra had started from the pitlane after refusing to fire up on the grid) tangled with Sam Osborne’s Motorbase Ford Focus and plunged into the Becketts gravel trap.
Butcher’s lead, which had been reducing rapidly, was now non-existent as the field bunched up behind. Butcher’s restart was a clever one, waiting until the last moment to accelerate away so as to reduce the rear-wheel-drive BMW’s advantage on the run across the line and Rory’s defence was masterly. When asked when the cautious approach Hill claimed to be adopting pre-race had changed, he said: “After the safety car, I thought ‘Let’s have a go’. It didn’t work though…”
Butcher fended off every challenge from Hill, while Morgan shadowed them home, never quite finding that last tenth to have a proper go, but happy that the car felt better than ever. Fourth, from eighth on the grid, was Gordon Shedden’s Team Dynamics Honda Civic while Ingram bagged fifth from Sutton who was gifted sixth by team-mate Cammish on the last lap, and Collard recovered to eighth.
Race 2
Butcher, having emulated his 2021 Silverstone form of pole and race one win, started from pole for race two but now with a reduced number of hybrid laps, just seven available. Again he made a good start to head the pack into Copse, but as Hill was sluggish away this time, Shedden jumped into second from Hill and Sutton with Morgan fifth having been forced wide at Brooklands on the opening lap.
As Shedden chased brother-in-law Butcher, Hill had his hands full of Sutton for third, Ash having made up for his duff getaway in race one and the Ford was up from sixth and giving Hill a tough time as Jake worked the rear tyres to temperature. Behind, Turkington was coping with his uphill struggle from 27th on the grid and was 20th by lap two. Points beckoned…
Ingram relieved Morgan of fifth at Luffield on lap five as Hill’s tyres kicked in and he set the fastest lap as he edged away from Sutton and homed in on Shedden, the BMW diving past just before the race was neutralised after Dexter Patterson’s Laser Tools Infiniti Q50 was turfed into the gravel at Luffield.
With Hill thrown a lifeline, Butcher had to control the restart carefully and he waited until the exit of Woodcote again before accelerating to diminish the benefit of the BMW. The plan worked as he led into Copse, but Hill was soon back with him and on lap 11 tightened his line through Luffield to get alongside into Woodcote. The BMW slipped by into the lead and he tried to build the lead as Ingram squabbled with Morgan for fifth, the latter getting ahead on the outside at Luffield before Ingram who hung on to the inside line into Copse finally moved back ahead, Ingram also bagging the point for fastest lap.
Then, a second safety car was needed as Collard’s Toyota was in the Copse gravel ablaze. “I smelled fuel for a few laps,” said the luckless Collard, “and talked to my engineer and I decided I’d try to get to the finish but then it let go.”
Collard flung himself from the car but then remembered to go back and then of the ignition, at which point he inhaled all the extinguishant and needed a trip to the medical centre to check he’d not breathed in anything nasty. A fractured fuel line was the cause, a rapid repair job from Speedworks the result.
Another restart, another point of acceleration. Hill went earlier than Butcher had been to maximise the BMW’s strengths from Luffield into Woodcote and he built the lead in the final stages to secure a third win of the season, all this with race engineer Craig Porley working remotely via the phone from his hospital bed having contracted pneumonia. With WSR team boss Dick Bennetts in his corner, Jake was well looked after.
Butcher secured second from Shedden, With Sutton fourth to move into the championship lead, while Ingram fended off Morgan for fifth, the latter’s hybrid having failed during the second safety car period leaving him powerless to attack.
Talking of which, Turkington’s hybrid didn’t work in race two either, a rare failure for his BMW this season, but it meant that life was even tougher to get through the pack. In the end, 13th was a commendable result, but it meant that he missed out on any chance of lucking into the reversed-grid draw, in which pole for race three was taken eighth-placed Josh Cook (BTC Racing Honda Civic).
Race 3
With Cook on pole from Cammish, it was front-wheel drive to the fore as the lights went out and Josh made a decent getaway,
moving across to the pitwall to block Cammish, at which stage the first drama came as the two touched and Cookie had to save a monster slide towards Copse. Save it he did, and he led through Turn 1 as Cammish slowed to allow Sutton by and Morgan swept into second place, only to clout the rear of Cook at Becketts. As Cook again had to control an out-ofcontrol car, he ran wide and Ingram swept by into the lead with Sutton second and Butcher third from seventh on the grid. In the background Hill was working up from eighth, waiting for his tyres to switch on…
At Becketts on lap four, Morgan was roughed up by Ollie Jackson who was going well in his Motorbase-run Ford Focus, but a lap later Mogan was in real trouble as he was hit by Stephen Jelley’s BMW at Becketts as the pack compressed. The incident involved Turkington, too, but as Morgan spun in the middle of the corner, Hand and Collard tried to take evasive action and collected each other, bringing out the safety car.
On the restart, Hill had to work hard to retain his eighth place as Shedden tried to edge by at Becketts, but Nicolas Hamilton’s Cupra expired exiting Copse and was stranded on the road. Cue the safety car again…
As the race went green again, Sutton was away slightly better than Ingram and attacked for the lead, but there was never a realistic chance for Sutton to make a bid for honours.
Ingram thus hung on to win for the fourth time in 2022, Sutton chasing him home and Butcher completed a better weekend with a third podium. But behind the podium finishers, all eyes were on Hill. He first moved past Jackson on the sole racing lap between the two safety car interludes, before attacking the Hyundai of Tom Chilton by diving past on the outside at Brooklands.
Then came a move on Cook a lap later, Hill displaying his now trademark move of taking a tight line round Luffield to ensure track position on the inside of Woodcote and the BMW made the traffic look pedestrian as he blasted by. And to prove that he could overtake elsewhere as well, he made a dive alongside Cammish exiting Becketts, again with a tighter line, that put him on the outside down Wellington Straight. His pace was such that he was ahead even before the corner and puzzled faces were shown on the TV feed as the BMW looked to be in a different league. Fourth was Hill’s reward after a day in which he looked like a class act, the early season mistakes erased from the memory. A drive like this in two weeks’ time could earn him a championship.
Behind him, Cammish and Cook rounded out the top six, Cook securing the Independent drivers’ crown, but Turkington was only 12th, once again having to run without hybrid. It means his championship lead is gone but now we will see a different Turkington at Brands: he can go there and attack rather than have to defend a championship lead and that is something we don’t see very often.
The championship is still wide open as Sutton leads it by five points from Hill, with Ingram a further two back, with Turkington 27 off the lead. There is no obvious favourite but a superb showdown is promised, especially as two of those fighting for the crown are in the same team and won’t be helping each other. Let’s just hope that hybrid technology has the reliability to make it a fair fight…