Photo: PSP Images

Double winner Ash Sutton full of positives despite final race exit

By

It was a day of contrasting emotions for Ash Sutton at Snetterton on Sunday, with two commanding wins and a brief championship lead followed by heavy damage and retirement in the final race.

Team BMR’s Sutton extended his recent hot streak in Norfolk by winning race one from third on the grid, passing pole sitter Jack Goff in the closing stages.

And he followed it up with a lights-to-flag victory with the maximum 75kg success ballast in the second race, becoming the first Subaru driver to lead the British Touring Car Championship in its history.

While the day ended in disappointment with an opening lap retirement in the final race, the BRDC Rising Star was keen to focus on the positives.

“At the end of the day it’s still a positive weekend and we come away closing the margin to the leaders. To come in 20 points behind and leave 11 points behind,” said Sutton to TouringCarTimes.

“OK, we were leading it at one stage, but that’s touring cars. You’re going to have your ups and downs and unfortunately we didn’t carry it all the way through.

“From Oulton Park we’ve had a good little run and it was nice to come here and continue that. It’s just a shame it ended on a downer.”

Sutton’s final race ended following contact from Handy Motorsport’s Rob Austin, who himself had taken a hit from behind in the opening lap melee.

He said: “I didn’t even know which car had hit me. It’s caused a huge amount of damage – it’s structural, the whole side of the car is caved in. It was a very big hit.”

Sutton, whose car will now head to Willie Poole Motorsport for repairs, later absolved Austin of any blame on Twitter: