Mr Thruxton Does It Again
Josh Cook is an absolute menace at this circuit and he proved it all over again this weekend. Pole in qualifying. Lights-to-flag win in the qualifying race. Lights-to-flag win in Round 13. That is now 11 full-points victories at Thruxton and 12 wins in total if you count the Saturday sprint. Nobody in the current field comes close to matching his record at the Hampshire speedbowl. The Speedworks Toyota was planted through Church and the Complex and Cook managed his tyres brilliantly across both stints. He has been a bit of a passenger in the championship fight this year but when the calendar hands him his favourite venue he is utterly untouchable. A ninth different winner of the 2026 season too. Nine winners from 15 races. This grid is absurd.
Sutton Pounces When It Matters
Cook led Round 14 from pole as well but Sutton was breathing down his neck from the start. A small mistake from Cook exiting Church on the opening lap gave Sutton the invitation he needed and the Alliance Racing Ford swept through. From there it was vintage Sutton. Controlled. Clean. Ruthless. Victory in Round 14 extended his championship lead even further and he backed it up with second place in the reversed-grid finale after starting sixth. Six wins from 15 races. A 59-point lead. If you are chasing Ash Sutton you are now staring at a mountain that keeps getting taller. He did not even have the best car all weekend and he still left Thruxton having taken maximum advantage of every opportunity. That is what four titles buys you.
Ingram Reminds Everyone He Is Still Dangerous
The reversed-grid finale was all Tom Ingram. He started on the front row alongside James Dorlin and got the better launch off the line before controlling the race from the front. It was a dominant display from the reigning champion and exactly the kind of result he needed heading into the second half of the season. His Thruxton weekend as a whole was strong. Second in the qualifying race behind Cook. Competitive in all three Sunday races. The win in Round 15 cut the gap to Sutton slightly but 59 points is still an enormous deficit. Ingram knows he cannot afford many more weekends where Sutton outscores him. The raw pace is clearly there in the Team VERTU Hyundai. Consistency and fortune need to align.
Proctor Steps In for Osborne
One story that caught everyone off guard was Sam Osborne missing the entire weekend through illness. Osborne felt unwell on Friday and was referred to hospital for blood tests. They came back clear but he was still not well enough to race on Saturday so Senna Proctor was called up as a last-minute substitute in the second Alliance Racing Ford. That is a tough situation for both driver and team. Proctor has two BTCC wins to his name so he is no stranger to the grid but jumping into someone else's car at the fastest circuit on the calendar with almost no preparation is a tall order. Hopefully Osborne recovers quickly and is back in the seat for the next round. Alliance Racing coped well with the disruption given Sutton still had a superb weekend on the other side of the garage.
Dan Cammish Quietly Banks More Points
Cammish grabbed third in the finale behind Ingram and Sutton and had a solid if unspectacular weekend overall. After his double win at Oulton Park he will have wanted more but at Thruxton points are points. The NAPA Ford looked decent in race trim and Cammish kept himself out of trouble when others could not. He is building a handy points haul and sits firmly in the title picture even if the gap to the top is growing.
Lewis Gilbert's Baptism of Fire
We talked last week about Lewis Gilbert filling WSR's third BMW seat and Thruxton was his first taste of competitive BTCC action. Going from GB3 single-seaters straight into a touring car at 140mph through Church is about as steep a learning curve as you will find anywhere in motorsport. The young Scot was always going to be up against it this weekend and the priority would have been clean laps and gathering data. Having Rainford and De Leon as teammates generating setup information should help him find his feet over the coming rounds. No shame in a quiet debut here. The real test of Gilbert's potential will come at circuits that are slightly more forgiving.
The Championship Picture
Here is where we stand after Thruxton. Sutton leads by 59 points. That is commanding but not unassailable with plenty of rounds still to run. Ingram needs a swing and he needs it soon. The turbo boost adjustments will keep pulling Sutton back as the leader but he has shown repeatedly this year that even with reduced boost he finds a way. Behind the top two the fight for third is fierce. Cammish, Cook, Rainford, Collard and several others are all in the mix and a podium championship is very much alive. The depth of competition means anyone outside the top two could leap up or tumble down in a single weekend. That is what makes the 2026 season so compelling to follow.
What's Next
The circus moves on and the second half of the calendar will test every team's development. Sutton is the man to beat but this season has thrown up enough chaos and enough different winners to keep everyone guessing. Nine winners in 15 races. You could not script it better. Roll on the next one.