Dan Lloyd secured Restart Racing’s first ever BTCC win from fourth on the grid in a race which ended under Safety Car conditions. A fire for Nicholas Hamilton brought an early end to his race, and meant Lloyd’s excellent manoeuvres were rewarded with victory.

Title rivals Tom Ingram and Ash Sutton secured vital points finishes with not many races left to fight for the championship.

Pole sitter Daryl DeLeon led off the line with Shedden close behind. Sutton made a good start, squeezing up the inside and gaining a couple of places with a Ingram following his rival through.

Shedden dove down the inside of DeLeon at Luffield to take the lead. DeLeon began to slip down the grid as Dan Lloyd, Jake Hill and Senna Proctor passed the BMW man. Lloyd’s Restart Racing Hyundai took the lead at Brooklands with Shedden slipping into the clutches of Hill.

Further down the grid, the title protagonists were making their way through the field. Ingram made an important pass on Sutton for ninth on lap four, reducing any risk of losing any of his championship lead.

Hill passed Shedden for second and was bearing down on Lloyd in the lead, but the Hyundai driver stayed strong and held off Hill’s BMW.

Lap 11 saw Ingram pass Sutton’s teammate Dan Rowbottom. The Ford driver doing all he could to hold up Ingram but to no avail as the championship leader moved into seventh.

The race was neutralised on lap 18 when Nicholas Hamilon’s Cupra burst into flames. A small fire was spotted under the car which prompted Hamilton to park up on the Wellington straight. The car soon alight and being tackled by the marshals armed with fire extinguishers.

The Safety Car came out but the race never resumed as it finished behind yellow flag conditions.

Lloyd took the win, Restart Racing’s first ever BTCC victory, with Hill and Shedden rounding off the podium. Senna Proctor took fourth from sixth on the grid with Josh Cook and Aiden Moffat following close behind after a race-long battle.

Importantly, Ingram led Sutton home in seventh and eighth respectively with Rowbottom and Adam Morgan ninth and tenth. Aron Taylor-Smith was 11th with Dan Cammish moving from 21st on the grid to 12th. DeLeon fell from pole to 13th with Charles Rainford and Chris Smiley’s Restart Hyundai book-ending the points with 15th.

Ingram’s lead is now 33 points ahead of Sutton with just five races to go, and the chance to build on impressive race one finishes in race two.

It was the series that had it all, the finest drivers, prime time TV coverage, wheel to wheel action, and budgets big enough to make even the deepest pockets feel the pinch.

The British Touring Car Championship in the 1990’s had everything going for it, it was flying high and went from national competition to worldwide fame. But it soon became a victim of its own success and imploded on itself. By the end of the decade the writing was on the wall. All the momentum the series built evaporated and it took the BTCC years to fully recover. Never hitting the same heights.

As we welcome the 25th anniversary of the end of the Super Touring era, it’s still talked about today as one of the most exciting periods in motorsport history – even if it almost consumed the BTCC in the process.

To understand why this era was so significant, and why the ending was so abrupt, we need to go back to the start.

Touring cars in the late 80’s was dominated by Ford and their Sierra Cosworth RS500’s. Footage of Andy Rouse and Steve Soper hurling their fire-breathing monsters around Brands Hatch at breakneck speeds became stuff of legend. Accompanied by motorsport’s finest commentator, Murray Walker, and shown on BBC Grandstand in a highlight package format, the BTCC was indeed popular viewing.

But alas, there was a flaw in the system.

The BTCC field was split into classes, and on rare occasions, slower cars in lower classes would win the outright championship, not the driver finishing first on the road in the fastest car.

A prime example of this was John Cleland (remember that name, it’ll be important later), he won the 1989 title, not in a Group A Sierra, but rather, a Vauxhall Astra competing in Group C. For context that would be akin to a Formula Three car winning the Formula One world championship over the likes of McLaren and Red Bull.

For 1990, changes were made, and the 2.0 litre formula was introduced, which would become known as Super Touring. The cars eligible had to have naturally aspirated six cylinder 2.0 litre engines. Another stipulation was that 2,500 of these cars had to be built and manufactured for homologation purposes.

The beauty of the Super Touring era was that the cars you saw race on TV looked very much like the family car sat on your drive way. Instead of futuristic looking race cars, it was Ford Mondeo’s and Honda Accords you saw battling it out for victory. The phrase “win on Sunday, sell on Monday” became a popular mantra for car dealers around this time.

