Ash Sutton was ‘over the moon’ to claim victory in the second British Touring Car Championship race at Snetterton, after seeing off a challenge from Power Maxed Racing’s Josh Cook and Honda’s Dan Cammish.
Sutton started the race as the favourite after would-be pole-sitter Jack Goff was prevented from taking up his P1 grid slot after leaving the pitlane too late.
That gave the Subaru champion a clear run at the front when the lights went out, and the 24-year-old went on to notch up his third win of the season – and his third in five races.
“We’re over the moon with that,” said Sutton. “I didn’t think it was going to pan out like that – I thought it was going to be a lot harder at the beginning of the lap.
“Obviously, a rear-wheel drive car takes a while to get up to speed in the mixed conditions, and it just meant that I was going to be under a bit more threat from the front-wheel drive cars.
“To stretch a lead out like I did and to then have it all taken away with the safety car was a real shame, but at the end of the day we still got the result we were after.”
Sutton admits that achieving a similar result will be even harder in the ‘diamond double’ final race of the weekend, as he starts from 15th in the success-ballast free special race.
“It’s going to be double points in this next one and that will stretch [the championship] back out. We’ve got a tough race ahead of us. Being 15th on the grid it means we’ve got our work cut out to get anywhere near some good solid points.
“I’m just hoping we get a bit more rain because in the dry we’re not going to progress much, but in the wet weather I feel like we’ve got a better fighting chance.”