Photo: PSP Images

Ash Sutton praises Focus after second straight pole

Ash Sutton was full of praise for his Ford Focus once again after scoring a second successive BTCC pole in qualifying at Thuxton.

The Motorbase racer had scored his first pole since 2021 last time out at Snetterton and emerged as the man to beat at the fastest circuit on the calendar as he put in his best lap of the day when it really mattered.

It was a fourth pole in a row for the Ford Focus – with Dan Rowbottom and Dan Cammish also starting from the front this season – and leaves Sutton out front ahead of Tom Ingram going into race day.

“The NAPA Racing Focus is on rails again, and you don’t often get that from a car,” he said.

“I’m in such a good place physically and mentally, and everything about our package is working. You still have to do the job, and it won’t be easy with Tom and Josh [Cook] behind us, but we’re in the best place.

“Over the winter I have focused on myself a lot and we now have a really well-engineered package. We’ve just got to maybe go back to where we were with the car when we first arrived, and as long as I can hang on, keep it all neat and tidy and get off the line, we should be in good shape.”