The move was made to combat escalating costs, and create a more open and even field. The unpopular class system remained in place, reducing to two – A and B. Essentially Class A was for the Sierra RS500’s, while Class B was the genesis of Super Touring. Vauxhall and BMW entered as manufacturers with the Cavalier and the M3 respectively.

Robb Gravett won the championship in a Sierra, but the signs were clear, Super Touring was born.

1991 saw a raft of manufacturers join the series. Vauxhall and BMW remained, and Toyota, Ford, Nissan and Mitsubishi followed. The multi-class system was dropped, instead opting for manufacturer and independent entries which would remain in place for the whole era.

The new rules brought with them the desired effect. Closer action, thrilling races, and the emergence of a host of what would become household names. John Cleland and Will Hoy fought it out for the title, with Hoy coming out on top in his BMW M3 after a thrilling season finale at Silverstone. ‘91 also saw the debut of future three time champion Matt Neal as an independent. BMW took the manufacturers crown.

Little did they know at the time, but the BTCC had stumbled upon a golden formula. One which would grow and be as popular as Formula One over the course of the 90’s.

This is the first of a five part article series chronicling the Super Touring era, what made it great, the controversies that ensued, and hopefully an explanation as to why this series and era of the sport is still very much talked about today.

Tom Ingram secured victory in the final race of the day at Donington Park, with title rival Ash Sutton close behind in second after a frenetic day of touring car action.

Sutton led off the grid with the Toyota’s of Cook and Taylor-Smith close behind. Ingram surged from fifth, clearing Daryl DeLeon before dispatching Cook for third with a nice switch back out of the Goddards hairpin.

Once he’d passed Taylor-Smith, he was hunting down Sutton in the lead. The Toyotas were squabbling which brought Rowbottom into the mix.

Ingram soon caught Sutton, teeing up a three lap battle of the two title contenders. Wheel to wheel side by side action, which culminated in the Hyundai man overtaking Sutton.

By lap eight Ingram was pulling away, with Sutton not too far behind, and Rowbottom sitting third behind his team mate. Tom Chilton was one of the stars of the race, going from 15th on the grid to fifth.

On lap ten Nick Halstead’s PMR Cupra decided to spill oil at the top of the Craner Curves, which brought out the Safety Car while it was cleaned up. After a four lap delay the race was back underway.

On the restart Ingram held off Sutton, despite a little glance on lap 15 at the Melbourne hairpin. He maintained the lead and took the win, a big win in terms of the championship.

Sutton came home second with Rowbottom third. The battle for fourth was intense between Aron Taylor-Smith and Jake Hill, but the Toyota man prevailed for fourth, Hill fifth, with Chilton’s excellent drive culminating in sixth. Gordon Shedden was seventh with Dan Lloyd leading home the BMW pair of Daryl DeLeon and Charles Rainford.

Josh Cook faded during the final laps to finish 11th with race two winner Dan Cammish 12th. Aiden Moffat, Sam Osborne and Senna Proctor rounded out the points finishes.

Tom Ingram now holds a 32 point lead in the standings over Ash Sutton, and with just six races left in the season, Ingram and his Hyundai squad sit in a very strong position.

Dan Cammish marked his 200th BTCC start with victory in a chaotic race two at Donington Park. Having taken the lead on lap six, a sudden downpour three laps from the end almost ruined the occasion.

Tom Ingram extended his championship lead with fifth while Ash Sutton was in the wars, with a couple of collisions and a ninth place finish the best he could achieve.

The top three from race one, Tom Chilton, Ingram, and Dan Rowbottom were all lumbered with the hard tyre compound, and with Sutton fourth, he was in the prime position to capitalise.

Sutton made a fine start and jumped Rowbottom for third. Chilton was pulling away with Ingram holding back Sutton and the chasing pack behind him. The Safety Car was deployed on lap one when there was an incident at McLeans.

Senna Proctor put a wheel on the grass and started to spin. He collided with Aiden Moffat’s BMW sending both into the gravel trap with Sam Osborne spinning while taking avoiding action in his Ford. Proctor was out while Moffat and Osborne returned to the action as the rain began to fall.

A few spits of rain fell, which foreshadowed the end of the race as Rowbottom couldn’t find grip and tapped into the back of Sutton at Redgate. This sent Sutton down the order who fell into further issues when he collided with Aron Taylor-Smith’s Toyota and fell to 12th place.

Cammish took the lead on lap six, passing Ingram down the back straight on softer faster tyres. Adam Morgan passed team mate Ingram for second. But with Sutton down the order, Ingram could afford to let Morgan through and not pick a fight.

