British Touring Car Championship 2026 Season Review: Ashley Sutton Makes History With a Record Fifth Title

The 2026 British Touring Car Championship will be remembered for one name. Ashley Sutton broke the record books with a fifth drivers’ title and wrapped it up before the final meeting. Behind him, a brand new team came apart in the middle of the season, a team that lost everything in a fire swept the independent titles, and one of the paddock’s longest serving drivers said goodbye after 24 years. Here is how a remarkable season played out.

From Saloon Cars to Britain’s Biggest Motorsport Series

The British Touring Car Championship started in 1958 as the British Saloon Car Championship. Back then, drivers would literally drive their own cars to the circuit, race them and drive home.

Today it is Britain’s biggest four-wheeled motorsport series. The grid features some of the most popular marques on the road, including Ford, Mercedes, Audi, BMW and Hyundai. Trackside crowds regularly top 30,000, and free-to-air coverage on ITV brings a worldwide TV audience of millions.

The series runs over ten weekends with three races at each, visiting some of England’s biggest circuits, including Brands Hatch, Donington Park and Silverstone, as well as an annual trip north of the border to Knockhill in Scotland.

How the BTCC Championships Work

The BTCC is split into several championships:

• The overall drivers’ and teams’ championships.
• The manufacturers’ and constructors’ championship, open to any team with manufacturer support, or any team that has designed and built its own car.
• The Independent drivers’ and teams’ championships for all other teams.
• The Jack Sears Trophy (JST), for drivers with no more than one podium to their name heading into the season. It is named after the series’ first ever champion.

New for 2026: The Saturday Qualifying Race

The biggest change for 2026 was the introduction of a Saturday qualifying race, a first in the series’ history.

After a 50-minute practice session on Saturday morning, the drivers were split into two groups, odd and even, based on where they finished in practice. Each group then had a 15-minute qualifying session. The quickest driver started on pole, and the rest of each group lined up on alternate grid slots (third, fifth, seventh and so on for one group, with the other group filling the even slots) regardless of how their times compared with the other session.

The field then contested a race slightly shorter than the Sunday races. The result set the grid for Sunday’s first race, with half points awarded to the top 15 finishers, rounded up to the nearest point.

Ashley Sutton Claims a Record Fifth BTCC Title

On track, the season was dominated by Ashley Sutton. He became the first driver ever to win five drivers’ titles, driving the Napa Racing Ford Focus Titanium, and the first since 1997 to seal the championship before the final meeting.

It started in the worst possible way. Sutton crashed out of the opening qualifying race at the start of lap two, which meant starting race one from the back of the grid. In true Sutton fashion he bounced back to take a second place and two victories on race day. That set the tone for an all-conquering season in which he scored nine wins and 21 top three finishes from 30 races.

Ominously for the rest of the field, Sutton announced a new five-year deal with the team at the final meeting of the year. He must now surely have his sights set on breaking every BTCC record.

Napa Racing and Alliance Racing Sweep the Major Titles

Full credit must go to Alliance Racing, the team behind Napa Racing. Over the winter they took on the massive task of converting their previous Focus hatchbacks into the new saloon model. It paid off, with the team claiming every major title, including the teams’ championship for the fifth year running.

Sutton’s teammate Dan Cammish also enjoyed a positive season with three victories, including the last race of the year and a win at Donington Park in the second meeting, where he raced in the team’s annual Valvoline livery for the second year running. Cammish was the only driver to be classified in every race in 2026 and occasionally matched Sutton’s pace. In truth, though, he lacked a little consistency and didn’t have quite the same ability to drive through the pack when stuck in the midfield. He finished third in the championship.

Tom Ingram Runner Up for Team Virtu Excelr8 Hyundai

Second in the championship was outgoing champion Tom Ingram in his Team Virtu Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30N.

At the opening meeting at Donington, Ingram looked like the man to beat. He won the season’s first qualifying race and round one, only to be handed a five-second time penalty in the qualifying race for an out-of-position start and then disqualified from round one for over-boosting.

That start set the tone for the former double champion. Despite finishing second in the standings and winning five races, including three of the last four, he ended up a massive 129 points behind his rival, in no small part due to six non-finishes plus his disqualification. Ingram and Virtu have since confirmed they will stay together until after the 2029 season as they look to take the fight back to Napa Racing and Sutton.

