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Reigning champion Ash Sutton took the first pole position of the 2021 British Touring Car Championship season on a drying track at Thruxton.

Qualifying started off with a wet track and dried over the course of the 30 minute session, with the likes of Sutton, Josh Cook and Rory Butcher all exchanging fastest times throughout.

BMW’s Colin Turkington set the first competitive time of the session, and of the season, before Ford’s Jake Hill went faster. Tom Ingram, in his first qualifying session with Excelr8, was fastest five minutes in.

The track was starting to dry at a quick pace, which meant the times were starting to tumble. Cook went fastest and then Sutton regained the top time soon after. Dan Cammish, who returned to the grid with BTC Racing following Michael Crees’ shock departure this week, went third with ten minutes remaining.

With just eight minutes remaining the action began, as Hill went fastest by just under a tenth of a second. Tom Oliphant in the BMW then set a 1:19:7 before Butcher set a 1:19:4.

Not to be upstaged, Hill’s next lap was a 1:19:0, showing how fast the track was drying out. Butcher then snatched top spot straight back as the first driver to break the 1:18’s.

With just under two minutes to go Jade Edwards spun and collided with the tyre wall. She was on slicks and must have hit a damp spot as she hit the wall but soon got going again, but brought out the yellow flag.

Hill was looking to be on a fast lap to try and retake pole, but was held up by Jason Plato into the final chicane. The Vauxhall driver, who was not on a hot lap, had ample opportunity to move out of Hill’s way, but decided to hold him up into the final corner before peeling into the pitlane.

Ingram went fastest as time ran out with a 1:18:7 before Sutton smashed the fastest time, setting a 1:18:3, and taking pole position in the process.

Cook was second, with Turkington’s quiet session finishing third. Ingram, Butcher Oliphant and Hill followed, with Gordon Shedden, Ollie Jackson, and Chris Smiley rounding off the top ten.

Toyota are currently a motorsports powerhouse. They’re an omnipotent force in the World Rally Championship, had all but monopolised the LMP1 class in sportscar racing, and have now given their full factory backing to a British Touring Car Championship team.

The Japanese marque have offered manufacturer support to the Speedworks Motorsport team, who were previously using the Toyota Corolla with Tom Ingram. However now Ingram has moved on, and Speedworks have two works Corolla’s to be driven by talented Scot Rory Butcher, and the returning Sam Smelt.

The Corolla has shown itself to be a fast car at the hands of Ingram since its introduction in 2019. It has won seven races over the last two years and has kept Ingram in the title fight for large proportions of those seasons. Now with two cars, Speedworks has the chance to really push for honours this season.

They’re no strangers to the BTCC, they won two drivers and manufacturers championships in 1986 and 1987, courtesy of Chris Hodgetts. Also two of the most memorable moments in BTCC history include Toyota’s, but perhaps not for the best of reasons. In 1992 at Brands Hatch team mates Andy Rouse and Will Hoy collided and took each other in to the wall and out of the race while running first and second.

The other incident came a year later at Silverstone. Hoy was involved again but this time with Julian Bailey as a team mate. Going into Brooklands, Bailey dove down the inside of Hoy, sending him onto his roof. The moment entered folklore thanks to the late Murray Walker’s famous line, “The car upside down, is a Toyota.” They were again leading one-two.

In terms of the drivers, Rory Butcher has proven himself to be a fast and consistent driver over the last couple of seasons. Six wins in the last two years with AMD CobraSport and Motorbase. His expertise is front wheel drive, having spent his whole BTCC career in front wheel drive machinery. Therefore he’s well suited to lead the new manufacturer team.

Sam Smelt only has one season of BTCC experience under his belt, in the AMD Audi S3 in 2018. While he hasn’t quite hit the heights of his team mate, Smelt has potential, having spent 2020 in British GT with Speedworks in the Toyota Supra GT4.

Toyota’s latest motorsport offering has all the ingredients to be as successful as its stablemates, it’ll have its challengers from other teams on the grid, but the Corolla, and two talented drivers, mean it could well be a start of a beautiful relationship for Speedworks and Toyota.

We will have articles throughout the week to preview the 2021 BTCC season as well as race reports at the weekend from Thruxton.

A famous philosopher once said ‘There is no harm in repeating a good thing.’ This is the mantra of the British Touring Car Championship’s record wins holder going into the new season.

Jason Plato makes his return to the British Touring Car Championship for the 2021 season after sitting 2020 out. He is ‘itching’ to return to the paddock and to the grid, and will take part in his 600^th race this weekend. Proving the theory of his ancient Greek namesake to be true, there is indeed no harm in repeating a good thing.

The veteran, returning with Power Maxed Racing, is the sport’s record wins holder, with 97, the same amount of wins Lewis Hamilton has in Formula One. Plato is keen to hit the century of BTCC wins before he retires, and there’s nothing to suggest he can’t achieve that in 2021.

The 53 year old has been described as ‘rejuvenated’ in the press this week and his 12 month lay-off will have him raring to go at Thruxton this weekend. Six of his 97 wins have come at the Andover circuit and he qualified on the front row there in 2019, before being penalised for not parking in his grid slot correctly.

While Plato may not be a frontrunner for the title in terms of the odds, he will be doing all he can to be fighting at the front end, and in a car which still has a lot of potential, he and his team have the ability to surprise without the burden of expectation.

The Vauxhall Astra is a race winning car, with Jason himself picking up his and the team’s most recent win in the 2019 finale at Brands Hatch. The car is still quick, and after a selection of guest driver outings in 2020, the team are coming back to launch a full scale attack on the BTCC in 2021.

Power Maxed Racing’s Astra is a nimble front wheel drive car, which will be handy around circuits such as Brands Hatch and Croft, which require agility, and Plato is a driver who can easily get the best out of this car.

In pre-season testing at Donington Park he was fourth fastest in the first session, and while testing times, as Formula One has shown us, should always be taken with a pinch of salt, Plato’s times are impressive when you consider he’s been out of the car for a year. The encouraging sign is he’s showing no sign of ring rustiness. But can he achieve them final three wins?

With the often madcap nature of the BTCC, reverse grids and success ballast affecting cars at the front, Plato has every chance of being in a position to pick up the final three wins he needs. He won’t be solely relying on the lotteries of the BTCC to get his wins though, he will be getting his elbows out in his famous yet effective racing style in order to fight for those wins.

While most of the faces remain the same for Plato’s return, one which won’t be on the grid with him is his old sparring partner Matt Neal. The pair have famously butted heads on many occasions over the last 20 years, including an almost fist-fight in the pit-lane at Rockingham in 2011.

Neal is taking a step back from racing in 2021, with Gordon Shedden returning to the BTCC in his place. Matt remains in the paddock as he takes on a role in the Team Dynamics garage. Meaning one of Plato’s biggest rivals is out of his way. But that doesn’t mean his task will be any easier.

Plato is a vastly experienced driver, and it will be intriguing to see how he gets on this season. But statistics don’t mean everything, as ‘A good decision is based on knowledge and not numbers,’ which Plato has in abundance.

We will have articles throughout the week to preview the 2021 BTCC season as well as race reports at the weekend from Thruxton.