Ash Sutton heads Motorbase 1-2 on second day

Ash Sutton headed a 1-2 for the NAPA Racing side of the Motorbase garage on the second and final day of the BTCC’s annual Goodyear tyre test at Snetterton.

The defending champion set what would prove to be the fastest time of the day – and the entire test – mid-way through the morning session at the wheel of his Ford Focus, going three-tenths of a second quicker than Gordon Shedden had done to lead the way on Tuesday.

Sutton completed a mammoth 54 laps during the morning session, with his combined total across the two days being the most of any driver.

As has been the case throughout the year to date, the fastest times were also underneath the existing lap record.

“Pretty much our whole day was based around testing out the option tyre and a few other things,” Sutton said, having been selected to work with Goodyear. “I kind of took the limelight away from Dan [Cammish] who had raw pace on the right tyre if I’m honest. We were just running a completely different programme, as requested by Goodyear.

“We still made good progress with the car over the two days. We feel like we’ve had a lot of potential and that potential seemed to be showing in Dan’s pace too, but I’m pleased with the two-day tyre test and am looking forward to going to Knockhill and trying out some of the things we’ve learnt.”

Sutton would end the day just 0.015s clear of team-mate Cammish, with Jake Hill slotting into third in his WSR-run BMW – albeit nearly three-tenths of a second off the pace.

Hill’s best time was set in the morning session, although he would go on to lead the way in the slower afternoon running.

Tom Ingram’s solid form across the two days in his EXCELR8 Hyundai continued with the fourth best time, with Gordon Shedden and Ricky Collard rounding out the top six.

Michael Crees took seventh having only run during the morning, with Dan Rowbottom in eighth the best placed driver to have set their time in the afternoon. Jason Plato and Stephen Jelley then rounded out the top ten.

In total, 30 drivers took to the track across the two days, with the BTCC season now resuming at the end of the month at Knockhill.