The Rise and Fall of Plato Racing

The biggest story of the winter, and of the season, was the formation of Plato Racing by BTCC legend Jason Plato. The former double BTCC champion and winner of 97 races ran a pair of Mercedes A35 saloons with backing from title sponsor Cataclean. His drivers were Daniel Rowbottom (Rowbo), who has long-term sponsorship from Cataclean, and former Mercedes driver Adam Morgan, who has longstanding links to Mercedes through his family-run business, Cicely Commercials.

Much was expected of the team, and it looked like they would be at the front from the start when Rowbo won the season’s opening qualifying race at Donington. Race day was less successful, however, and the team didn’t score a podium until round 13 at Thruxton during a challenging first half of the season.

The team then went to Knockhill and scored a historic 1-2 in round 16, led by Morgan. Clearly not all was well behind the scenes. Just days after that first win, with debts within the team out of control, Cataclean pulled the plug on Plato, who was unceremoniously removed. The team was placed into administration.

Cataclean continued to run and finance the team for the rest of the season. When the cars appeared at Donington, every mention of Plato had been removed, including from the team name, and the Mercedes ran in an all-black livery. Ironically, it was the team’s best weekend of the season, with Morgan taking a brace of victories. He went on to finish fifth in the standings, his best ever result, with three wins. Rowbo, despite not winning a race, finished eighth with three second places.

At the time of writing, the team remains in administration and it is uncertain in what form, or even whether, it will appear next season.

Power Maxed Racing Rises From the Ashes

Rising from the ashes, quite literally, was Power Maxed Racing. In August 2025 a huge fire destroyed the team’s entire premises, including its cars. The team came back bigger and better than ever to take a clean sweep of the remaining titles.

They arrived at round one with three brand new Audi A3 saloons, and a fourth car for Nick Halstead joined the grid from round 16.

The team benefited from signing Aiden Moffat and his long-term partners LKQ Euro Car Parts. Moffat scored his first victory in two years at Silverstone, in what was also a maiden 1-2 for the team, and went on to finish second in the Independents’ title.

Winning the Independents’ title was his teammate Mikey Doble, in his fourth consecutive season with the team. Doble took two victories, including the season opener, which was also the car’s debut race, and finished a career-best sixth overall. The team also won the Independent Teams’ Championship.

Completing the clean sweep was Dexter Patterson, the dominant driver in the Jack Sears Trophy. He claimed the title and ended the season with his maiden overall podium.

West Surrey Racing: A Low-Key Year for BMW

Other race winners included Charles Rainford in his West Surrey Racing (WSR) BMW 330i, while three of the four Toyota drivers also won races.

For WSR, the multiple BTCC champions, it was a low-key season. Having lost BMW backing for 2025, the team ran as an independent entry for the first time since 2014. Rainford and Daryl De Leon both returned for a second full season, with a third car for former single-seater racer Lewis Gilbert appearing from the Thruxton rounds.

Rainford scored two overall victories and was the highest-placed BMW driver, but only tenth in the standings. De Leon took three overall podiums and finished third in the Independents’ championship, with the team second in the Independent Teams’ Championship.

For Gilbert it was a learning year, and he will be best remembered for a dramatic roll at Donington. He was also overall Jack Sears Trophy round winner at Croft. At each meeting, the JST points from all three races are added together, and the driver with the most points gets to stand on the overall podium after the final race of the day.

Toyota Gazoo Racing UK With Speedworks: Cook Best of the Rest

Speedworks entered four Toyotas this year: two under the works Corolla Racing banner and two under the Laser Tools Racing banner, newly acquired by former Formula One driver Mark Blundell after its switch from WSR.

Josh Cook was the lead Speedworks driver and best of the rest, finishing fourth in the standings in his Corolla Racing Toyota. There is no doubt Cook has the talent to be outright champion given the right opportunity, but he suffered a fair amount of bad luck, particularly in the first race of the weekend, when he was often unable to challenge at the front despite starting in good positions. Even so, he claimed two victories, adding to his “King of Thruxton” reputation with an 11th win at the fastest circuit in the country. He also scored the most points of anyone across the season’s qualifying races.

On the Laser Tools side, former triple champion Gordon Shedden won at Snetterton and scored another four podiums. Teammate Aron Taylor-Smith took his first win in the series since 2016. However, neither finished inside the championship top ten, and a poor final race for Shedden and the team saw them drop out of Independent contention.

Tom Chilton Retires After 24 Years and 562 Races

The final race winner of 2026 was Tom Chilton, who won race three at Knockhill in a second Team Virtu Hyundai.

Chilton first raced in the series in 2002, scoring a podium on his debut at Brands Hatch aged just 17. At the final meeting of the year, after 562 races, he announced his retirement from the series at the circuit where it all began, 24 years later.

