Confidence key to Ashley Sutton success

Ashley Sutton admits that confidence played a large part in him storming to a first win of the BTCC season at Oulton Park.

The reigning Jack Sears Trophy winner had been by far the most impressive Subaru driver on track this season, and headed to Cheshire seeking to maintain the strong form he displayed at Donington Park and Thruxton.

A stunning drive in race one saw Sutton battle his way through from sixth place to third, before a measured performance in race two saw him quickly move to the head of the field before controlling proceedings out front for his first win of the year.

Fourth place with maximum ballast in race three capped another strong points haul, with Sutton admitting his delight afterwards.

“I’m over the moon,” he said. “There have been a few things going on with boost and power, but I’ve not had much focus on that as it isn’t my problem to worry about – I just get told what we do or don’t have.

“As I have done all season, I tried to maximise what we have and I’ve worked hard with my engineer to get the car working. Even with weight on the car, we went forwards and I feel I dragged everything we could from it.

“In race two in particular, the car was on rails on the soft tyre and that meant I could push hard and win the race.”

The 23-year-old added that his success this season was largely down to one reason, with confidence in the package beneath him allowing him to push hard on track.

“Confidence in the car has been key,” he said. “We came to Oulton entering the unknown as we didn’t know what situation we would be in, but everyone has gone down their own route and on our side of the garage, it worked.

“Hopefully we can have another good weekend at Croft and maximise everything we have.”