Ash Sutton says he is ‘at a loss for words’ after another record-breaking weekend in the British Touring Car Championship at Thruxton, where he again claimed a brace of race victories.
After qualifying his Ford Focus on pole on Saturday with a lap which was two tenths of a second clear of closest title rival Tom Ingram, despite having just one second of hybrid allocation, Sutton breezed the opening two races on Sunday to extend his points advantage over the reigning champion.
That means Sutton is now the first driver in BTCC history to claim two wins in a weekend in three consecutive events, since the format of multiple races per event was introduced in 1991.
With the maximum of 12 cars reversed for the final race of the day, Sutton faced an uphill task to claim a third win, and in the end crossed the finish line in 12th, having briefly held 11th on the opening lap ahead of Josh Cook, before the Honda man got back by a lap later.
Sutton has now already equalled his win tally from his best-ever BTCC season, with less than half the year completed, and heads Ingram by 14 points.
“I’m at a loss for words,” said Sutton. “It’s very rare that you’re in a position like this where you’re absolutely at one with the car so we’re maximising this opportunity.
“I can’t thank the boys and girls at NAPA Racing UK enough because they’ve done a phenomenal job once again.
“The car was on absolute rails in qualifying and it felt great in race trim too. We focused on breaking away early from Tom and Josh in the first two races and once we had a comfortable gap over them we just managed things to the finish.
“I’ll admit that I was a bit emotional after race two because we’re making history. I’ve always said that I want my name to go down in the record books and that’s exactly what we’re doing. To win six of the last eight races is special and something I’m very proud of.
“In race three I did realise just how nice I had had things out front because sitting in the ‘aero wash’ at the back of the train meant I just couldn’t make any progress. Still, it was good to pick up a few more points.
“We’re off to Oulton Park next, and I think we’ll be strong. Qualifying is going to be really important so we go there with a clean slate and we’ll try to put ourselves in a good position before heading into the summer break.”