Ash Sutton: “I don’t want to be Mr Consistent”

Ash Sutton insists that he doesn’t want to become “Mr Consistent” in the race for the 2019 BTCC title, despite maintaining his solid championship position at Croft.

The Team BMR driver maintained his record of scoring points in every race bar one so far this season to leave the North Yorkshire circuit sitting third in the standings, 13 points down on championship leader Colin Turkington.

Whilst a total of 130 points is more than the former champion has ever had with four rounds of the campaign done, this season marks the first time in his career that Sutton has come away from the Croft meeting without at least a podium finish to his name.

In fact, heading into the weekend, Sutton had only failed to finish on the podium twice in nine starts, with a tally of four wins being more than he has taken at any other venue.

This time around, fourth place in race three was the that the 2017 champion was able to pick up and he admitted there was disappointment at not taking more from the weekend.

“I’m a bit disappointed because Croft has always been our strong point,” he reflected after a weekend that yielded a best finish of fourth. “The resurfacing work has hurt us and taken away some of the advantage that we had, and we still can’t compete in a straight line. It’s a big deficit and we can’t make it up in the corners.

“Previously it has been us against WSR here as the cars to beat, but this season the BMW has improved and the front-wheel drive cars have been closer to the pace. It’s been tough.”

Whilst Sutton remains at the sharp end of the standings, the 25-year-old insisted he didn’t want to build a challenge on simply picking up points and was determined to push hard to add to his win tally.

“I don’t want to be Mr Consistent, I want to fight for wins,” he said. “I’m still the same old Ash who wants to be winning races and getting results, but we are at the limit. I’m not saying that others aren’t giving their all, but we have nothing left to give and are ringing the neck of the car with everything.

“It’s frustrating as a driver when you are doing things that some other people can’t do, and it still isn’t enough. It is hard at the moment but I’m third in the standings because we’ve been consistent, and I know that the team will keep pushing.

“Their efforts are fantastic. They are one of the best teams on the grid ans are working hard to put me in the best place possible.”