Ash Sutton leads Subaru 1-2 in restarted second race at Knockhill

Team BMR Subaru driver Ash Sutton won the second race of the day at Knockhill, and closed in on the championship lead in a race which was red flagged after a first corner incident involving a number of cars.

The top five rear-wheel drive cars got away well, while the sixth-placed Toyota of Tom Ingram was swiping defensively across the track to keep behind the Honda of Matt Neal, which allowed the Power Maxed Vauxhall of Senna Proctor to have a run around the outside.

As Neal backed off into Duffus Dip, he was clipped in the rear by the BMW of Andrew Jordan, which spun him into Proctor’s Astra, which was turned around in collected head-on by Team Parker Racing’s Stephen Jelley in the Ford Focus.

Proctor also collected Jordan’s BMW as he spun, sending him into the gravel trap, with a number of cars also passing through the gravel in avoidance.

The race was red flagged, with a full restart ordered, though a number of cars were unable to make the restart due to damage.

The second start was much cleaner than the first, with Neal quickly giving way to team-mate Gordon Shedden, who was now on the soft tyre, while the top five mix of Subarus and BMWs quietly began to pull away.

Shedden overtook Ingram’s Toyota on lap three, but that’s where his progress ended, unable to catch the leading five cars, while Dave Newsham put on a great move at the hairpin to pass both Matt Neal’s Honda and Tom Ingram’s Toyota.

Neal would later become embroiled in a battle with Josh Price’s Subaru, who was charging through the order, with Price overtaking Neal at MacIntyres on lap nine.

Neal retook the position three laps later, but his race soon came to an end as their battle continued, with Price and Neal making side-by-side contact down the straight on lap 15, with Neal propelled into the gravel trap.

Plato had lost the lead to Sutton on lap 11, with his team-mate having made his move at Duffus Dip, but still had to defend hard against his team-mate until the finish.

West Surrey Racing BMW driver Colin Turkington finished third, and kept his championship lead, but it’s now down to just two points over Sutton, with Rob Collard dropping five points behind in third of the standings.

The top ten will be reversed for Race 3, which puts Motorbase Performance’s Rory Butcher on pole position on his BTCC debut, ahead of the Speedworks Toyota of Tom Ingram and the Chevrolet of Dave Newsham.