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3. Ash Sutton
I have no doubt that, when Ash Sutton retires, he will be the undisputed number one on this list. Yes, he clearly has a great team behind him in Team BMR but there's still something about Sutton's driving that makes him seem a class above the rest of the grid at the moment, and if (or rather when) he wins the championship this year, he will have won half the BTCC championships he has ever competed in. Ash Sutton joined the grid in 2016 in a Triple Eight MG, that was now owned by Warren Scott and Team BMR. He came off the back of a title in the Renault Clio Cup, although he surprisingly only just edged out teammate Ash Hand in a controversial finale. Sutton was teammate to Josh Cook in the MG and immediately looked impressive when he took pole position at Donington Park. Sutton took his first win in a wet race at Croft later in the season. At the final round he won the Jack Sears Trophy and ranked thirteenth in the championship, one place behind Josh Cook. For 2017, Sutton was promoted to Scott's main team, driving a RWD Subaru Levorg, and it transpired that Sutton was more of a RWD specialist. Sutton had pole taken away from him at Donington but fought back to take two podiums. He took his first win of the year at Oulton Park, and from then on became the man to beat in the championship as he won five more times, including a double at Snetterton, to take his first championship. This was made all the more impressive by the fact that his teammate was Jason Plato, and that Plato languished down in twelfth with only one win (although it is suspected that there were issues with his car). The Subaru was less competitive in 2018, particularly at the start of the season, and Sutton failed to even get a podium until Croft. Then, his season changed, and he won six races (in a season with seventeen winners) including one at the season finale at Brands Hatch after a fantastic battle with Josh Cook. Sutton was fourth in the final standings, while Plato was 27th. The Subaru was woefully slow in a straight line in 2019, making it extremely difficult for Sutton to race other cars. However, he was still consistently in the points and won at Brands to take eighth overall. Highly-rated teammate Senna Proctor was 20th. In 2020, Team BMR joined up with Laser Tools Racing to run the Infiniti Q50s, still a RWD car. Sutton was immediately on the pace with a win at Donington Park in the first round of the season. He won four more times and, despite a few unnecessary incidents (most notably at Croft with Jake Hill), he edged out Colin Turkington to win his second championship. Sutton also put in the greatest drive of his career thus far to take a podium in the reversed-grid race at Silverstone having been 26th on the original grid. Six rounds into the 2021 season, Ash Sutton leads the championship by 30 points after charging through the order to win race two at Snetterton, Knockhill and Thruxton, as well as race three at Thruxton in round one. The Infiniti is clearly a very quick car, but Aiden Moffat's results haven't been much better than when he was in the Mercedes, emphasising that Sutton's driving is probably the main factor in their success. I'm sure Alan Gow is fearful of Sutton dominating the next few championships, so I am hoping he returns to a FWD car for 2022, where he probably won't be quite as strong.
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