Ash Sutton took his fifth win of the season in race two at Knockhill as the race one result was reversed for Adrian Flux Subaru racing with team mate Plato in second.
The race had to be restarted after a multi car pile-up on lap one brought out the red flags. Five cars were involved with Senna Proctor and Stephen Jelley having the worst damage as the two cars met nose to nose. Andrew Jordan was also out with damage to his Pirtek BMW. Jordan was later blamed by the stewards for causing the accident after initial contact with Proctor.
Once the race got underway at the second attempt, it was déjà vu as race one with Plato leading from Sutton. But Sutton wasn’t content to follow his team mate home this time and made a move on lap eleven. Plato tried to fight back but Sutton held on to win. Sutton was happy to take the win this time;
“Jason [Plato] kept me honest to the very end. It was a great race though and I knew the ballast would bring it back to me later on and work in my favour. He just lost his straight-line speed compared to mine as the time went on. Jason and I get on well and we race hard but we race fairly – we know where we stand with each other. I was more pleased for him getting pole yesterday then I was for myself getting second and I need a wingman don’t I? I really extracted everything from the tyre midway through and pulling that little gap so when they went I had to play the clever game. The battle’s on for sure and it’ll definitely go right to the wire. I’ve just got to keep doing what I’m doing.”
Plato just seemed pleased that the team appear to have found the issue which has plagued him all season;
“I just got into a little zone in the middle of the race, landing off the kerb at the chicane I was getting some drift wide every lap and I couldn’t work it out. Then all of a sudden, it disappeared and then Ash [Sutton] started to get those issues. I know a bit of fluid went down so maybe it was that. It was a great result for the team. I’m just so happy to be competitive again. I’m pretty awful to be around when things aren’t going well – this is my life. It’s everything about my life and when there’s stuff you just can’t get a handle on, it’s frustrating. We’ve found the problem now and that was for all you people who said I was too old…”
Behind the top two, Turkington again got the better of his BMW team mate Collard to score his second podium of the day;
“It’s more good points. Any time you get a podium in a BTCC race, it’s a good result. It’s a little bit disappointing to trail these guys home again but we got everything we could out of the BMW there. If the two ahead weren’t in the race, I’d be telling my engineers it’s the best car I’ve ever driven – but obviously we’ve got more to find. I can only understand what’s going on with my car. We improved the chassis but we seemed to drop back from the leaders. It was still a really strong race for Team BMW.”
James Cole took another fifth and appears to have made a real breakthrough with his pace and is now a consistent strong points scorer.
Shedden was a much improved sixth and was on his own for much of the race. Josh Price in the fourth Subaru had initially taken seventh before he was excluded for failing to slow for yellow flags. It had been a controversial race for the young driver as he had also fired Honda’s Matt Neal into the gravel. Newsham took seventh after Prices exclusion but even without that he was the independent winner with all the top six being manufacturer backed cars. He had a great race to beat Ingram’s Toyota and Rory Butchers Ford. Butcher had then been drawn for race three pole but the exclusion promoted the eleventh placed Whorton-Eales to tenth and race three pole.
Whorton-Eales is having a strong day so far with good pace in both races, he’ll now share the front row for race three with Butcher who ends up second.
2017 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship – Round 20 – Knockhill
1 Ashley SUTTON (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing 22 laps
2 Jason PLATO (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +0.238s
3 Colin TURKINGTON (GBR) Team BMW +3.198s
4 Rob COLLARD (GBR) Team BMW +5.063s
5 James COLE (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +6.831s
6 Gordon SHEDDEN (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +9.401s
7 Dave NEWSHAM (GBR) BTC Norlin Racing +25.803s
8 Tom INGRAM (GBR) Speedworks Motorsport +25.954s
9 Rory BUTCHER (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo +26.361s
10 Ant WHORTON-EALES (GBR) AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts +28.889s
11 Martin DEPPER (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo +30.959s
12 Tom CHILTON (GBR) Power Maxed Racing +31.841s
13 Matt SIMPSON (GBR) Simpson Racing +36.074s
14 Chris SMILEY (GBR) BTC Norlin Racing +39.823s
15 Aiden MOFFAT (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +44.426s
16 Mat JACKSON (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo +44.685s
17 Michael EPPS (GBR) Autoaid/RCIB Insurance Racing +45.215s
18 Brett SMITH (GBR) Eurotech Racing +47.572
19 Ollie JACKSON (GBR) AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts +49.314s
20 Will BURNS (GBR) Autoaid/RCIB Insurance Racing +51.406s
21 Stewart LINES (GBR) Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport +51.944s
DNF Matt NEAL (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +8 laps
DNF Aron TAYLOR-SMITH (IRL) MG Racing RCIB Insurance +13 laps
DNF Jack GOFF (GBR) Eurotech Racing +16 laps
DNF Jake HILL (GBR) TAG Racing +18 laps
DNF Adam MORGAN (GBR) Ciceley Motorsport +18 laps
DNF Stephen JELLEY (GBR) Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport +22 laps
DNF Rob AUSTIN (GBR) Handy Motorsport +22 laps
DNF Senna PROCTOR (GBR) Power Maxed Racing +22 laps
DNF Josh COOK (GBR) MG Racing RCIB Insurance +22 laps
DNF Andrew JORDAN (GBR) BMW Pirtek Racing +22 laps
EXCL Josh PRICE (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing By Marc Waller
