Ash Sutton wins as Dan Cammish takes points lead
Ash Sutton secured his first win of the BTCC season in a dramatic second race at Brands Hatch as Dan Cammish moved into the championship lead with just one race still to go.
The key moment of the race, and one of the most important of the championship battle, came on the opening lap, with points leader Colin Turkington having vaulted up into second place behind Cammish off the line.
Going down to Graham Hill Bend, Turkington then came under attack from the second Honda of Matt Neal, with contact between the pair seeing Turkington spin to the back of the grid.
Electing to then pit as the safety car cleared up an incident involving Jack Goff and Tom Oliphant to switch to slicks in the hopes that circuit conditions would dry, Turkington found himself consigned to a no score that leaves him playing catch up in the standings.
When the safety car came in, Cammish held the lead from Neal and Sutton, but Sutton wasted little time in getting ahead of the two Hondas into the lead of the race, with the focus then switching to Andrew Jordan’s BMW further back.
Knowing he had to make up places to keep his own title hopes alive, Jordan battled ahead of Tom Chilton’s Ford Focus into fourth and then took third from Neal before a second safety car period was called to recover Mark Blundell’s Audi from the Druids gravel.
On the restart, a charging Jordan made his move on Cammish and having got alongside through the final corner, he swept through into second for a result that sees him retain a chance of the title.
Cammish will now lead the standings by eight points ahead of Turkington into the season finale, with Jordan 13 points off.
Neal would cross the line in fourth spot despite late pressure from Jason Plato, with the Vauxhall driver going off at Hawthorns whilst trying to secure the place – dropping him back behind Motorbase pair Tom Chilton and Ollie Jackson.
Michael Caine took eighth ahead of Rory Butcher, who wrapped up the Jack Sears Trophy and closed to within a point of Josh Cook in the race for the Independents title.
Stephen Jelley rounded out the top ten ahead of Senna Proctor, who will start the season finale from pole position at 17:00.
