Ash Sutton has become the first five-time British Touring Car Championship Drivers’ champion, sealing the 2026 crown at Silverstone with a charge from 12th on the grid to victory in Race 2.
Sutton arrived at the penultimate meeting with the title already within reach. By Sunday afternoon, he had turned that advantage into a place of his own in the BTCC record books.
The NAPA Racing UK driver climbed rapidly through the field in Race 2, reaching fifth within the opening two laps before continuing his move towards the front. He took the lead on lap nine and went on to claim his ninth win of the season and the 56th BTCC victory of his career. The official BTCC report confirmed that the result made Sutton the championship’s first five-time Drivers’ title winner.
It was the defining result of a Silverstone weekend that also produced three different race winners, a successful post-race appeal and a rain-soaked finale.
Sutton seals number five in style
There was nothing conservative about the way Sutton finished the job.
Starting Race 2 from the sixth row, his Ford Focus Titanium was already up to fifth by the end of lap two. Sutton then picked his way through the leading group before taking control of the race on lap nine.
The soft Goodyear tyre and a full allocation of TOCA Turbo Boost gave him useful tools, but making that much progress through a packed touring-car field still required a clean, decisive drive.
Sutton eventually won by more than five seconds from Adam Morgan, with Charles Rainford completing the podium for WSR. More importantly, the points made his championship lead unassailable with the Brands Hatch finale still to come.
The fifth crown takes Sutton beyond the previous four-title benchmark. His earlier championships came in 2017, 2020, 2021 and 2023, across different cars, regulations and technical packages. The full list is recorded in the BTCC championship archive.
Moffat keeps Race 1 victory after appeal
The opening race was more complicated than the result sheet first appeared.
Aiden Moffat made the stronger start from alongside Power Maxed Racing team-mate Mikey Doble and led throughout, crossing the line just 0.092 seconds ahead of the pole-sitter.
Moffat was initially given a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits, which briefly promoted Doble to the win. Power Maxed Racing appealed, however, and the penalty was rescinded after one of the recorded infringements was judged to have come while Moffat was taking evasive action around a slower car. Moffat was therefore reinstated as the official Race 1 winner, with Doble second and Tom Chilton third. The official BTCC classification lists Moffat as the winner.
For Sutton, Race 1 merely delayed the title celebrations. He finished 12th, leaving the championship mathematically open until the second contest of the afternoon.
Ingram masters the rain in Race 3
With the Drivers’ title decided, Silverstone still had one final challenge waiting.
Heavy rain transformed the reverse-grid finale, and Tom Ingram came through to take his third victory of the season for Team VERTU.
Ingram started from the front row but initially slipped as low as fourth. Daniel Rowbottom featured at the front early on before Moffat reclaimed the lead on lap six, but the Hyundai driver’s pace improved as the race developed.
Just beyond half-distance, Ingram moved ahead of Moffat and began to pull clear. The BTCC’s official Race 3 report records how he recovered from fourth to win in the heavily rain-affected conditions.
Sutton was moving forward again behind him. The newly crowned champion climbed from ninth on the grid to second, finishing 4.123 seconds behind Ingram. Moffat took third, ahead of Gordon Shedden and Dan Cammish.
It meant Sutton left Silverstone with a victory, a second-place finish and the championship secured with an entire meeting still to run.
A record built across a dominant season
Silverstone supplied the headline moment, but Sutton’s fifth title had been built over months rather than one afternoon.
He arrived at the meeting with a 115-point advantage over team-mate Dan Cammish, with reigning champion Tom Ingram a further eight points behind. We had already highlighted Sutton’s growing control of the championship after his Croft victory strengthened that advantage.
That cushion meant Sutton did not need to take unnecessary risks at Silverstone. Yet when the opportunity came to settle the championship in Race 2, he attacked from 12th, reached the front within nine laps and won.
That was a fitting way to become the BTCC’s first five-time champion: not by easing over the line, but by producing one of the strongest drives of his season when the title was there to be won.
Brands Hatch will still settle the remaining battles when the season reaches its final weekend. The biggest prize, though, already belongs to Ash Sutton — for a record fifth time.
