Ashley Sutton has taken his and the Adrian Flux Subaru team’s first victory of the season with a great drive in race two at Oulton Park.
The start was delayed on the first attempt as Adam Morgan’s Mac Tools sponsored Ciceley Mercedes caught fire. The cars then gridded up once again for a second go.
As the lights went out, pole sitter Andrew Jordan got away well, but Matt Neal in second found himself swamped by other rear wheel drive cars as Sutton and Collard powered past.
Jordan was carrying maximum success ballast though and he was unable to keep up enough pace with Sutton sliding down the inside at the island Hairpin. Jordan fought back but Sutton kept up the pressure eventually completing the pass at Hislops on the second lap.
Jordan then initially managed to hold back any further rivals from passing him leaving Sutton the chance to pull out a decent gap. It was Collard who first passed Jordan and the BMW driver then set off after Sutton.
The two Hondas were next to challenge Jordan. Neal moved up the inside of the Pirtek BMW on the start finish straight with Shedden moving around the outside. Unable to defend from both, Jordan lost out to Neal. He was then unsettled which enabled Shedden to also slip through.
He managed to hold onto to fifth but behind Josh Cook and Mat Jackson were fighting for sixth and Cook managed to get past on the final lap. This gave him the independent win and the reverse grid pole for race three.
Rob Austin fought with Jake Hill for eighth with the Toyota driver beating Hill in the VW. Mike Eps in the second of the VW’s took tenth.
Tom Ingram was yet again hit, through no fault of his own and incredibly once again, the impact damage caused him to retire on the next lap.
The race result has handed the championship lead to Gordon Shedden with Ingram dropping to joint second place with Collard, five points adrift of the leader.
Sutton was clearly very happy with his first victory of the season;
“That couldn’t have gone any better!” he said. “After seeing the performance of the soft tyres in race one, I didn’t feel too confident, especially with an extra 57kg having been thrown at me but I got a great start and then the pace was just in the car. I had to get away as quickly as I could because we all know Rob Collard’s a charger and he was going to be coming after me, but I made the break just in time.
“It was then a question of managing the race, and it’s phenomenal to score the first win of the year for Adrian Flux Subaru Racing. We had a bit of a difficult start to the season, so this one is for all the boys – they’ve done a mega job to get the car to where it is now.”
2017 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship – Round 11 – Oulton Park
1 Ashley SUTTON (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing 14 laps
2 Rob COLLARD (GBR) Team BMW +1.066s
3 Matt NEAL (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +9.795s
4 Gordon SHEDDEN (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +10.096s
5 Andrew JORDAN (GBR) BMW Pirtek Racing +10.443s
6 Josh COOK (GBR) Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport +10.863s
7 Mat JACKSON (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo +12.560s
8 Rob AUSTIN (GBR) Handy Motorsport +13.196s
9 Jake HILL (GBR) TAG Racing +13.966s
10 Michael EPPS (GBR) Autoaid/RCIB Insurance Racing +14.596s
11 Jason PLATO (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +14.765s
12 Aron TAYLOR-SMITH (IRL) MG Racing RCIB Insurance +15.943s
13 Colin TURKINGTON (GBR) Team BMW +21.590s
14 Aiden MOFFAT (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +22.040s
15 Josh PRICE (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +22.195s
16 Jack GOFF (GBR) Eurotech Racing +22.607s
17 Luke DAVENPORT (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo +22.968s
18 Senna PROCTOR (GBR) Power Maxed Racing +23.309s
19 Dave NEWSHAM (GBR) BTC Norlin Racing +24.547s
20 Martin DEPPER (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo +25.174s
21 Jeff SMITH (GBR) Eurotech Racing +25.481s
22 Daniel LLOYD (GBR) MG Racing RCIB Insurance +25.678s
23 Stephen JELLEY (GBR) Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport +26.711s
24 Tom CHILTON (GBR) Power Maxed Racing +27.018s
25 Matt SIMPSON (GBR) Simpson Racing +27.814s
26 Ollie JACKSON (GBR) AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts +28.249s
27 Chris SMILEY (GBR) BTC Norlin Racing +30.618s
28 Ant WHORTON-EALES (GBR) AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts +1 lap
29 Will BURNS (GBR) Autoaid/RCIB Insurance Racing +2 laps
DNF Tom INGRAM (GBR) Speedworks Motorsport +7 laps
DNF James COLE (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +8 laps
DNF Adam MORGAN (GBR) Ciceley Motorsport By Marc Waller
