James Cole has taken his first ever BTCC win on the one hundred and sixtieth attempt as he took his Adrian Flux Subaru to victory from pole in race one here at Rockingham.
Only Jack Goff ever looked like challenging Cole for the win after starting from second but after the early laps, Goff’s challenge faded and he came under pressure from those behind him.
In the pack behind, Sutton in the Subaru and Cook in the MG both made good starts and intitially fought for position. Sutton came out on top and set off after Goff who he passed in the closing stages after a mistake from Goff, to make it a Subaru one-two. Cook tried to also follow through for MG but Goff held him off.
“I’ll take that,” said Sutton after the race. “I was happy with third but Jack [Goff] ran a little wide into the hairpin on the last lap and I made it through. It’s another phenomenal result for Adrian Flux Subaru Racing. Josh [Cook] was on full attack mode, as you’d expect, and he could have stuck it up the inside a few times. We have to balance the car’s strengths over the lap with its weaknesses and play it accordingly.”
Goff still seemed pleased to have taken third despite the last lap slip up costing him second;
“I’m surprised I held on as long as I did – I knew it’d be an uphill struggle. The car was fantastic but I was struggling in the traction and braking zones late on. They can come up the inside or around the outside like at Snetterton in that situation. It’s another bit of silverware for our lads. Josh [Cook] was eager to get past into the last corner and was bumping a bit but that’s racing and we held on.”
Matt Neal and Colin Turkington were fifth and sixth in ballast laden cars just ahead of Mat Jackson in the Shredded Wheat Ford Focus. Adam Morgan was eighth in his Ciceley Mercedes after coming out on top of an early battle with Tom Chilton. Chilton was also then passed by the Subarus of Josh Price and Jason Plato who made it four Subarus in the top ten.
It was a disasterous race for title contenders, Ingram, Shedden and Collard. Ingram had brake problems from the start forcing an early retirement. Shedden suffered a late puncture dropping him down the order while Collard just had a difficult race from his qualifying slot of twentieth where he was unable to make much progress only moving up to seventeenth and out of the points.
Tom Chilton came home in eleventh with the final points scorers being Jordan, Newsham, Jackson (Ollie) and Epps.
2017 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship – Round 22 – Rockingham
1 James COLE (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing 16 laps
2 Ashley SUTTON (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +2.571s
3 Jack GOFF (GBR) Eurotech Racing +3.167s
4 Josh COOK (GBR) MG Racing RCIB Insurance +3.308s
5 Matt NEAL (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +4.946s
6 Colin TURKINGTON (GBR) Team BMW +5.245s
7 Mat JACKSON (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo +7.937s
8 Adam MORGAN (GBR) Ciceley Motorsport +8.458s
9 Josh PRICE (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +8.698s
10 Jason PLATO (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +10.157s
11 Tom CHILTON (GBR) Power Maxed Racing +14.234s
12 Andrew JORDAN (GBR) BMW Pirtek Racing +14.976s
13 Dave NEWSHAM (GBR) BTC Norlin Racing +15.839s
14 Ollie JACKSON (GBR) AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts +22.248s
15 Michael EPPS (GBR) TAG Racing +22.693s
16 Aron TAYLOR-SMITH (IRL) MG Racing RCIB Insurance +23.903s
17 Rob COLLARD (GBR) Team BMW +24.200s
18 Ant WHORTON-EALES (GBR) AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts +24.870s
19 Aiden MOFFAT (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +31.478s
20 Chris SMILEY (GBR) BTC Norlin Racing +32.048s
21 Senna PROCTOR (GBR) Power Maxed Racing +33.655s
22 Martin DEPPER (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo +35.254s
23 Will BURNS (GBR) Autoaid/RCIB Insurance Racing +35.506s
24 Jake HILL (GBR) TAG Racing +37.687s
25 Rory BUTCHER (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo +39.334s
26 Stephen JELLEY (GBR) Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport +40.884s
27 Brett SMITH (GBR) Eurotech Racing +43.747s
28 Matt SIMPSON (GBR) Simpson Racing +44.264s
29 Stewart LINES (GBR) Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport +51.271s
30 Gordon SHEDDEN (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +1 lap
31 Rob AUSTIN (GBR) Handy Motorsport +1 lap
DNF Tom INGRAM (GBR) Speedworks Motorsport +16 laps By Marc Waller