The race settled into a rhythm when on lap 15 there was a sudden downpour, sending a whole host of cars off at McLeans including the leading trio of Cammish, Morgan and Ingram. The Safety Car was deployed and the race ended under yellow flag conditions.

Cammish took the win, with Morgan second and Gordon Shedden the big winner in the deluge of rain as he went from sixth to third. Chris Smiley was fourth, but was disqualified for failing ride height checks. Ingram was fifth, extending his championship lead as he inherited fourth. Everyone below Smiley moving up a place.

Daryl DeLeon finished sixth with the Toyota pair of Josh Cook and Taylor-Smith following behind. Sutton ended the race ninth and a solid haul of points despite his issues with Jake Hill tenth.

Dan Lloyd was 11th with Aiden Moffat recovering from his first lap collision for 12th. Dan Rowbottom, Sam Osborne and Mikey Doble rounded off the points.

Tom Chilton cruised to victory in race one of the day at Donington Park. With team mate and championship leader Tom Ingram in tow, the veteran capitalised on his first pole position in 14 years, with the win.

While initially slow off the line, Chilton held on to the lead, with Ingram close behind. His championship rival Ash Sutton started tenth, giving Ingram breathing space as the lead pair built up a gap at the front.

Behind the Hyundai trio of Chilton, Ingram and Restart’s Chris Smiley, were the NAPA Ford’s. Dan Rowbottom and Dan Cammish held the fort while Sutton caught up, passing Jake Hill and Senna Proctor into sixth place.

On lap four Rowbottom took Smiley for third, while at the front, perhaps weary of Sutton’s surge, Chilton relinquished the lead to Ingram coming out of the Melbourne hairpin – maximising his points haul.

Sutton managed to get past Cammish for fifth and was on the tail of Smiley for fourth.  Sportingly, at the front, Ingram gave the lead back to Chilton, who’d earned the right to win the race. Ingram got the point for leading a lap and was happy to settle for second.

Sutton made it up to fourth, but with the quandary of the top three starting on the slower hard compound tyre for race two; Sutton was happy to stay where he is and have a front row seat for a race two win.

Chilton secured the win, his 18th of his illustrious career, with Ingram second. The NAPA trio of Rowbottom, Sutton and Cammish followed with reigning champion Jake Hill sixth. The other Team Vertu drivers Adam Morgan and Senna Proctor were close behind while Smiley dropped to ninth and Aron Taylor-Smith rounded out the top ten.

Daryl DeLeon finished 11th ahead of Gordon Shedden on the hard compound tyre. Charles Rainford, Dan Lloyd and Aiden Moffat were the final points scorers.

With Sutton on the soft tyre and Ingram on the hard, race two could have huge implications for the championship.

Ash Sutton put his race one woes in the rear view mirror with a confident win in race three at Croft. The championship protagonist secured the win with rival Tom Ingram following him home in second and Senna Proctor completed the podium despite starting 18th.

In typical race three fashion, chaos ensued in the opening laps. Ingram made a good start, taking an outside line into turn one. Moffat defended, Ingram went wide and into a spin coming out of turn two. He powerslides and catches it with style.

Sutton surged through from fifth, passing Ingram for third and Rainford for second.

The Safety Car was deployed on lap three when, coming into the Complex, Dan Cammish was pushed wide onto the grass. The Yorkshire was a passenger as he skittled into the pack, taking out Chris Smiley and Daryl DeLeon. Senna Proctor the benefactor from the incident, going from 14th to sixth.

After a four lap break, the Safety Car pulled in and the race resumed. Ingram managed to get a run on Sutton on the back straight and took second. However at the final hairpin more chaos ensued. Sutton benefited, sneaking down the inside and taking the lead.

There was more strife at the hairpin on lap nine when Charles Rainford was spun around, sliding down the order.

Proctor, up from 18th on the grid, was the faster Hyundai, and defied all odds by passing team mate Ingram. A brave move with Sutton running away at the front. Ingram had been struggling to pass Aiden Moffat in second place, but Proctor had a go, and after some contact, Proctor was up into second with Ingram following behind.

On lap 13, Ingram made it back past Proctor, who didn’t put up a fight to get his teammate through.

Sutton strolled to the win, his sixth at Croft, and the fifth of the season, after a horrendous race one, he turned around his weekend to consolidate his place in the title fight.

Ingram finished second, and suffered minimal damage to his championship lead. Proctor finished third, his second podium of the day despite intense pressure from Gordon Shedden who finished fourth.

