Thruxton set to shake up BTCC title battle

Having reached the half-way stage at Knockhill, the fight for the 2021 BTCC title returns to Thruxton this weekend as the fastest circuit on the calendar prepares to play host to round six of the campaign.

Arriving back in Hampshire, defending champion Ash Sutton is the man to beat in the title race having extended his advantage at the top of the standings to 14 points last time out in Scotland, where he powered his Laser Tools Racing Infiniti Q50 to a third win of the season.

Sutton kicked off his campaign with a victory at Thruxton back in May but it proved to be a weekend that didn’t go entirely to plan, with a clash with Colin Turkington in race one and an engine issue in race two looking set to restrict the points he was able to score, despite the fact he had qualified on pole.

However, a fine victory in the final race would ensure he ended the weekend on a high and showed that the Infiniti will be one to watch this weekend, despite the fact that Sutton will now be forced to carry maximum ballast – unlike back in May when the whole field was running without any additional weight.

Tom Ingram remains second in the standings having managed to minimise his losses to Sutton at Knockhill thanks to his victory in the final race of the weekend.

The EXCELR8 driver scored a podium on his first outing in the Hyundai i30 Fastback N at Thruxton at the start of the year and has only got stronger from that point on having quickly developed a strong working relationship with his new team.

Ingram has matched Sutton in terms of race wins and showed at Knockhill that he was capable of managing the ballast situation across a weekend to work his way to the front of the pack; an approach that he will look to use to his advantage again in the latest three races of the campaign.

The former Independents’ champion is however wary of the challenge that both Sutton – and Colin Turkington- will offer as the fight for the title starts to hot up.

“I feel in a good place as we return to Thruxton, and am confident that we will be even stronger than we were back in May,” he said.

“The weight we have to carry into the weekend is going to hamper us in qualifying and round one, but Thruxton is the kind of circuit where it is a bit easier to then make up ground as the weight comes out across the weekend.

“The rear-wheel drive cars have been coming on strong in recent events but we will keep pushing hard to take the fight to them in the championship and I’m going into this weekend keen to score as many points as possible to keep our title bid on track.”

Turkington sits 20 points behind Ingram in third place in the standings, having brought himself firmly back into contention for the crown with a strong weekend at Knockhill.

Brands Hatch and Oulton Park had seen the West Surrey Racing driver score just 14 points in six races – from a possible maximum of 134 – to slip down to ninth in the standings, but a second win of 2021 helped him vault back up the order ahead of this weekend’s meeting.

There is still work to do to try and haul in the pair ahead, but the Northern Irishman is relishing being the chaser rather than the driver who the rest are trying to catch.

“I’ve always found security in having the points in the bag, but this time around I’m learning to be comfortable without the points but with the opportunity to score them,” he said. “As long as I arrive at the finale with a realistic chance of winning – then the gloves come off and it’s game on!

“My position in the championship gifted me an opportunity at Knockhill that I needed to convert. I did, and from that perspective it was very rewarding. It won’t be smooth sailing from here on in, but the best is still to come from us.”

Turkington will also have an eye on those people sitting just behind him in the standings, with just eight points covering four drivers – all of whom should be strong during the weekend ahead.

Former champion Gordon Shedden endured a wretched return to the series at Thruxton at the start of the season and has yet to make it onto the top step of the podium, but has managed to climb his way up to fourth in the standings and is armed with a Honda Civic Type R that has proven its speed at the circuit in recent years.

Team-mate Dan Rowbottom and Thruxton specialist Josh Cook are just behind in the standings and will also want to make the most of the pace in the Honda, with Jake Hill in amongst the trio his MB Motorsport-run Ford Focus – which scored three podium finishes from the opening meeting to snare the early championship lead.

Stephen Jelley, Aiden Moffat and Adam Morgan then round out the top ten in three more rear-wheel drive cars that will hope to impress.

The leading driver without any extra ballast onboard is only a handful of points behind Morgan, and Rory Butcher now heads into the event looking to replicate the kind of results Turkington enjoyed in Scotland to make his move in the title race at the wheel of the Speedworks Toyota Corolla.

“I’m excited to go back to Thruxton,” he said. “We were competitive there in May, so the plan is very much to reproduce that form if not better, and there’s no reason at all why we shouldn’t achieve that. I’ve made no secret of the fact that I feel so much more at home in the Corolla now, and we’re continuing to make progress every time we take to the track.

“One benefit of not scoring well last time is that we’re not carrying any ballast, and whilst that’s clearly not ideal from a championship perspective, you only have to look at the points haul that Colin [Turkington] took away from Knockhill after arriving with not much weight on-board to appreciate what is possible. We’re just waiting for that weekend where everything finally clicks, and we’re getting closer all the time.”

Senna Proctor is just seven points away from the top ten and on a rich run of form, with the likes of Jason Plato, Tom Oliphant and Jack Goff all hoping that Thruxton will be the circuit to get their seasons back on track.

Away the BTCC, an additional level of intrigue has been added to the race weekend with the announcement that former champion Tim Harvey will return to action for the Porsche Sprint Challenge GB races alongside his ITV commentary role – meaning touring car fans will see him on track as part of the package for the first time in a decade.

“I had a go in the car at the taster day in 2019 with the intention of racing it last year, but then COVID came along and scuppered my plans,” he said. “The taster was enough to help me realise that the Porsche Cayman 718 GT4 Clubsport is a great car, so I’m really looking forward to racing it. I spend many days behind the wheel of a Porsche either on trackdays or driving my own cars, so my passion for driving and Porsche in particular is immense.

“It’s been ten years since I raced a Porsche on the TOCA package and whilst I’ve never competed with Team Parker Racing, I know team manager Barry Horne very well from our years racing in the Carrera Cup. It should be a lot of fun.”