Ash Sutton: “Title is a big ask but we’ll keep fighting”

Ash Sutton has vowed he will ‘keep throwing everything he has’ to clinch this year’s British Touring Car Championship title.

The Alliance Racing driver endured a frustrating weekend at Donington Park which resulted in him falling a further 15 points behind rival Tom Ingram; all of which means he heads to Silverstone with a deficit of 32 points to make up.

Sutton had qualified by Ingram on Saturday after a miscommunication surrounding what tyre to be on cost him the chance to progress into the Quick Six shootout for pole position.

Charging up the order to finish fourth in race one, the four-time champion was in the box seat for race two on the medium tyre however contact from his team-mate Dan Rowbottom on the safety car restart dropped him down the order.

Sutton managed to finish in eighth with a damaged car and was given the small consolation of being drawn on pole position for race three – albeit on the less preferable hard compound tyre.

Going wheel-to-wheel with Ingram during the opening exchanges of the contest, Sutton could ultimately do little stop the 2022 title winner from taking victory and ultimately settled for second place.

“It’s certainly not been the weekend we hoped for,” said Sutton. “We did a good job to bounce back from qualifying and take fourth in race one then we had a real shot at the win in race two but got caught up in a racing incident.

“I knew I was going to be on borrowed time in race three, there’s only so much you can do when there is that level of tyre deficit. I gave it a good go and certainly didn’t make it easy for him; at the end of the day I had to try something.

“There are only six races left and the championship is a big ask now. It’s sort of like 2023 when it was me in front and Tom hunting; I imagine then he was needing a bit of luck to fall his way and I’m the same now.

“We need him to have a non-finish and I need a win to at least bring me closer, but that still isn’t enough. It’s going to be tough but I’m certainly not going to give up and I’ll be throwing everything I’ve got at it around Silverstone.”