BTCC 2024: The story of the season
06 September 2024The 2024 BTCC season has been as hotly contested and unpredictable as ever, with nine different winners from 24 races.
At the sharp end, three great champions of the modern era – Tom Ingram, Ash Sutton and Colin Turkington – have battled it out for honours, but it’s been Jake Hill who has risen above them all to lead the championship heading to Silverstone for the penultimate event.
Against the odds, Hill has won the most races of any driver in 2024 (6), with all the guile of a champion in waiting. But by no means is the title signed, sealed and delivered just yet. The three aforementioned champions are patiently waiting in the wings, and with over 120 points still on offer, it’s all still to play for.
Donington Park National
The three champions in Ingram, Sutton and Turkington lined up in the top three positions for the first race of the season, but as would become a theme of the season, Hill quickly got amongst them. Despite some squabbling amongst the trio, it was Ingram who won out, with Sutton and Hill following him to the flag. Remarkably, the podium result was replicated in the following race.
Race 3 was another matter, as a six-way battle for the lead broke out, headed by a titanic battle between pole-sitter and 2012 World Touring Car Champion Rob Huff and Aiden Moffat. Eventually, Moffat would take victory ahead of Turkington and Sutton.
Brands Hatch Indy
With only one podium at Donington, Turkington seemed the least competitive of the contenders at the first event. That all changed at Brands Hatch with a pole/fastest lap/victory combination in Race 1 and another lights-to-flag win in Race 2.
Sutton also enjoyed a strong weekend, after dicing with Josh Cook in Race 1 and a dead heat finish with Adam Morgan in the second race, he completed a hat-trick of third-place finishes.
Cook cut underneath Sutton at Clark Curve for second in the closing stages of the first race, while Ingram took an assured second in Race 2. The third and final contest of the day, meanwhile, was won by Ronan Pearson with Tom Chilton in second. Title contenders Hill and Ingram suffered non-scores in the second and third races respectively.
Snetterton
Ingram and Turkington had both claimed double victories from the opening two events, and now it was Hill’s turn. A dominant win in Race 1 was followed by triumph in Race 2’s challenging and changeable conditions. Bobby Thompson took a surprise second place in the first race while Sutton took his seventh podium from the first seven races.
Other than a mature drive from Hill, the other title protagonists all faltered in the unpredictable weather of Race 2, with Ingram 16th, Sutton 20th and Turkington 15th. Instead, it was Cammish and Cook who claimed the final two spots on the podium.
Hill was charging in the early stages of Race 3 as well, and looked set to take a famous triple, but as the track dried, his pace faded leaving the door open for Huff to win ahead of Moffat and Cook.
Thruxton
After his Snetterton successes, Hill had struck a rich vein of form and took another double in the first two races at Thruxton. The first, snatching the lead from pole-sitter Ingram into Turn 1 and going on to win, and the second after a post-race penalty for Ingram.
The NAPA Racing Fords also had a strong weekend at the calendar’s fastest venue. Like Sutton earlier in the season, Cammish took a trio of podiums – all second-place finishes – while Sutton took third in Race 1 and a charging drive to victory in Race 3.
Despite his Race 2 penalty, Ingram had a consistent weekend with a fourth and two-thirds, while Turkington had the least pace of the contenders, finishing ninth, seventh and another seventh.
Oulton Park
Despite an elbows-out battle between Ingram and Sutton at the head of the field, Race 1 was straightforward by BTCC standards with Ingram winning from pole followed by Sutton and Cammish.
The real headline performance from Oulton Park was Cook’s eighth to first Race 2 drive in which he carved his way past seven of his competitors in the first lap. With a massive eight-second gap to second-placed Ingram and Hill, Cook took his first win of the season.
Hill was joined on the Race 3 podium by Mikey Doble and Aron Taylor-Smith after a charging drive, but it was Sutton and Turkington whose campaigns really suffered in Cheshire. The former suffered damage in Races 2 and 3 and the latter finished no higher than seventh for the second event in a row.
Croft
Living up to his title of ‘King of Croft’ in Race 1, Turkington started from pole, claimed the fastest lap and took a 15th win at the circuit as well as the 70th of his career. Ingram and Cammish battled over the remaining podium slots and eventually took second and third respectively.
The second race was a turbulent one for some of the title protagonists; Hill and Turkington both ended up on the run-off in separate incidents, the former finishing a lowly 16th after a brush with the barrier and the latter recovering to ninth. That left Cook to claim victory ahead of Huff and Dan Rowbottom, with Ingram, Sutton and Cammish fighting over the places on the fringes of the podium.
Chilton was untouchable in Race 3 of the day, and took the 16th BTCC win of his career. But behind him, it was anyone’s guess. Ingram made a deft switchback move as he sought to take second from Taylor-Smith, but when the pair went side-by-side into the Jim Clark Esses, they went wide and Cammish got past the pair of them. Cammish went on to finish second with Ingram third, but another incident for Turkington meant the King of Croft finished the day in 14th.
Knockhill
Just like Croft, Turkington was on pole for Race 1 at Knockhill and just like Croft, he stormed to victory, largely unchallenged taking the fastest lap en route. Further back, contact with Moffat would spell disaster for championship leader Ingram, who was forced to retire with damage. After a thrilling battle which saw the pair side-by-side for half a lap, Cook took second ahead of Morgan in third.
From fifth on the grid, Hill was one to watch in Race 2 on the Soft tyres and it didn’t take long for him to surge past Taylor-Smith, Morgan, Cook, and Turkington. From there, he didn’t look back and sealed his sixth win – the most of any driver – of the season. Rowbottom took second ahead of Turkington, while Ingram started his comeback finishing 10th.
Huff won from pole in Race 3 and Ingram completed a superb comeback to finish second. Chilton took third, while Sutton emerged from a mesmerising battle – going three-wide into the hairpin with Moffat and Cook – to finish fourth.
Donington Park GP
The second visit to Donington Park of 2024 was a strong one for several of the contenders; namely Hill, Sutton and Turkington. Turkington took victory in Race 1 and second in Race 2, while Sutton replicated those results in the alternating races and Hill followed them home in third on both occasions.
Although Ingram and Cammish both endured disastrous second races – the former retiring with a loss of power and the latter recovering to 11th after a first-corner clash – they recovered well in Race 3 to limit the effect on their respective championships. Cammish won from pole while Ingram scythed his way from 19th on the grid up to second at the flag. Taylor-Smith claimed third while Sutton became the latest contender to retire with mechanical issues.
With two events remaining – the first of which takes place on Silverstone’s National Circuit – 20 points separate Hill, Ingram and Sutton, while Turkington, Cammish and Cook are all distant but still very real threats for the 2024 BTCC title.