Adam Morgan was fifth with Moffat sixth. Sam Osborne drove brilliantly for seventh place with Tom Chilton, Aron Taylor-Smith and Mikey Doble rounding off the top ten.

Dexter Patterson was 11th with Max Buxton, making his series debut, finished 12th. Rainford, Nick Halstead, and Dan Rowbottom were the last of the runners, all picking up points finishes.

Ingram still leads the championship, his lead now eight points from Sutton, who in turn is 70 points clear of Dan Rowbottom in third.

Dan Rowbottom took his third win of the season with victory in race two at Croft. He took the lead on lap three and cruised to the win.

Ash Sutton surged through the grid, putting his race one puncture heartbreak behind him to finish fifth in race two and cut into Ingram’s title lead, albeit only slightly.

The top three in race one, Tom Ingram, Dan Cammish, and Senna Proctor were three of four drivers on the slower medium tyre – Nicholas Hamilton the other. Naturally these would be slower than the rest of the grid on the soft tyre.

Ingram led off the line, Rowbottom moved into third by the end of lap one. Sutton moved from 20th to 14th in a lap.

While Cammish and Proctor slid down the grid, Ingram was holding his own, surrendering the lead to Rowbottom on lap three going into the Complex. Sutton was in the top ten by now, showing his prowess as a four time champion.

The Ford driver continued his march up the grid, and Ingram’s slow descent down the order met when Sutton passed Ingram on lap eight. The Hyundai man didn’t make it difficult, with points finishes more important than fighting.

Out front, Rowbottom was controlling the race, with Tom Chilton and Daryl DeLeon fighting for second. Chilton put his 20 plus years of experience to good use, holding off the BMW youngster.

Proctor was hanging on to 15th, with Dan Lloyd and James Dorlin scrapping behind him to take that point away from him. While Senna was doing an excellent job, he was given a ten second time penalty for repeated track limits violations.

Rowbottom took the win, moving up to third in the championship standings, Chilton and DeLeon secured podium finishes. Adam Morgan secured fourth with Sutton’s fantastic race ending in fifth, reducing Ingram’s championship lead to 11 points.

Charles Rainford and Gordon Shedden were sixth and seventh respectively while Ingram consolidated his race with eighth place. Aiden Moffat was ninth while Cammish grabbed tenth, a solid effort on the medium tyre.

Dexter Patterson, Sam Osborne, Chris Smiley and Mikey Doble secured points finishes, and while Proctor finished 15th on the road, his penalty dropped him to 19th, Lloyd secured the final points finish for 15th.

Tom Ingram secured a lights to flag win in race one at Croft, holding off Ford’s Dan Cammish with Senna Proctor grabbing an excellent podium from eighth on the grid – making it a double Hyundai top three.

In what could be a huge moment in the championship, Ingram’s championship rival Ash Sutton suffered a puncture midway through the race, losing a points finish and falling behind in the standings.

Ingram led off the line, moving across to stay ahead of the fast-starting Cammish. The star of lap one however was Senna Proctor. The Hyundai driver started eighth on the grid, and made up five places to be third, and best of the rest by the end of the opening lap.

Mikey Doble found himself in strife on lap three, taking too much speed out of the turn three chicane. The back end spun round and the Vauxhall driver spun and clipped the wall – thankfully able to get going again.

Throughout the race Ingram and Cammish were swapping fastest laps, as the pair pulled out a lead on the chasing pack. Ingram was getting better of the Ford behind, pulling out a 2.3 second lead.

It was to all come to nothing however, when the Safety Car was deployed on lap ten. Chris Smiley and Gordon Shedden were battling lower down the order. It was a drag race down to turn one, with Smiley ahead. He went wide at turn one, and his left rear clipped the front of Shedden’s Toyota – sending him into the gravel trap, and out of the race.

After a three lap break from the action, the Safety Car pulled into the pits and the race back underway. In what could be a pivotal moment for the championship, Ash Sutton, who’d made good progress from 11th on the grid to sixth, pulled into the pits with a flat tyre. Possibly caused from delamination from going over the kerb.

The only saving grace for Sutton, is he was on the harder medium tyre, and the shackles will be off for race two.

Ingram managed the race well and held off Cammish for the win, and with it comes a 13 point lead in the championship. Proctor took third for his first podium since his return to the grid.

Dan Rowbottom was fourth, holding off Tom Chilton’s Hyundai. Daryl DeLeon was sixth with Aron Taylor-Smith finishing seventh. Charles Rainford, Dan Lloyd and Adam Morgan rounding off the top ten. Morgan the highest placed medium tyre finisher.

