Adrian Flux Subaru Racing’s Ash Sutton says his sole focus is race wins as he has “nothing to lose” in the season finale of the 2019 British Touring Car Championship on the iconic Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit.
The 2017 champion qualified second in his Team BMR-run Subaru Levorg, three tenths adrift of standings leader Colin Turkington, and acting as the sandwich between Turkington and his title rival Andrew Jordan.
Sutton told TouringCars.Net he felt he was “a bit reserved” and could have bagged pole if he was more aggressive, but that second was a “positive” result from which he can challenge for wins.
“I feel like we had pole in the car, I was just a bit reserved in the beginning,” said Sutton.
“I had two big lock ups in the opening sector and unfortunately after that I just reigned it back and potentially if I didn’t there was more time there for sure.
“It’s positive, we’re second. I’ve got some race wins to try and get.”
Sutton continued to talk of the deterioration of grip levels on the circuit as the rain fell harder thereafter, and believes there is more time to come in his car setup for the wet.
“Personally I think unless you did your time in the first ten laps then it was kind of pointless,” he said.
“The track just got wetter and wetter and wetter after that. For me, I missed the opportunity at the beginning and Colin gained it.
“The car wasn’t 100%. We made a few tweaks from FP1 and it was the first time we’ve ran in full wet. We’ve got some tweaks to make and then full charge tomorrow.”
With title protagonists around him, Sutton admitted he “doesn’t care” about the championship permutations, and is instead solely focusing on victories tomorrow [13 October].
“I don’t care what’s going on around me, I’m here to race so if they want to race me then let’s go for it,” Sutton said.
“I’ve got nothing to lose, the only thing I’m going for is a race win.