The British Touring Car Championship heads to Croft to start the final nine outings of its 2026 campaign, with Ash Sutton chasing the Drivers’ Championship and Ricky Collard having his final weekend of the season.
Often regarded as one of the truest tests on the tin-top calendar, the 2.127-mile track hosted pre-season testing and now has the opportunity to crown one of the most dominant seasons in series history.
Croft’s 11-turn Main Circuit has previously been a happy hunting ground for rear-wheel drive machinery, owing to its mix of traction zones and high-speed corners, but saw Team VERTU and NAPA Racing UK take the spoils in 2025.
Tom Ingram took Race 1 victory last year, before the NAPA pair of Dan Rowbottom and Sutton took back-to-back spoils in their old Ford Focus.
Chris Smiley also took a surprise pole position in his Restart Racing Hyundai i30N, backing up Ingram’s pace in the sister car, but such performance would be a surprise after the nightmare Donington Park GP weekend for both Hyundai-running teams.
Running gets underway on Saturday with 50-minutes of Free Practice at 10:15 BST, followed by timed Qualifying and the Race to Pole at 14:05 and 15:05. Sunday sees an afternoon start, with Race 1 at 12:10, Race 2 at 14:30, and Race 3 at 17:15.
The weather is expected to be calm, but could provide some entertainment on Sunday with a sprinkling of rain at midday.
Saturday’s qualifying action can be viewed on the ITV Sport Extra YouTube channel, with Sunday in its typical ITV4 and ITVX all-day slot.
Croft to be Ricky Collard’s final weekend in the BTCC, at least for now
One of the much-chronicled stories of the season has been Collard’s struggles for a sponsor. Even getting to this point in the Team VERTU seat was unexpected, but now he will be bowing out after the Croft weekend.
Plenty will hope it will not be the end for Collard in the BTCC, and it absolutely should not be.
Collard sits P5 in the Drivers’ Championship, and is on-course for his best BTCC campaign by some distance – usurping his 2023 P8 effort in the Toyota GR Corolla.
While a race win has eluded him, the 2024 British GT Champion has claimed six podiums in 2026, and will be hoping for the fairytale farewell in Yorkshire.
Stepping into his seat for Silverstone and Brands Hatch GP is Osamu Kawashima.
The 57-year-old Japanese driver is a bit of an unknown quantity, but did race in the TOCA support package in the mid-2010s.
He competed in Ginetta’s GT5 category in 2014, and made the step to GT4 the next year.
His campaign was a successful one, with five wins and 17 total podium finishes in the AM class – ending the season as Vice Champion.
Kawashima tested a Speedworks Toyota Avensis in 2016, and has completed preparation runs at Snetterton in the Team VERTU Hyundai, but has not been seen racing competitively since his Ginetta stints.
Set to become the first Japanese BTCC driver since 1985, Kawashima has spoken of the opportunity being the ‘fulfilment of a dream.’
A sensational weekend could see Sutton crowned as Drivers’ Champion
Sutton heads into Croft a whopping 98-points clear of Tom Ingram in the Drivers’ Championship, with his form in 2026 simply being a class apart from the rest of the field.
His performance in NAPA’s new Ford Focus Saloon has been spellbinding, and brought a haul of seven victories and a further eight P2 finishes.
Donington Park GP saw his first winless weekend of the season, but Sutton could still increase his gap on Ingram with two P2 results.
It leaves Sutton with a chance of leaving Croft with his record-breaking fifth Drivers’ Championship, should be outscore Ingram by 54 points across the weekend.
Though, with 76 points the maximum available through a weekend, it is more likely that Croft’s results see a crowning at Silverstone a near-guarantee.
Rather than looking ahead to Sutton, Ingram could even fall to P3 in the standings, with Dan Cammish just five points behind and enjoying a stellar season.
Adam Morgan is also just over 50 points behind the pair, with his late-season form in the CPRL Mercedes A35 Saloon an incredible twist following the squad’s administration and full-season form.
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