Ash Sutton produced one of his trademark drives to take victory from P10 in the British Touring Car Championship‘s Round 8 at Snetterton.
Starting from P10 after already recovering from last on the grid for Race 1, Sutton had already made his way into P7 by the end of the first tour.
He took little time to dispatch Daniel Rowbottom’s Plato Racing Mercedes and progress further, all while setting the fastest lap of the race by the fourth.
Then, as the WSR BMW cars of Daryl De Leon and Charles Rainford fell down the pack, Sutton found himself in P2 and hunting down title-rival Tom Ingram.
The pressure proved too much for the Team VERTU Hyundai, and Sutton’s Ford breezed past as Ingram locked up.
From there, the victory was academic – even with a post-race five-second penalty.
“I wanted a podium at least, but to come away with a win was awesome,” Sutton told BTCC media.
“Just over the moon to sort of reward Napa Racing UK, they gave me a mega car there.”
Ashley Sutton the big victor from Snetterton’s running so far
Sutton’s victory will be all the sweeter after Ingram’s error and eventual non-finish.
With his storming season so far, the result furthers his title credentials as he seeks a record-breaking championship.
Speaking on his title rival, Sutton expressed his surprise at Ingram’s uncharacteristic error.
“I’m not sure what happened there, whether I was in his mirrors, caught him off guard, or he just misjudged his braking point.
“Either way, I mean, we were in a much stronger position with the amount of deployment we had, the soft tyre, we were quite a bit quicker than him up to that point.
“So I mean, it was just a case of time, I think, but he just made my life a bit easier.”
Speaking directly on his title hopes, he added: “I think we’ve somehow just undone some of the work that Tom’s been doing over the past two days, so yeah, really, really pleased to obviously get them points back.”
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