The 2023 British Touring Car Championship was decided after race one at Brands Hatch for Ash Sutton as he became the youngest ever four-time champion in the series’ history.
NAPA Racing UK’s Sutton started with the soft tyres on and almost got overtaken by Rory Butcher, on mediums, off the line. Squeezing the Toyota racer to the edge allowed Tom Ingram, on softs, to overtake Butcher on the brakes into Druids.
Ingram could not quite keep up to speed with Sutton as the gap quickly grew and held at over one second in the early stages of the race.
A late-race shunt between BMW’s Stephen Jelley and Power Maxed Racing’s Mikey Doble, who were scrapping over eighth, meant a safety car was brought out late.
Jelley had only just climbed into ninth with a pass on team-mate Adam Morgan a lap earlier when he went into the back of Doble at Stirling’s corner, pushing the Vauxhall driver into the barriers.
The three-and-a-half lap safety car period left two laps remaining, but Sutton remained as on form as he has all year.
Rounding out the podium was Team HARD’s Bobby Thompson who had another top-three finish at Brands Hatch this year. On softs, Thompson was fighting everywhere with Butcher, trading places on lap five and running side-by-side through the Grand Prix loop. In the end Butcher had a puncture on lap eight and fell down the order after a pitstop, allowing Thompson to run clear in third.
In fourth was Colin Turkington. After starting seventh, again on softs, the BMW ace sat at the back of a four-car scrap for fifth early on behind NAPA’s Daniel Rowbottom, who acted as a cork-in-the-bottle.
The Northern Irishman then gained a place every lap from lap six to eight to assume fifth, which became fourth when he passed Rowbottom on the lap before the safety car came out. Turkington made it so the only four soft tyre runners in the top ten finished first through fourth.
Cammish was the first in behind Turkington as the fight between the two BMWs and Fords lasted all race long. Cammish gained a place past team-mate Rowbottom on the last lap of the race to take the chequered flag in fifth, with Hill also following through at the same time for sixth.
Hill had earlier found himself at the front of the four-car scrap briefly on lap six before being passed by all three before Surtees.
Dan Rowbottom was the third of the NAPA Racing UK cars inside the top ten, finishing in seventh, having lost two places on the final lap.
BMW’s Jelley took the chequered flag in eighth, having gained with a pass on Morgan on lap 11 before contact with Doble the next time around. After the race, Jelley was hit with a reprimand and a three-place grid penalty for the next race for the coming together with the Jack Sears’ Trophy protagonist.
Rounding out the top ten were Toyota’s Ricky Collard and BMW’s Morgan. The two found themselves nose to tail all throughout the final half of the race, in the end being separated by a mere 0.480 seconds.
Along with Doble, One Motorsport’s Aiden Moffat and Team HARD’s James Gornall failed to finish the race, Moffat making an early pitstop on the opening lap, whilst Gornall didn’t even make it to the grid due to a driveshaft issue.
Race results
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP | GD |
| 1 | 116 | M |  |
Ashley SUTTON | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 18 | 29:41.888 | 1:30.244 | 1 |
| 2 | 1 | M | |
Tom INGRAM | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8 | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 18 | 0.603 | 1:30.579 | 3 |
| 3 | 19 | I | |
Bobby THOMPSON | Autobrite Direct with Millers Oils | CUPRA Leon | 18 | 2.236 | 1:31.299 | 5 |
| 4 | 4 | M | |
Colin TURKINGTON | Team BMW | BMW 330e M Sport | 18 | 2.933 | 1:31.445 | 7 |
| 5 | 27 | M | |
Dan CAMMISH | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 18 | 4.596 | 1:31.321 | 6 |
| 6 | 24 | M | |
Jake HILL | Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport | BMW 330e M Sport | 18 | 4.839 | 1:31.524 | 8 |
| 7 | 32 | M | |
Daniel ROWBOTTOM | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 18 | 6.428 | 1:31.426 | 4 |
| 8 | 12 | M | |
Stephen JELLEY | Team BMW | BMW 330e M Sport | 18 | 6.617 | 1:31.772 | 11 |
| 9 | 37 | M | |
Ricky COLLARD | TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 18 | 6.783 | 1:31.878 | 12 |
| 10 | 33 | M | |
Adam MORGAN | Team BMW | BMW 330e M Sport | 18 | 7.263 | 1:31.858 | 10 |
| 11 | 40 | I |  |
Árón TAYLOR-SMITH | CarStore Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 18 | 8.350 | 1:31.810 | 15 |
| 12 | 66 | I | |
Josh COOK | One Motorsport with Starline Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 18 | 8.537 | 1:31.898 | 16 |
| 13 | 3 | M | |
Tom CHILTON | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8 | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 18 | 8.550 | 1:31.581 | 17 |
| 14 | 11 | I | |
Andrew WATSON | CarStore Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 18 | 9.118 | 1:32.260 | 13 |
| 15 | 123 | I | |
Daniel LLOYD | Autobrite Direct with Millers Oils | CUPRA Leon | 18 | 9.760 | 1:32.537 | 18 |
| 16 | 42 | M | |
George GAMBLE | TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 18 | 10.657 | 1:32.056 | 22 |
| 17 | 17 | I | |
Dexter PATTERSON | Re.Beverages and Bartercard with Team HARD. | CUPRA Leon | 18 | 11.059 | 1:32.378 | 19 |
| 18 | 77 | M | |
Sam OSBORNE | NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus ST | 18 | 11.207 | 1:32.509 | 21 |
| 19 | 99 | I | |
Jade EDWARDS | One Motorsport with Starline Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 18 | 12.681 | 1:32.806 | 26 |
| 20 | 14 | M | |
Ronan PEARSON | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8 | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 18 | 13.493 | 1:32.347 | 14 |
| 21 | 18 | I |  |
Daryl DELEON | Re.Beverages and Bartercard with Team HARD. | CUPRA Leon | 18 | 15.467 | 1:32.899 | 23 |
| 22 | 22 | M | |
Nick HALSTEAD | BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8 | Hyundai i30 N Fastback | 18 | 16.939 | 1:33.478 | 27 |
| 23 | 6 | M | |
Rory BUTCHER | TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 17 | + 1 LAP | 1:31.345 | 2 |
| 24 | 777 | I | |
Michael CREES | Autobrite Direct with Millers Oils | CUPRA Leon | 17 | + 1 LAP | 1:32.899 | 24 |
| 25 | 16 | I | |
Aiden MOFFAT | One Motorsport with Starline Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 14 | + 4 LAPS | 1:31.780 | 20 |
| 26 | 88 | I | |
Mikey DOBLE | CarStore Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 11 | + 7 LAPS | 1:31.817 | 9 |
| NS | 180 | I | |
James GORNALL | CUPRA Leon | 0 | DNS | N/A | – |