Ash Sutton acknowledged his healthy lead in the British Touring Car Championship drivers’ standings after Croft, but says that ‘until it’s done and dusted, it isn’t’.

The NAPA Racing UK driver extended his series lead by a further 17 points after the event in North Yorkshire, as he marches ever-closer to a record fifth BTCC title.

Saturday saw Sutton qualify his Ford in fifth, despite having the least TOCA Turbo Boost in the field, before going on to move forward two places in the afternoon qualifying race.

Sutton then made further progress in a wet opening race, finishing in second after rival Tom Ingram was given a five-second penalty for exceeding track limits.

The 32-year-old then put in one of the drivers of the season in race two to claim victory, despite being one of the few drivers in the field running the slower hard compound tyre – and all whilst having the second-least amount of TTB.

Although the final race finally saw some bad luck catch up to Sutton – he was taken out of the race at the first corner by Ricky Collard, who was in turn hit by Dan Cammish – all of his main rivals also endured their own bad luck, leaving Sutton with a huge 115-point lead in the drivers’ standings.

“You could say I’ve got one hand on the title, but anything can happen,” insisted Sutton to TouringCars.Net when asked about his comfortable lead.

“I’ve seen cars not fit to race for the entire weekend because they’ve gone off in FP1 or FP2. Cammish has been one of them, when he had that big off at Donington [in 2023].

“Anything can happen – I could miss a weekend from illness, or something like that. Everyone’s saying it’s done and dusted. Until it is, it isn’t.

“I know the points gap is very healthy and yes, there is an element of one hand is on the trophy, but as long as nothing crazy happens Silverstone should go okay.”

Explaining his race day, Sutton admitted he had enjoyed strong pace in his car come rain or shine.

“Race one was a chaotic race due to the rain coming in. We settled into the race, and the pace was really strong in the car. It felt like we could have moved forward.

“Then they started dishing out five-second penalties [to Sutton’s rivals for exceeding track limits]. Suddenly it was like, actually we’ve still got an opportunity to finish back on the podium here. The pace was really strong in the car, so I tried to maximise that.

“We caught back up to [race leader Josh] Cook by the last corner, but it was not quite enough to get him – we needed one more lap really.

“But I’m really pleased with P2 in race one. I felt like we could have won it, but it was still fantastic result.

“Other than a ‘come-back’ drive, where you come from the back of the grid to the front, that race two was pretty special to do it on the hard tyre.

“Then in race three, I think it’s the first time [Team Manager] Ollie Collins said that all four of his cars have been in the pit lane! It wasn’t ideal.

“It is what it is. We were just on the receiving end of someone else’s incident. The key thing is, ultimately my two rivals didn’t score any points either.”

“I’d be shocked if we’re anywhere inside the top ten. I think the top 15 would be a struggle as well. The TTB is going to be so powerful. There is so much that you can gain from the TTB there – I think it’s a second [per lap].

“The way we normally make up for a lack of TTB is through the corners and there’s only four of them – and they’re fairly stop-start as well.

“It’s going to be painful. But Race 2 will be exciting when we come charging through!

“When we do get that, it’s going to really spice things up for us, give us a load of performance. And if you get the car dialled in, it’s a win-win-win.

“That’s the bit I’m going to be excited for. It’s just going to be qualifying and the race to pole which are going to be painful.”