Ash Sutton put in a masterclass of driving and opportunism to take an unexpected victory in the qualifying race for the British Touring Car Championship round at Brands Hatch.
The four-time champion entered the weekend as points leader, meaning his Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus Titanium saloon had access to just one second per lap of TOCA Turbo Boost through qualifying and the subsequent 18 laps of racing, to the maximum 20s of some of his opposition.
Nevertheless, Sutton put his Focus fifth on the grid, then jumped fourth-starting Ricky Collard at the start.
From third on the grid, Daryl De Leon used the rear-wheel drive of his West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sport to spear between poleman Tom Ingram and front-row starter Dan Cammish. With Cammish on the outside into Paddock Hill Bend, he was hung out to dry and team-mate Sutton was able to slip by into third.
Tom Ingram, Team VERTU
Photo by: JEP
Sutton then got inside De Leon at Druids, but the BMW hung on and the Anglo-Filipino felt he had spied a gap inside Ingram’s Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback into Graham Hill Bend.
De Leon slithered down the inside onto a contact course with Ingram, who was shoved onto the grass, and Sutton had the momentum along Cooper Straight to move into the lead.
Ingram was down to fifth behind Excelr8 Hyundai team-mate Collard, and for the rest of the race the leading quintet circulated in close formation with no changes in position.
The leading pair pulled out a small margin over their pursuers as the race wore on, which was just as well for De Leon, whose last-ditch bid to attack Sutton almost ended in disaster when he slipped wide at Clearways on the final lap, skimming the edge of the gravel trap and rejoining just in time to fend off Cammish to the chequered flag.
Sutton’s leading margin therefore ballooned to 1.632s at the end of an exquisite drive.
“That was mega,” he said. “I felt a bit like Jesus where the path opened for me. Daryl and Tom got sucked into each other, which made it a little bit easier for me.
Ashley Sutton, NAPA Racing UK
Photo by: JEP
“That was 18 qualifying laps – I knew we were strong in sector one so we had to maximise that every single lap. The car is mega and we’re in an amazing place with it at the moment – we’re singing in harmony.”
Behind the top five, Adam Morgan got past Charles Rainford, who ended up being delayed in contact with Tom Chilton at Graham Hill Bend on the second lap. From then on, Morgan’s Plato Racing Mercedes A35 Saloon kept Mikey Doble (Power Maxed Racing Audi A3 Saloon) at arm’s length for sixth, with the second PMR Audi of Dexter Patterson shadowing them.
Some fruity battling for ninth between the Speedworks-run Laser Tools Toyota Corolla GR Sports of Aron Taylor-Smith and Gordon Shedden allowed stablemate Josh Cook into their midst. Cook got past both, only for a puncture on the penultimate lap to drop him out of the race. Taylor-Smith moved back up to ninth and just clung on to it from Shedden.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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