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The BTCC champion starting afresh in a five year-old car

The Infiniti Q50 appeared to be one of those BTCC projects destined to be forgotten, but five years after its inconspicuous debut, it has a bone fide champion in Ash Sutton behind the wheel, along with the BMR team that ran him to the title in 2017. Here's how one of 2020's feel-good stories came together

Marcus Simmons Mar 31, 2020, 3:00 PM

A team that seemed to come out of nowhere to sign up two of the British Touring Car Championship's biggest guns, yet win the title with a young star in only his second year in the series; another team that operated on its own for the first time last season, but found itself hamstrung by an ageing car to which it had no IP rights; and a car that was so unsuccessful when it stumbled onto the track in 2015 that its best result was a mere 15th, yet was resurrected four years later because engineers believed it was the key to future BTCC success.

It has to be said that the merger of Team BMR and Laser Tools Racing - under the latter's banner - and their adoption of the Infiniti Q50 is one of the stories to follow in the BTCC this season. And that's even before you factor in that leading the driving strength is none other than 2017 BTCC champion Ash Sutton, that very 'young star' we mentioned in the opening paragraph.

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Author Marcus Simmons

Marcus Simmons is the Deputy Editor of Autosport magazine. As a child he was a regular on the chalk banks of Thruxton – hence his unhealthy obsession with 1970s Formula 2 and F3 – before he became an MSA timekeeper at the age of 17. At 19, his reporting debut for Motoring News arguably overshadowed Maradona’s ‘Hand of God’ goal as the sporting moment of June 1986, and he joined the staff in 1990 after graduating from his degree course in Plymouth. A parallel Formula First career – which was as incident-packed as his childhood exploits in show-jumping and hunter trials – finished when he wrote off his car and put himself in hospital in 1991.

Marcus moved to Autosport in the summer of 1996. Since then he has had two stints as a freelancer and a brief spell as editor of Motor Sport magazine, during which the revered green cover was revived, before he rejoined Autosport in 2008. He lives in Teddington with his wife (who, gratifyingly, grew up within earshot of Castle Combe), daughter, stepson, dog, cat and guitars, and additionally has an adult daughter and stepson.