Ash Sutton fends off Colin Turkington for race one honours

Ash Sutton saw off race long pressure from Colin Turkington to secure victory in the opening BTCC race of the weekend.

The Subaru driver had qualified on pole position in Saturday’s truncated qualifying session and led from start to finish to add to the success he enjoyed at Oulton Park.

It was far from straightforward for Sutton however, who had to contend with pressure form Turkington’s BMW throughout, providing no opportunity for the youngster to relax as the two-time champion put him under increasing levels of pressure behind.

Although Turkington would briefly get his nose alongside on the exit of Tower in the closing stages, Sutton held on to take the win by six-tenths of a second, with Mat Jackson following behind in a lonely third place some eight seconds down the road.

That was the best result to date this season for Motorbase, and a boost for the Ford squad following Luke Davenport’s accident on Saturday afternoon.

Rob Collard secured fourth spot in his BMW having managed to battle ahead of Gordon Shedden’s Honda on the final lap at the Complex, with the points leader setting for fifth spot. Andrew Jordan rounded out the top six in his BMW, which had been rebuilt overnight by WSR after he was involved in the qualifying incident.

Josh Cook, Tom Ingram, Tom Chilton and Jason Plato rounded out the top ten; the latter having dropped to the back of the field on the opening lap when he ran wide at Sunny before recovering back through the field.

Plato would secure the place on a drag race to the line with Ollie Jackson’s Audi out of the final corner.

Fellow Subaru drivers Josh Price and James Cole had run inside the top ten in the early stages of the race but would be forced to retire when Price suffered a spin at the Hairpin and was then collected by Cole, whilst Matt Neal would also fail to finish after a puncture forced him to pit after lap two.