Ash Sutton took victory in the second full race of the British Touring Car Championship opener at Donington Park, as an alternator failure sidelined Tom Ingram.
Four-time champion Sutton’s Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus Titanium started from the outside of the front row, and he and Charles Rainford’s West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sport both out-dragged polesitter Mikey Doble at the start.
Rainford was on the inside line to move ahead into Redgate, but Sutton got the cutback on exit via a mid-corner nudge to accelerate into the lead.
A safety car immediately neutralised the race in order to recover the Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback of Nic Hamilton, who was in the gravel at Redgate. Hamilton’s team-mate Ingram was already out. From his back-of-the-grid slot following his race-one exclusion, Ingram pitted at the end of the formation lap and he was out of the running.
Sutton set the fastest lap of the race straight from the restart and soon extended a comfortable margin over Rainford, who in turn had the leader’s team-mate Dan Cammish closing up, after the Ford had passed Doble’s Power Maxed Racing Audi A3 Saloon with a dive at the Old Hairpin.
There was little doubt over Sutton’s victory – he had the margin up to almost four seconds going into the closing stages, and backed off at the finish to take honours by 2.6s.
Following him home was Cammish, who zapped Rainford on the 16th lap of 21 after they’d run side-by-side down the Craner Curves. But Cammish had to keep his eyes on Gordon Shedden, who passed Rainford into Redgate with four laps remaining, and was the leading runner on the soft option tyres with his Speedworks Motorsport-run Laser Tools Toyota Corolla GR Sport.
Shedden eventually finished a close third, but could not prevent Cammish completing an Alliance Ford 1-2 behind Sutton.
“What a way to turn the day around,” said Sutton, who started race one from the back of the grid following his qualifying race exit. “I got beaten to Turn 1 – the good old rear-wheel-drive showed their face there – but from then on, it was try to get fastest lap, look after that tyre and manage the gap. It was a good race.”
Shedden’s pass on Rainford in turn allowed Aiden Moffat (PMR Audi) and Daryl De Leon (WSR BMW) to muscle their way through.
Both Moffat and De Leon were on soft tyres, and finished fourth and fifth respectively ahead of Rainford. Dexter Patterson was seventh in his PMR Audi ahead of Ricky Collard, who had softs fitted to his Excelr8 Hyundai and has been drawn on reversed-grid pole for race three.
Adam Morgan, sixth early on, was ninth in the only Plato Racing Mercedes A35 Saloon to finish, with team-mate Dan Rowbottom going out early on with engine problems. Josh Cook fought from the back of the grid to 10th in his Speedworks Toyota, while Doble faded to an eventual 14th.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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