Ashley Sutton has taken his first ever British touring car championship win in a soaking wet race three at Croft. Sutton, who is in his debut season in 2016 is the tenth different winner from the first half of the season.
The MG’s had been off the pace in the dry but Sutt on’s speed in the first wet race since 2014 helped him fight for the win. Amazingly some driver opted for slicks at the start of the race. The track was just damp at that stage but with heavy rain forecast it seemed like a gamble that would never pay off. The slick gamblers included Gordon Shedden, Mat Jackson, Ollie Jackson and Alex Martin.
Tordoff led away from pole initially with Tom Ingram and Jack Goff in the top three spots. At this stage Sutton was fifth behind Colin Turkington’s Subaru. The rain got ever harder as the track turned from damp to wet. This caused Aiden Moffat and Mat Jackson to collide, bringing out the safety car.
The conditions seemed to really suit the MG6 as both Sutton and Cook were quick with both sliding dramatically through the Esses.
As the safety car came in, Turkington made a move around the outside of Goff’s IHG Hotels BMW at Tower. Sutton then also passed Goff on the following corner.
Sutton then made a move on Turkington on lap nine, clipping the Subaru Levorg as he passed to gasps from the crowds around the circuit. Turkington’s resulting loss of pace saw Rob Collard also squeeze past.
Sutton then passed Ingram at the Esses on the next lap to take second and he set off after race leader Tordoff. A further safety car period when Hunter Abbott retired at Hawthorn gave Sutton the chance he needed as the field closed up.
There were just two laps to go when the safety car went in and Sutton now had to make his move. On the penultimate lap he went for it at Sunny, taking far more speed into the corner, he blasted past with the car looking far easier to drive than the rear wheel drive JCT600 with GardX BMW. He then had a single lap before he crossed the line to take his first victory;
“I’m over the moon,” said Sutton. “I knew we had the pace but I didn’t have very long to get the move done. I had to go for it and I’m delighted I did!”
Tordoff’s second place was enough to extend his championship lead despite him not winning a race at Croft.
Ingram took the independent win with third to the obvious delight of the Speedworks crew who braved the rain to cheer him across the line.
Collard battled with Turkington right through the race but on the final lap, Josh Cook tapped Turkington at the final hairpin letting Andrew Jordan through into fifth with Cook taking sixth. This left Turkington to cross the line in seventh place.
Aron Smith took more points for BKR in eighth after passing Jack Goff who seemed to be struggling in the wet conditions.
Jason Plato was uncharacteristically off the pace taking tenth place. Eleventh was Matt Neal, not taking the gamble on tyres of team mate Shedden. After a pit stop Shedden was left down in twenty second.
Rob Austin was twelfth in the Handy Motorsport Toyota. The Popular driver is still finding it frustrating that he can’t match the pace of Tom Ingram who runs an identical car.
Thirteenth was Dan Lloyd despite finishing the race with one side of the front of his car missing after a collision early in the race. Adam Morgan was fourteenth, the Wix driver having another disappointing weekend to slip further behind in the championship. Michael Epps took the final point in fifteenth.
In the drivers championship Ingram leads team mate Collard by twelve points with Matt Neal a further three points behind Collard despite a difficult weekend at Croft. Andrew Jordan is fifth from Jack Goff and Tom Ingram completes the top six.
Team JCT600 with GardX lead the team’s championship from Halfords Yuasa racing with Motorbase in third.
WSR also lead the manufacturer constructor championship from Honda, MG and Subaru.
Andrew Jordan leads the independents championship from Ingram, Jackson and Aron Smith.
The independent teams championship is being lead by Motorbase from Speedworks with BKR doing an amazing job in their first season with third place. Eurotech racing are fourth.
Full details of all the results and championship tables from this weekend are available from TSL timing
With half the races now completed, the championship now takes it’s mid-season break with the next round taking place at Snetterton on 30th and 31st July. Tickets are already available from http://www.snetterton.co.uk/ for what should be another great weekend’s action as the championship’s second half gets underway. By Marc Waller
