So, we all know that Ash Sutton is going to win the British Touring Car Championship this season, unless he gets beamed up by a passing spaceship. Actually, if that happened he’d probably return to Planet Earth after a spot of time travelling and then, armed with an elixir of youth acquired from a distant constellation, go on to win every edition from 1958 to 2015. The first man to win theBTCC in an Austin Westminster, Ford Galaxie, Renault Laguna, Subaru Levorg, Infiniti Q50 and Ford Focus? Yep, let’s have that!

But there’s plenty to get your teeth into if you look beyond the main championship to the sub-divisions – namely the Independents and Jack Sears Trophy. To this writer, these contests have long seemed a little bit artificial. After all, regarding Independents, what exactly is an Independent? West Surrey Racing with its BMWs has dropped into Indie-land this season, but that’s entirely understandable because it no longer receives (sufficient) support from BMW UK to qualify as a manufacturer team. But then you have Speedworks Motorsport, which does receive backing from Toyota GB, racing its two Speedworks Corolla Racing entries as a manufacturer team, but its sister Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport stable in the Independents. Plato Racing has no backing fromMercedes, but is entered in the manufacturer ranks.