Ash Sutton claims dominant race two win on hard tyre

Ash Sutton moved a step closer to clinching a record-breaking fifth British Touring Car Championship title after claiming a commanding race two win at Croft.

Despite having to run the hard tyre after finishing inside the top three in the day’s earlier contest, the Alliance Racing driver dominated proceedings as he charged to an eighth victory of the year.

Behind him, Dan Rowbottom and Ricky Collard emerged as the best of the soft tyre runners to finish second and third respectively – despite both being handed five-second penalties for exceeding track limits.

The race began with Sutton making a bold move around the outside of pole sitter Josh Cook at Tower Bend and from there, the Ford Focus Titanium driver didn’t look back.

Cook, who was also running the hard tyre, initially proved to be the cork in the bottle which allowed Sutton to pull away. On lap four though, reigning champion Tom Ingram finally managed to find a way past however he soon came under threat from Rowbottom and Collard.

Utilising their superior grip, Rowbottom and Collard quickly dispatched Ingram; and things then went from bad to worse for the Hyundai drive as slight contact from Cammish at Sunny In sent the EXCELR8 driver onto the grass, into the wall and ultimately out of the race.

Back at the front, Sutton cruised to a sublime victory while Rowbottom, Collard and Cammish completed the top four positions.

WSR’s Charles Rainford enjoyed a relatively trouble-free drive to clinch fifth ahead of three-time champion Gordon Shedden, who finished narrowly ahead of Daniel Lloyd and Tom Chilton.

Completing the top ten was the Power Maxed Racing duo of Aiden Moffat and Mikey Doble. Courtesy of the reverse grid draw, Doble and Moffat will lock out the front row of the grid for the revers grid finale.