Sutton takes win in second race to regain points lead

Four-time British Touring Car Championship title winner Ash Sutton made no mistake to win the second race of the day at Oulton Park and retake the points lead.

Sutton conceded third place on the final lap of the opener in order to not have to use the hard-compound Goodyear tyre for the sequel, so it was only a matter of time before he picked off the hard-shod trio in front of him on his soft rubber.

First-race winner and interim points leader Tom Ingram held on for a lap and a half, before Sutton’s Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus ST dived down the inside of the Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback at the hairpin.

Ingram ran wide on the hairpin exit, allowing his Excelr8 Hyundai team-mate Adam Morgan a run on him down to the Hislop’s chicane, where the Lancastrian moved up to second place.

Morgan appeared to be willing to fight Sutton for the lead, before the race went under the safety car.

Dan Lloyd, running ninth in his Restart Racing Hyundai, seemed to be getting a run on Josh Cook out of Knickerbrook when he clipped the inside kerb of Clay Hill. This fired him across the track and into a heavy sideways impact with the barrier on the outside.

Morgan kept Sutton on his toes until the leading Ford had its first lap of TOCA Turbo Boost usage to extend the margin beyond a second.

Morgan used TTB on the following tour to bring himself back onto Sutton’s bumper, but finally trailed the victor across the line by 1.715 seconds.

As rain began to fall after the race, Sutton said: “I was hoping that rain was going to come in a bit sooner and have its effect, and make life a bit more difficult for the guys on the hard tyres.

“There were lots of offs, lots of debris, and it was a case of managing the gap and making sure I didn’t do anything silly.”

Tom Chilton was another to get past Excelr8 team-mate Ingram before the safety car, via a move at Cascades, and the veteran Surrey racer completed the podium, gaining the bonus point for fastest lap to boot.

At an ever-increasing distance behind the leading trio remained the remarkable Ingram.

Somehow, the 2022 champion, running hard rubber on his Hyundai and with only one lap of TTB to the seven of the soft-shod West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sport of Jake Hill, managed to hold on for fourth position.

Looming up behind them late on in sixth place was the Alliance Ford of Dan Rowbottom, who took the pain of using hard tyres in race one and climbed the order from 14th on the grid, despite a grassy excursion at the chicane on the opening lap.

Seventh spot went to the One Motorsport Honda Civic Type R of Josh Cook, while the four-car battle for eighth went to Senna Proctor’s Excelr8 Hyundai. Gordon Shedden in his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport snatched ninth on the final lap from the hard-tyred Alliance Ford of Dan Cammish, and that proved a double bonus for the Scottish three-time champion when he was drawn on reversed-grid pole.

Shedden had earlier emerged unscathed from an incident at Old Hall when his move down the inside of Charles Rainford’s WSR BMW sent the rookie slamming into the tyre barriers, although somehow Rainford recovered to finish the race.

BTCC Oulton Park – Race 2 results