Ash Sutton storms to opening race honours at Knockhill

Ash Sutton picked up his fifth victory of the BTCC with an impressive run through the field in a wet opening race of the weekend at Knockhill.

The Team BMR driver had qualified in eighth spot at the wheel of his Subaru Levorg but mastered the tricky conditions on track to work his way through the pack to secure a victory that further strengthens his championship credentials.

Dan Cammish had started the race from pole in his Honda Civic Type-R and made the ideal start to fend off three fast-starting BMWs behind going into turn one, with Stephen Jelley holding onto second from Andrew Jordan.

Behind, Colin Turkington kept fourth but was soon into the podium places as he got ahead of Jordan into the hairpin, setting up an interesting battle between the three BMW drivers in the opening laps.

That battle, which saw the trio swap positions multiple times at the hairpin, allowed Cammish to build a slender lead in the opening laps whilst behind, Sutton was working his way forwards having got up into the top six on the opening lap.

The defending champion managed to join the BMW fight by the eighth lap when fought ahead of Jordan and then found a way past Jelley into third spot. Into Butchers on lap eleven he managed to get up the inside of Turkington into second and within a lap had then hit the front when eased ahead of Cammish.

Despite a late safety car period, Sutton wouldn’t be headed from that point on.

“We need results like that,” he said. “It’s a shame Colin was P2 but it sets us up well for the remainder of the day. We have to look at every aspect in terms of the points and every little thing is critical. The car was fantastic.”

Behind, Jelley had looked well set to take second having got ahead of Turkington when he touched the kerb and lost momentum at Clarks, and then having edged past Cammish.

The Team Parker driver would see his race end in disappointment however when a tag from Turkington saw him spin off at Clarks to cause the late caution period that would back up the field.

Turkington went on to take the flag in second ahead of Cammish, although it remains to be seen whether officials will take any action against the championship leader for the incident.

“I hope we’re still friends,” Turkington said. “We were having a good battle and the last thing you want is contact. I got a good run coming out of the chicane and into Clarks, he hit the brakes in the road in front of me and there was a touch.

“There was certainly no malice from me and in those conditions, especially in a BMW, he couldn’t recover. I’m off to see him now.”

Off the podium, Jordan secured fourth spot despite being concerned about the pace of the BMW in the wet, with Josh Cook producing a strong drive in his Vauxhall Astra to take fifth having battled ahead of Tom Ingram’s Toyota in the closing stages.

Ingram took sixth spot from Tom Oliphant in a career-best seventh place, with Chris Smiley, Adam Morgan and Rory Butcher rounding out the top ten – the latter having come through from 23rd on the grid on home soil in his MG.

Aside from Jelley, Matt Neal failed to finish after contact from Matt Simpson at the hairpin broke his suspension whilst the luckless Bobby Thompson was pushed off the grid before the start.