Ash Sutton clings on to claim first win of the season in race two

NAPA Racing’s Ash Sutton finally scored his first win of the British Touring Car Championship season in race two at Knockhill, as he continued his intense battling with MB Motorsport’s Jake Hill.

In contrast to the day’s opening race, race one winner Hill held the advantage through the opening laps, including managing a safety car restart after the race had to be neutralised for two laps after Team HARD’s Will Powell and BTC Racing’s Jason Plato came together at the chicane, ending Powell’s race with broken left-rear suspension.

Hill looked to be extending a gap of almost a second when he made a mistake at the chicane on lap five, running wide through the gravel and allowing Sutton to sneak by into the lead.

Hill kept with Sutton though, and by lap 18 he was closing in for another attack, only to again run wiode and allow fellow WSR driver Colin Turkington into second.

However, the Team BMW man then made his own error at the first corner two laps later, allowing Hill to move back into second.

Hill closed in on Sutton for the lead, and on the final lap he tried to pass on the run to the finish line, only for Sutton to aggressively defend the outside line and force Hill into the pit entry, with Sutton eventually claiming his first win of 2022 by just 0.141 seconds in the closest finish for the past five years.

Hill was second, whilst Turkington again completed the podium, meaning he moves up to second in the drivers’ standings, just four points shy of Tom Ingram.

Excelr8 Motorsport’s Ingram took fourth, the Hyundai driver gaining two places at the start to move into that position, where he remained thereafter as he gradually fell to over two seconds from the podium places.

Team Dynamics’ Gordon Shedden was fifth, a good start moving him up to sixth initially before the Honda driver passed Team BMW’s Stephen Jelley for the place on lap 20.

Toyota’s Rory Butcher and Ciceley Motorsport’s George Gamble followed through on the next lap to claim sixth and seventh respectively, leaving Jelley to take the chequered flag in eighth.

After the race, BTCC legend John Cleland randomly drew the top seven to be reversed for the race three grid, putting Gamble on pole position.

The top ten was completed by NAPA Racing’s Dan Cammish, who ran seventh at the mid-stage before then losing out to both Butcher and Gamble in quick succession, and Excelr8’s Tom Chilton.

Ricky Collard, who had brought his Toyota home in the top ten in race one, was this time 11^th, ahead of Laser Tools Racing’s Aiden Moffat, who moved up one place at the start past Bobby Thompson.

Ciceley’s Adam Morgan had looked set to take 11^th, but the BMW driver ultimately finished in 18^th after he lost seven places on the penultimate lap of the race.

Erstwhile championship leader Josh Cook once again struggled for pace, finishing in just 13^th ahead of the second Infiniti of Dexter Patterson.

Thompson failed to finish due to a front-left puncture, whilst Power Maxed Racing’s Ash Hand was also a retirement following contact with Rick Parfitt Jr’s Infiniti.

BTC Racing’s Plato was the last classified finisher, the two-time champion having been pushed into the tyre stack at the chicane by Powell on the opening lap, forcing him to make a pitstop.

Race three is scheduled to get underway at 17:10 BST.

Race result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	1	M		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	26	23:53.655	51.640	2
2	24	M		Jake HILL	ROKiT MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	26	0.141	51.593	1
3	50	M		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	26	0.758	51.370	3
4	80	M		Tom INGRAM	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	26	3.969	51.770	6
5	52	M		Gordon SHEDDEN	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type R	26	10.196	51.818	7
6	6	M		Rory BUTCHER	Toyota GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	26	11.269	51.881	8
7	42	I		George GAMBLE	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	26	11.567	51.786	5
8	12	M		Stephen JELLEY	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	26	12.425	51.850	4
9	9	M		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	26	14.629	51.725	9
10	3	M		Tom CHILTON	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	26	15.318	52.090	11
11	21	M		Ricky COLLARD	Toyota GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	26	18.137	51.976	10
12	16	I		Aiden MOFFAT	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	26	19.450	51.917	13
13	66	I		Josh COOK	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	26	22.533	51.928	15
14	17	I		Dexter PATTERSON	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	26	22.896	51.971	20
15	32	M		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type R	26	23.750	51.665	28
16	40	I		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing	CUPRA Leon	26	25.655	52.097	16
17	77	M		Sam OSBORNE	Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan	Ford Focus ST	26	29.407	52.259	17
18	33	I		Adam MORGAN	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	26	30.007	51.833	14
19	777	I		Michael CREES	CarStore Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	26	30.682	52.410	26
20	99	I		Jade EDWARDS	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	26	36.071	52.297	22
21	48	M		Ollie JACKSON	Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan	Ford Focus ST	26	37.311	52.546	23
22	123	M		Daniel LLOYD	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	26	37.647	52.331	19
23	96	M		Jack BUTEL	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	26	39.048	52.605	29
24	28	I		Nicolas HAMILTON	Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing	CUPRA Leon	26	43.603	52.767	24
25	62	I		Rick PARFITT JR	Uptonsteel with Euro Car Parts Racing	Infiniti Q50	25	+ 1 LAP	52.434	18
26	11	I		Jason PLATO	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	24	+ 2 LAPS	51.964	27
R	97	I		Ash HAND	CarStore Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	21	DNF	52.422	25
R	19	I		Bobby THOMPSON	Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero	CUPRA Leon	12	DNF	51.971	12
R	20	I		Will POWELL	Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero	CUPRA Leon	1	DNF	N/A	21