Ash Sutton has taken the first BTCC win of the weekend at Snetterton after Passing pole sitter Jack Goff and then taking advantage of a mistake by Colin Turkington.
“I didn’t want the summer break at all,” said Sutton, having also won races at both Oulton Park and Croft. “We came here and showed good performance. We didn’t put it on the front row in qualifying but it’s only a part of the puzzle. I wouldn’t have expected a mistake like that from Colin [Turkington] when he was out front and from then I knew my time with Jack [Goff] would be a waiting game. He made one slight error and I made the most of my opportunity – I just managed to nip under him. If there’s a win on the cards, you know I’m going to do my best to get it. I can’t thank Adrian Flux Subaru Racing enough as they’ve been fantastic from the off, right on it. We found a lot of issues with the car in the test with both mine and Jason Plato’s car and we’ve sorted a lot of them. The championship is in the back of my mind but race wins are key at the moment, so it’s about calculating risks.”
It was Turkington that had taken the lead off the line passing Goff on the run to Riches. Goff settled into second but as he was on the softer option tyre, he started to fade during the race. Sutton then started to pull him in. Meanwhile Turkington made a rare mistake and spun. Rejoined but further down the order. Sutton was now pulling in Goff for the lead and when Goff made a mistake at Hamilton on the penultimate lap, Sutton started to make his move. The two cars ran side by side to Oggies where Sutton pulled into the lead. From then he pulled clear to an impressive victory.
Goff took second place and the independent championship win;
“I had a call over the radio to say I’d lost two-tenths to Ash (Sutton) but then pulled it back and we were managing the gap. Maybe putting the hammer down took some life out of the tyres, meaning he could eventually catch. I think previously we expected the soft to be the better tyre choice here but it went off a bit out there towards the end. It’s out of the way now so let’s see what we can do with the mediums.”
Sadly his team mate Brett Smith failed to finish on his BTCC debut.
In third place was Matt Neal who had to fight for this podium with Andrew Jordan and Jason Plato’s Subaru. He was happy with his result;
“I’m over the moon with third, it’s like a win for us,” confirmed Neal. “I can’t say I was upset to see Tom [Ingram] disappear from my mirrors – I don’t know what happened to him. It was then a case of hanging on really – making no mistakes and looking after the tyres to bring it home. With five laps to go, I thought ‘I’m not going to have enough left here’ to hold off Andy [Jordan] but I think the Subaru [Plato] kept him busy luckily enough, and I managed to keep it clean and hold on.”
Behind that trio came the TAG Racing (Team Hard) VW CC of Jake Hill. Hill hasn’t had much luck so far in 2017 but stayed out of trouble this time to take a popular sixth position. Turkington took seventh after recovering from his spin, it was an uncharacteristic error by the BMW driver. Tom Ingram banked some points as he took eighth but it could have been so much more for Ingram as he had been fighting for fourth with Rob Austin. Unfortunately the two made contact sending Austin out of the race and Ingram down the order. Eighth was a good recovery drive by the Speedworks Toyota Driver.
Rob Collard’s BMW was ninth, the Hampshire based driver struggling with his ballast laden car. Tenth was Tom Chilton in the Vauxhall Astra. Eleventh was Mat Jackson in the tea Shredded Wheat Focus. Thirteenth was Shedden another driver who has been struggling with ballast, but he made good progress from his grid slot. Fourteenth was Chris Smiley for BTC Norlin Racing with James Cole taking the final point for Subaru in fifteenth.
2017 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship – Round 16 – Snetterton
1 Ashley SUTTON (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing 12 laps
2 Jack GOFF (GBR) Eurotech Racing +2.332s
3 Matt NEAL (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +6.707s
4 Andrew JORDAN (GBR) BMW Pirtek Racing +6.916s
5 Jason PLATO (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +7.743s
6 Jake HILL (GBR) TAG Racing +12.145s
7 Colin TURKINGTON (GBR) Team BMW +12.378s
8 Tom INGRAM (GBR) Speedworks Motorsport +19.459s
9 Rob COLLARD (GBR) Team BMW +22.446s
10 Tom CHILTON (GBR) Power Maxed Racing +22.762s
11 Mat JACKSON (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo +27.396s
12 Matt SIMPSON (GBR) Simpson Racing +29.331s
13 Gordon SHEDDEN (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +30.158s
14 Chris SMILEY (GBR) BTC Norlin Racing +30.784s
15 James COLE (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +31.217s
16 Will BURNS (GBR) Autoaid/RCIB Insurance Racing +31.625s
17 Senna PROCTOR (GBR) Power Maxed Racing +31.954s
18 Ollie JACKSON (GBR) AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts +32.385s
19 Aiden MOFFAT (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +32.782s
20 Ant WHORTON-EALES (GBR) AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts +38.302s
21 Stephen JELLEY (GBR) Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport +41.897s
22 Martin DEPPER (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo +42.350s
23 Stewart LINES (GBR) Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport +1m17.532s
24 Dave NEWSHAM (GBR) BTC Norlin Racing +1 lap
DNF Aron TAYLOR-SMITH (IRL) MG Racing RCIB Insurance +3 laps
DNF Josh PRICE (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +4 laps
DNF Rob AUSTIN (GBR) Handy Motorsport +7 laps
DNF Adam MORGAN (GBR) Ciceley Motorsport +7 laps
DNF Michael EPPS (GBR) Autoaid/RCIB Insurance Racing +7 laps
DNF Josh COOK (GBR) MG Racing RCIB Insurance +7 laps
DNF Brett SMITH (GBR) Eurotech Racing +12 laps By Marc Waller
