Ashley Sutton takes maiden win in a wet Race 3 at Croft

Ashley Sutton has taken his first win in the British Touring Car Championship in the rain at Croft, also taking Triple Eight and MG’s first victory since Snetterton 2015, while second for Sam Tordoff gives the West Surrey Racing BMW driver a comfortable points lead heading into the summer break.

The rain began to fall in the lead up to the third and final race of the day, forcing the majority of the field to put wet tyres on for the race start, with just a few opting for slicks, the best-placed of which was Motorbase Performance’s Mat Jackson from third on the grid.

At the start, Sam Tordoff led Ingram’s Toyota Avensis into the first corner, while Jackson’s call soon showed itself to be the wrong one, as the Ford driver was quickly passed by the BMW of Jack Goff, and he began to fall further down the order.

The safety car was out before the end of the first lap as Warren Scott’s Subaru had gone off at Clervaux.

The race resumed on lap three, with Race 1 winner Colin Turkington in the Team BMR Subaru quickly passing Goff’s BMW for third, with Ashley Sutton following him through to fourth.

The safety car was out again a lap later as Jackson’s slick tyre woes continued, sliding out in front of Aiden Moffat’s Mercedes, with the Mercedes driver stopping on circuit with front end damage to his A-Class.

One lap after the restart, Sutton snatched third from Turkington after a lunge down the inside at the Hairpin, with Rob Collard chasing him through into fourth.

Sutton then overtook Tom Ingram’s Toyota, but Tordoff had already had the opportunity to build a slight lead while the action raged on behind him.

However, Tordoff’s lead was lost when the safety car was called for a third time on lap 13 after Jeff Smith’s Eurotech Honda slid wide and then collected Hunter Abbott’s Power Maxed Chevrolet as it rejoined, with Abbott unable to continue.

With a two lap sprint to the finish, Sutton closed down and passed Tordoff’s BMW for the lead at Sunny In, and went on to take his first career victory in the BTCC, with Tordoff and Ingram completing the top three.

Collard finished fourth, with Andrew Jordan gaining places on the final lap in the Motorbase Ford to finish fifth ahead of Josh Cook’s Triple Eight MG, with Turkington seventh.

Aron Smith finished eighth in the Team BKR Volkswagen CC, with WSR’s Jack Goff and Team BMR’s Jason Plato completing the top ten.

Tordoff’s second place elevates him to 12 points clear of his closest championship rival, which is now his own team-mate Rob Collard after a nightmare weekend for Honda, with Matt Neal finishing the third race 11th and Gordon Shedden outside of the points after also making the incorrect call to start on slicks.

The BTCC now heads into its mid-season break, with the next round of the championship at Snetterton on July 31st.