The BTCC's pessimistic points leader

This is a very unusual season for 2017 British Touring Car champion Ash Sutton. The BMR Racing Subaru Levorg GT driver finds himself at the head of the points table after two meetings of this year's competition, and it's not a position he is used to.

Although the 25-year-old is in his fourth season in the category and has enjoyed an impressive 13 career wins, his 2017 and '18 campaigns were both marked by decidedly dodgy starts.

In his title-winning season in 2017, Sutton walked away from the Brands Hatch opener without a single point in his account after crashes stymied his running. Even at that early stage, he was 48 points behind the table-topper, Honda Civic Type R driver Gordon Shedden.

In 2018, he was again struggling as both he and team-mate Jason Plato were perplexed by the handling of the estate-based car. It wasn't until a breakthrough at Croft just before the mid-point of the season that Sutton turned things around.

From that point on, Sutton scored six victories, while the two title protagonists Colin Turkington (BMW 125i M Sport) and Tom Ingram (Toyota Avenis) only mustered one win between them. Sutton eventually finished fourth in the title chase, but was less than 50 points from reaching the summit.

Some paddock insiders have accused BMR of sandbagging in the early stages of the previous seasons in an effort to get the BTCC rulemakers to give them a break and allow their cars more turbo boost. From that point, they then zoom up the standings later on in the season - a clear theme over the last 24 months.

Whether their suspicions were founded or not, those gossipmongers failed to quieten down, especially when the Subarus - and Sutton particularly - have managed to dominate the latter part of the previous two campaigns.

That point is one of the reasons that the 2019 season marks something of a big difference for the landscape of the BTCC.

Sutton is as surprised as any that he is heading the chase after the first six races. A second place at Brands, and a second and third at Donington Park have pushed him to the forefront.

"Don't ask me how I am top of the points," he half-jokes.

This uncertainty stems from the fact Sutton still believes that his rear-wheel drive machine lacks straightline pace compared to some of the rival cars.

Sutton finishing in third place in race two at Donington Park was a signpost that maybe all has not been lost in terms of car performance

It has been hard to get a solid gauge on the true picture of straightline speeds this season because of the inclement weather that has affected each meeting so far.

But quick maths shows that Sutton is, on average, 3.29mph slower than the fastest machines though the end-of-sector speed traps so far this term.

"We still struggle with pace," says Sutton. "When you look at Donington Park, speed trap one is halfway through a corner [the bottom of the Craner Curves], so that masked things slightly [in that sector, he was an average of 1mph slower than the best].

"The other speed traps weren't great, but I am not going to rant on about it. All it means is that we will have to work 10 times harder than anyone else to maximise our potential this season.

"There was something else that was apparent in some of the races at Donington too: when we lose momentum, we get swallowed up. As soon as we get in a battle, we are on the back foot, but when we are in fresh air, we can maintain track position and think about going forward."

Finishing in third place in race two at Donington Park was a signpost that maybe all has not been lost in terms of car performance. But Sutton then had to cope in the finale with a machine fitted with a fair chunk of success ballast - 48kg - and the dreaded harder tyres, which have proved a struggle for many so far this season.

But Sutton had played the strategic game and actually decided to take the option rubber at the end of the day, which is the same pattern followed by the majority of his rivals.

"I was mentally prepared to go backwards in that race," says Sutton, who started eighth and finished fifth. "I was looking at who was behind us to start with, rather than who was in front of us.

"But it became apparent by the end of lap one that I would be looking forwards rather than backwards. The car was very good, but we always have been with weight, historically. We always do the same changes and they work. We aren't going to touch them now.

"I think if we had been the odd car on the harder tyre in race three, like [points leader coming into the meeting, Josh] Cook was in race one, then it would have been a different story [Cook dropped back and was then forced to pit after contact].

"But in race three, we were in a gaggle of cars and the only ones that were majorly different in weight and tyres were up ahead of us. In that position, you can manage your performance and you can race with that."

There are glimpses of optimism for Sutton, but he obviously knows that being top of the pile going into the next event at Thruxton this weekend.

The Hampshire speedbowl is probably one of the easier tracks to carry big weight at because of the lack of big stops and starts at the flowing venue. But it still hurts, particularly when it comes to tyre life - which is always an issue at Thruxton.

There is a bit of extra relief for Sutton this year due to the tweaks to the level of success ballast that the cars are forced to carry. Each driver carries ballast according to their championship position going into each meeting, but the top weight is down to 54kg from 75kg to reflect the increased competition in the series.

"We are going there with full ballast now, even though it isn't as much as it was in the past," says Sutton. "It is still going to hurt us though. We will just have to give it our all in qualifying and try and get rid of the weight in race one and then fight on from there.

"We're showing that you don't need to be winning every race and that instead it is just as important to be there in the background scoring solid points."

Sutton is having to think in a different way about how he will scale the heights of the BTCC again in 2019. The level of competition is as fierce as it has ever been, and Sutton's new-found position means that he will be the hunted rather than the hunter.