Shedden finished 11th after contact with Smiley, Dexter Patterson finished 12th with Aiden Moffat and Sam Osborne close behind. Doble recovered from his excursion off the track with 15th and one point.

Sutton finished 20th after his tyre trouble, and was delayed out of the pits with a power steering issue.

Gordon Shedden rolled back the years and proved he still has the quality which made him a triple champion, by taking a lights to flag win in race three at Oulton Park.

He had to hold off a resurgent Jake Hill, as well as the NAPA Ford duo of Ash Sutton and Dan Rowbottom, to take his first win since Croft in 2022.

It was a wet to dry race, with every car starting on wets. However the dry lines were soon appearing in a race affected by two safety car periods, and a lot of attrition.

Shedden got away from the line well, with Proctor, who started second, swallowed up by Josh Cook, Jake Hill and Dan Rowbottom. The trio squabbling for second allowing Shedden to get away in his Toyota.

On lap two Cook was out of the battle for second as he locked up going into Lodge corner, entering the gravel trap. He soon retired with an issue with his Honda.

The first of two safety car periods came when Max Hall went off at Lodge and beached his Cupra Leon in the gravel. The stewards deeming it to be parked in a dangerous place.

The restart came on lap ten, but only lasted a lap as Tom Chilton and Mikey Doble came together at Hislops. The latter parking his car in the barrier and the second safety car period began. Both cars retiring.

On lap 14 came the restart, with Hill hounding down Shedden. However on lap 17 Hill went wide into Cascades, letting through a host of cars, and his battle for the win over.

Shedden held firm to take his 53rd BTCC win, and show he still has the ability to fight at the front. A definite highlight of Toyota’s season so far.

Sutton came second to strengthen his championship lead, with Rowbottom third. Title protagonist Tom Ingram came home fourth with Senna Proctor fifth. Dan Cammish and Hill were sixth and seventh with James Dorlin eighth. Charles Rainford came from the very back of the grid to finish ninth, with Sam Osborne tenth.

Aiden Moffat was 11th with Dexter Patterson, who gambled on pitting for soft tyres, finished 12th. Finn Leslie finished 13th with points on his first race weekend at just 17 years old. Dan Lloyd and Daryl DeLeon rounded off the points, with no fewer than seven retirements and two drivers (Aron Taylor-Smith and Nick Halstead), failing to make the start.

Ash Sutton’s race one gamble paid off as he took victory in race two to retake the championship lead.

He conceded third place at the end of race one to avoid using the slower hard tyre in race two. Title rival Tom Ingram was at the front on the hard tyre, with Sutton ready to seize the initiative.

The Ford driver was up to second by Cascades from fourth and on the back of Ingram. Adam Morgan was up to third, with Ingram hoping his teammate could come to his aid and help fight Sutton. But this was irrelevant when Sutton dived down the inside of Ingram at the Island hairpin on lap two.

The safety car was out on lap three when Dan Lloyd, race one hero, crashed heavily at the high speed Druids corner. He clipped the tyre stack at the Hislops chicane which caused damage to his Hyundai. He spun and hit the wall at high speed, ending his race but thankfully Lloyd was fine.

After a lengthy period while the barrier was fixed, Sutton maintained his lead with Morgan in tow. Ingram was fourth behind Hyundai teammate Tom Chilton.

Ingram was soon being hounded by reigning champion Jake Hill in the BMW. Hill was on the soft tyre so had the pace advantage, with Ingram defending. Ingram’s other Hyundai teammate Senna Proctor was on the back of Hill, meaning he had to contend with the Hyundai behind him before focusing on the one in front.

Proctor’s ability to attack was hampered by bodywork rubbing on his left front tyre. He fell back a couple of spots to eighth, and gave Hill the impetus to go after Ingram.

There was the worry of another safety car when Charles Rainford was sent into the wall on the exit of turn one by Gordon Shedden. However Rainford’s BMW got away and the stewards decided to keep the corner under waved yellow flags for the duration of the race.

Sutton took the win, his fourth of the season and the 46th of his storied career, retaking the championship lead. Morgan and Chilton followed him home. Ingram’s Herculean defending effort saw him finish fourth ahead of Hill. Dan Rowbottom finished sixth with Josh Cook seventh.

Proctor ended up eighth with the bodywork damage with Shedden ninth and Dan Cammish tenth. The hard tyre being Cammish’s detriment.

Mikey Doble, Sam Osborne, James Dorlin, Chris Smiley and Daryl DeLeon rounded off the top ten.