Ash Sutton wins epic photo-finish finale at Brands Hatch
Outgoing champion Ash Sutton won an epic season finale at Brands Hatch, defeating former team-mate Josh Cook in a photo-finish at the line on the final lap of the year.
Team BMR’s Sutton took the flag by just 0.032 seconds, after pitching his Subaru Levorg around the outside of Cook’s Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra at Clearways and outdragging him to the line.
It capped a titanic battle between the former Triple Eight pair, who are good friends off the circuit but gave absolutely no quarter on it.
Pole-man Cook lost the lead to HMS Racing’s Rob Austin at the start, before passing the Alfa Romeo Giulietta over the stripe at the start of lap five to establish a lead he looked like he wouldn’t lose.
But Sutton had other ideas, passing Motorbase Performance’s Tom Chilton at Sheene on lap six and Austin’s Alfa for second on the next tour, quickly catching up to the rear of Cook’s Astra.
The pair then diced in some style on lap 10, with Sutton diving down the inside of Cook into Graham Hill Bend, only to be re-passed on the exit of the corner. The pair ran side-by-side through Surtees towards Hawthorn with Sutton again edging in front, only for Cook to sneak back up the inside into Westfield.
He then held Sutton off until the very last corner and with a train of cars building up behind them, the first 10 cars crossed the line covered by a scarcely-believable 3.689 seconds.
Austin managed to hold off Chilton to take the final spot on the podium, with vice-champion Tom Ingram fifth for Speedworks Motorsport, his eventual deficit to champion Colin Turkington just 12 points. Chilton held on to third in the standings despite Sutton’s late charge.
Sam Tordoff, Senna Proctor, Chris Smiley, Andrew Jordan and Dan Lloyd rounded out the top 10, while the new champion was a low-key 23rd in his West Surrey Racing BMW 125i.
