Ash Sutton secures late victory in race two
Ash Sutton took top honours in the second BTCC race of the weekend at Knockhill after forcing Colin Turkington into a mistake on the final lap as the pair fought for the victory.
Turkington once again led the field away when the lights went out but there was drama behind as the Hyundai of Chris Smiley failed to get away from fifth on the grid, leading to cars being forced to scatter in avoidance.
Sam Smelt came close to collecting the Hyundai as he took to the grass and wiped out a trackside advertising hoarding but just as Smiley got the car moving, Nic Hamilton jinked left to avoid the Hyundai only to find a fast-starting Tom Oliphant alongside him.
The resultant contact turned Hamilton left into the tyre wall and resulted in the safety car being called out, with Adam Morgan and Dan Rowbottom also hitting trouble as Morgan spun at the Chicane and Rowbottom ran off track in avoidance before pitting to have his Honda checked over.
Turkington led the field round behind the safety car ahead of Josh Cook, who managed to clear team-mate Senna Proctor part way round lap one before the caution flags came out, with Ash Sutton also getting ahead of Proctor to run in third.
On the restart, Turkington retained his lead ahead of Cook, but it didn’t take long for Sutton to make his move as he went inside the Honda at the Hairpin to take second spot and then set off after Turkington ahead.
Sutton closed in on the BMW and tried to go around the outside at the Hairpin on lap 17 only to be run wide by Turkington on the exit, which left the defending champion needing to try and close in again behind.
Sutton had brought the gap down before the safety car was called after Aiden Moffat and Rory Butcher clashed at turn one whilst part of a multi-car battle for sixth spot, with Butcher spinning off into the tyres.
A brief safety car backed up the field again, with the top two clearing off on the restart as Jake Hill in third – who had earlier cleared Cook’s Honda – found himself stuck behind the lapped car of Rick Parfitt.
Turkington was forced to take a defensive line into the Hairpin more than once but on the final lap, the BMW made a small error at the Chicane and ran wide which allowed Sutton to nip through into the lead.
That gave Sutton a vital win from Turkington, with Hill rounding out the podium in third ahead of Cook.
Gordon Shedden took fifth spot having battled his way through from seventh at the end of the opening lap, with Tom Ingram completing the top six having taken advantage of the clash between Moffat and Butcher, and then nipped ahead of Senna Proctor late on.
Proctor would take seventh from Jason Plato, with Stephen Jelley and Carl Boardley rounding out the top ten.
Elsewhere, both Morgan and Rowbottom failed to score after their early incident but there were points for Jack Butel for the first time this season in 14th spot.