Ricky Collard’s Heartbreak in the Final Race

In the third Excelr8 Motorsport Team Virtu Hyundai was Ricky Collard, son of multiple BTCC race winner Rob, with whom he won the 2024 British GT Championship. After several years away from the series, Ricky put together a late deal to race. The original plan covered the first half of the season, but he carried on until after weekend eight. When he stepped away, he had seven podiums and was fourth in the championship.

He was replaced for weekend nine at Silverstone by Osamu Kawashima, the first Japanese driver to compete in the series since 1985. After ten years without racing and no testing before the event, it’s fair to say the 57-year-old wasn’t up to speed, and Ricky returned for the final meeting of the year.

In round 28 he scored his eighth podium of the season, and in the final race it looked as though he had finally claimed his maiden BTCC win when he crossed the line first. After jubilant celebrations and a moment on the top step of the podium, he was handed a penalty for a safety car restart infringement that dropped him to eighth.

Nic Hamilton’s Emotional First BTCC Trophy

In the fourth and final Team Virtu Hyundai was Nic Hamilton, brother of seven-time Formula One champion Lewis. He produced the most heartwarming story of the season when he stood on the podium at Snetterton as Jack Sears Trophy round winner.

That Nic competes in the BTCC at all is remarkable. He has cerebral palsy and races in a specially adapted car. This year he stepped up to another Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai and was quicker than ever, finishing in the points more often than before. The clear highlight was collecting his first BTCC trophy on a highly emotional podium.

Restart Racing: A Tougher Year for the 2025 Independent Champions

The final team on the grid was Restart Racing, running another pair of Hyundai i30Ns built by Excelr8 Motorsport but operated separately from the Team Virtu squad. Restart were the 2025 Independent teams’ and drivers’ champions, but it’s fair to say 2026 was less successful.

2025 Independent drivers’ champion Dan Lloyd only rejoined the team for the final four race weekends, replacing James Dorlin. At that point Dorlin was second in the Jack Sears Trophy, albeit some way off the lead. His highlight came at Thruxton, where sixth place in race three gave him Independent victory in that race and overall JST honours for the weekend.

The team’s best race result came at Snetterton, where regular driver Chris Smiley finished fourth in race three.

What’s Next: The 2027 BTCC Season

The 2027 season gets under way at Donington Park on 10 and 11 April.

BTCC 2026: Frequently Asked Questions

Who won the 2026 BTCC championship?

Ashley Sutton won the 2026 British Touring Car Championship driving the Napa Racing Ford Focus Titanium. He scored nine wins and 21 top three finishes from 30 races and sealed the title before the final meeting.

How many BTCC titles has Ashley Sutton won?

Five. His 2026 title made him the first driver in BTCC history to win five drivers’ championships.

Who finished second and third in the 2026 BTCC?

Tom Ingram (Team Virtu Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai) finished second, 129 points behind Sutton. Dan Cammish (Napa Racing Ford) finished third.

What was new in the BTCC in 2026?

A Saturday qualifying race was introduced for the first time. Drivers were split into two qualifying groups based on morning practice, and the result of the shorter Saturday race set the grid for Sunday’s first race, with half points for the top 15.

Who won the 2026 BTCC Independents’ title?

Mikey Doble of Power Maxed Racing won the Independent drivers’ title, and Power Maxed Racing won the Independent Teams’ Championship.

Who won the 2026 Jack Sears Trophy?

Dexter Patterson of Power Maxed Racing won the Jack Sears Trophy and ended the season with his first overall podium.

What happened to Plato Racing in 2026?

Jason Plato’s new Mercedes team scored a 1-2 at Knockhill in round 16, but days later title sponsor Cataclean removed Plato and the team went into administration. Cataclean ran the team for the rest of the year, and Adam Morgan won twice at Donington. The team’s future is uncertain.

Which drivers won races in the 2026 BTCC?

Ashley Sutton, Tom Ingram, Dan Cammish, Adam Morgan, Mikey Doble, Aiden Moffat, Charles Rainford, Josh Cook, Gordon Shedden, Aron Taylor-Smith and Tom Chilton.

Has Tom Chilton retired from the BTCC?

Yes. Tom Chilton announced his retirement at the final meeting of 2026 after 562 races, 24 years after his debut at the same circuit, Brands Hatch.

How can I watch the BTCC?

Every round is shown free-to-air on ITV in the UK.

When does the 2027 BTCC season start?

The 2027 season starts at Donington Park on 10 and 11 April 2027.

BTCC Championships