Ash Sutton is a record-breaking five-time British Touring Car Championship title winner after a signature storm from 12th on the grid to victory at Silverstone.
Sutton and his Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus Titanium were equipped with the soft Goodyear tyres and the full quota of 14 laps of TOCA Turbo Boost for this race, and he was already up to fifth within the first two laps.
He then picked off Mikey Doble for fourth on lap three, Tom Chilton two tours later for third, and Aiden Moffat a further two laps on for second. Sutton then closed in on the West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sport of Daryl De Leon, who had passed poleman and early leader Moffat for the lead on the sixth lap.
De Leon, fourth in the opening race, had just two laps remaining from his allocation of TTB, while Sutton had nine available. It was no contest. On the ninth lap, Sutton dived down the inside at Copse Corner, and away he went to victory by 5.449 seconds.
“I’m lost for words,” said Sutton, whose dropping behind Chris Smiley in the first race gave him the opportunity to wrap up the title in style rather than with a midfield finish. “I’ve been trying to hold it back all day. I even had my little boy shouting down the radio, ‘Good luck Daddy.’
“What a way to have a career in the BTCC. It’s been phenomenal since I joined in 2016, and I can’t thank these guys from the team enough.
“The race wins have been exceptional, the podiums, the results. But I wanted to do it in the Ash style. It was well worth it!”
Photo by: JEP
Not only that, but the Alliance/NAPA Ford squad has completed a clean sweep of the main BTCC championships with the results at Silverstone, adding manufacturers’ and teams’ glory to Sutton’s drivers’ title.
The runner-up position in this race went not to De Leon, but to Adam Morgan, who showed great pace in his CPRL Mercedes A35 Saloon, passing the Anglo-Filipino’s BMW on the Wellington Straight just after half-distance.
De Leon then came under pressure from his own team-mate Charles Rainford, who got ahead with four laps remaining to spearhead a WSR BMW 3-4.
Dan Rowbottom was another CPRL Mercedes pilot on the move, the bearded Midlander working his way up to fifth ahead of the Alliance Ford of Dan Cammish, who prior to the race was the only driver who could deny Sutton the title.
The problem was, Cammish was starting 21st, but he made good progress up the order and retains second in the championship ahead of Tom Ingram, whose Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback was eighth behind the Speedworks Motorsport-run Laser Tools Toyota Corolla GR Sport of Aron Taylor-Smith.
Ingram, who was the highest-placed finisher to run medium tyres in this race, was drawn on the front row for the reversed-grid finale, but it will be Moffat starting from pole again. The Scot went backwards on his medium rubber and minimum four laps of TTB, but both he and Ingram can use the soft compound in the final race.
Next home were Gordon Shedden and Chris Smiley, but track-limits penalties for both promoted Josh Cook – who chose medium tyres for his Speedworks Toyota – to 10th.
BTCC Silverstone – Race 2 results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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