Sutton wins record-breaking fifth BTCC title to become most successful touring car driver of all time
Ashley Sutton secured his fifth BTCC Driver's championship to become the most successful touring car driver of all time on Sunday afternoon in Round 26, Race 2 at Silverstone. Sutton's 2026 title win puts him ahead of BTCC legends like Colin Turkington and Andy Rouse who hold four titles each.
Sutton's 2026 championship campaign was intensely dominant, with the man from Hertfordshire securing nine victories and 18 podiums from 26 races. The story of how Sutton won his fifth title boils down to his ruthless consistency with NAPA Ford Racing.
At the very first race weekend of the season, Sutton secured two victories and three podiums. These results and his relentless pace set the tone for the season. After losing the 2025 title to Tom Ingram, Sutton and NAPA Ford responded with dominance, with the championship contenders Ingram and Dan Cammish well over 100 points down.
Sutton first came into the BTCC ten years ago in 2016, driving for Triple Eight MG Racing. The Brit claimed his first touring car victory in his debut season at Croft, winning a race in treacherous wet conditions.
Just one year later, in the 2017 season, Sutton raced for the iconic Adrian Flux Subaru Racing team. During the 2017 season, Sutton won six races and eventually secured his first BTCC title, beating other legendary drivers and champions like Colin Turkington, Jason Plato, Matt Neal and Andrew Jordan.
Less than a decade since his first championship victory, he has now become the most successful BTCC driver of all time. The 32-year old secured another two titles driving an Infiniti Q50 with Laser Tools Racing, before eventually switching to NAPA Ford Racing ahead of the 2022 season.
Sutton's main title rival over the years has been Tom Ingram, a two-time BTCC champion who claimed championships in 2022 and 2025, interrupting Sutton's impressive run between 2020-2023. The only other driver to challenge Sutton and Ingram during this time, was Jake Hill, who took victory in the 2024 season with Laser Tools Racing BMW.
Following a dominant season throughout 2026, Sutton only needed a small handful of points across the Silverstone weekend to secure the championship. Race 1 saw the Briton finish in 12th place. Had Sutton beaten Chris Smiley ahead, he would have been crowned champion that Sunday morning at the end of the race, however, Smiley managed to beat him and the title race continued on to the early afternoon.
In Race 2 at Silverstone, Sutton started from 12th place and wasted absolutely no time in dispersing of several drivers. After climbing through the field extraordinarily quickly, Sutton eventually delivered the final blow by faking a move to the inside of Daryl De Leon at Copse corner, forcing the BMW driver to go defensive, before Sutton eventually did dive to the inside of De Leon at Copse.
The Ford driver then went on to dominate the race, winning by over five seconds to claim his fifth championship and 56th career victory in the BTCC simultaneously. Across his five championships, he has won with three different manufacturers and teams - Subaru, Infiniti and Ford.
Sutton's titles have come with different cars, featuring different technical specifications such as FWD (Front-Wheel Drive) and RWD (Rear-Wheel Drive) which puts him among the most versatile and impressive drivers to grace the sport.
Whilst he has broken the record for most BTCC titles, he is still a fair way behind Jason Plato's record for most individual race wins in the BTCC, with Plato securing 97 wins across 659 race starts and 23 seasons.
Sutton currently sits on 56 individual BTCC race wins, but stands a strong chance of going after the record, considering his dominant display throughout the 2026 season, where he may go on to win over a third of races in the season. The record for most victories in a single season was set by Alain Menu in 1997 and matched by Sutton in 2023. With four races left in the 2026 season, Sutton has a mathematical chance of being able to break this record as well.
Sutton's historic record-breaking fifth title ensures that he is placed at the very top of the BTCC history books, as the most successful and one of the greatest touring car drivers of all time.
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