How the BTCC title rivals’ team-mates perform a pivotal role in the way the season is playing out

Podcast punditry can be a dangerous thing. Just before the British Touring Car Championship reconvened at Croft following its summer break, Autosport chief editor Kevin Turner had yours truly plus ITV4’s ‘Voice of the BTCC’ David Addison on as guests to mull over the half-season to date and ponder what might happen next.

Somehow, the talk turned to whom out of main title contenders Tom Ingram and Ash Sutton might benefit most from assistance from team-mates. That was a good call, because at Croft, Knockhill and Donington Park we have seen such strategy in full flow, with Ingram’s Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai stablemates and Sutton’s Alliance Racing Ford cohorts coming to the aid – or attempting to, anyway – of their respective team leaders.

David opined that, in this sense, Sutton clearly had the advantage. The assistance of Dan Cammish is a given anyway – arguably, he would be in the title fight himself if Alliance did not have a Sutton basket in which to place all its eggs.

And Dan Rowbottom has enjoyed a new lease of life this season since open-heart surgery last winter, together with his decision to focus 100% on his racing rather than networking for his loyal backer Cataclean.

While I agreed, my belief was that Tom Chilton, Adam Morgan and Senna Proctor were all strong enough, especially given the vagaries of TOCA Turbo Boost fluctuations, tyre regulations and reversed grids, to be of assistance to their man Ingram. And (sorry, David), I was proved right first time out, when Proctor moved aside for Ingram in the Croft opener.

What was pleasant to see at Donington was that, among their number, two of these guys are competitive enough to genuinely join the narrative at the front. This year, we’ve been used to it being Ingram-versus-Sutton, with a starring cameo from Cammish in race one before he gets poleaxed by the tyre rules in race two, and either a hard-luck story or total weekend domination from reigning champion Jake Hill. Now, Chilton and Rowbottom are genuinely in the mix too.

Chilton was never going to have to give up victory – although he didn’t mean to nick the fastest lap point from Ingram

Photo by: JEP

This season is by far Chilton’s best since he claimed third in the championship in 2018. At Donington, he admittedly had a TTB surfeit over Ingram in qualifying and race one, but drove beautifully to his second win of the season. The only blot was nabbing the fastest lap point from Ingram. “Oops – I was supposed to give that to Tom,” he remarked.

There was the thought among onlookers that Chilton might give Ingram the victory. But, as the championship leader said that evening: “It was never going to happen and I didn’t want it to happen. It’s a very different thing asking to give up a third than it is a win.” Although Ingram did admit it might be a different scenario should, say, he be trailing Sutton by two points going into the final race…

Chilton’s day went wrong in race two at the safety car restart, when he was inadvertently taken out in the Sutton/Rowbottom tangle. That, and the damage it caused, dropped him to 15th.

“When the safety car came out at the end I said, ‘Do you know what? I’ll back everyone up to try and protect Ash a little bit’” Dan Rowbottom

But he found a silver lining. “It meant it was exciting in race three to come up to sixth again!” he gushed of a final race that he absolutely loved.

Three places ahead of Chilton, and providing back-up to Sutton, was Rowbottom. Leaving aside his split-second misjudgement in race two, where he accidentally played the team game for Ingram instead of his own team leader, it’s hard to think of a better Sunday he’s enjoyed in the BTCC.

Like Sutton, Rowbottom was a victim of a wrong tyre call as rain fell in Q2, when he likely would have progressed to the Quick Six shootout for pole. But from seventh on the grid, he fought through to third, close enough to worry Ingram and Chilton in front.

Rowbottom was happy to play the team game in race three at Donington Park

Photo by: JEP

The incident in the second race meant he finished 12th, but he battled up for another podium in the finale – and took up the team game again late on: “When the safety car came out at the end I said, ‘Do you know what? I’ll back everyone up to try and protect Ash a little bit’, because obviously he was on the hard tyre. So I tried to repay some of the debt [from the race two gaffe].”

Could Rowbottom have passed Sutton or even had a go at Ingram? “We could have done, but there’s obviously team orders at play from the Excelr8 perspective with Tom and Tom, and we’ve got to respect that. Ash is challenging for a title. If I could have got there a little bit quicker, we could have reversed the positions and I could have tried to go for Tom and then we would have reversed that.”

Ingram may be looking good for the title, but there are more names who can influence the outcome than the pundits may have you believe…

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Rowbottom fought through to third in race three at Donington – then played a pragmatic team game

Photo by: JEP