Ash Sutton will be beginning only his third season as a British Touring Car Championship racer as the defending champion. The last man to do that was Fabrizio Giovanardi in 2009 but, by that stage, the Italian was already a European, British, Italian and Spanish tin-top title winner.
Previous to that, the last returning champion who had minimal experience was Jo Winkelhock, who came back to the UK to defend the number one on his Schnitzer BMW after the experienced German clinched the honours in his maiden BTCC season in 1993.
It puts Sutton, still only 24, in some mighty company. He will stick with the Team BMR Subaru Levorg operation and will line-up alongside double champion Jason Plato.