Ash Sutton took a hefty stride towards a record-breaking fifth British Touring Car Championship title with victory in race two at Knockhill.
With the morning rain blown away on the Scottish air, and the track merely damp off-line, Sutton and his Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus Titanium were the clear favourites for victory.
That’s because Adam Morgan, Dan Rowbottom and Gordon Shedden – the leading trio in race one – were all compelled by the sporting regulations to run the medium-compound Goodyear tyres in this race, with fourth-on-the-grid Sutton the highest-placed starter on soft rubber.
Sutton immediately got past Shedden at the start and looked as though he could round Morgan for second at McIntyre’s, only for the Lancastrian to reassert himself at Butcher’s to maintain an early 1-2 for the Plato Racing Mercedes A35 Saloons.
That extended through an early safety car to retrieve the stranded Power Maxed Racing Audi A3 Saloon of Aiden Moffat from the grass on the approach to McIntyre’s, after contact had sent the Scot off the road.
As soon as the safety car emerged, Tom Ingram dived for the pits. His Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai had run into the back of Gordon Shedden at the chicane as the pack checked up, and a damaged radiator forced him out of the race.
Rowbottom, who had gone around the outside of polesitting team-mate Morgan at Duffus to grab the initial lead, impressively held on at the front on his medium tyres for the best part of six laps once the race resumed.
Sutton had lanced down the inside of Morgan at McIntyre’s on the second lap after the restart, and his perfectly executed manoeuvre on Rowbottom for the lead came at the hairpin. From then on, victory was never in doubt, although Sutton did have to go through another restart.
The cause of this late second safety car was Chris Smiley, who had clattered Dan Cammish during the course of a passing move at the hairpin, and paid the penalty when the left-front suspension collapsed on the approach to Duffus. The Restart Racing Hyundai finally came to rest on the grass before McIntyre’s.
Rowbottom had his eyes more on defence than attack, and Sutton was free on the one-lap dash to the flag to win by 1.277 seconds.
“We’re delivering when we need to,” said Sutton, whose points lead over Ingram has ballooned to 83.
Ashley Sutton, NAPA Racing UK
Photo by: JEP
“Poor old Tom getting his DNF there. I want good racing on the track, but we’ve got to take it how it comes.
“Today’s been fantastic, turning it around from P11 at the start of the day.”
Rowbottom did a great job with his medium tyre offset to take second. Ricky Collard had been the first to pierce the defences of the steadfast Shedden and took a long time to get past Morgan, but the Excelr8 Hyundai wasn’t making much of an impression on Rowbottom before the final safety car.
Rowbottom then sat on the inside line at McIntyre’s on the one-lap restart to deter any passing attempt, while Collard completed the podium.
Mikey Doble brought his PMR Audi nicely up the field to fourth, while the late safety car almost certainly saved Morgan from an attack from Charles Rainford, who produced a spectacular drive from 21st on the grid to bring his West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sport home in sixth.
Shedden took seventh in his Speedworks Motorsport-run Laser Tools Toyota Corolla GR Sport, winning an all-Scottish battle with PMR Audi man Dexter Patterson. Next were the Alliance Fords of Cammish, Sam Osborne and Lewis Selby.
Tom Chilton, who finished 12th in his Excelr8 Hyundai, was drawn on reversed-grid pole by Sutton. And little wonder that he promised the race two victor a beer: Chilton used his medium tyres in this one, so can go on softs in the finale…
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– The Autosport.com Team
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