Ashley Sutton was elated after taking the spoils in the first British Touring Car Championship race of the weekend at Silverstone, but underlined the need for himself and MG RCIB Insurance Racing to maintain the momentum gained from the 1-2 finish.
Sutton initially lost out to Tom Ingram at the start, whilst team-mate Josh Cook similarly fell behind Andrew Jordan. Sutton struck back at a third distance to reclaim top spot, and then backed Ingram into the clutches of Cook, who dispensed with Andrew Jordan amid some contact at Luffield.
Though Cook would put Sutton’s advantage under pressure right until the chequered flag, the two held station to record MG’s first one-two finish since the finale at Brands Hatch in 2014, when Jason Plato won ahead of then-team mate Sam Tordoff.
The current Jack Sears Trophy leader admitted the victory had been hard work, but was delighted to take a second career victory in his maiden season in the series.
“We worked hard for this one,” admitted Sutton.
“To top race one I’m absolutely over the moon. Tom (Ingram) got a great start and broke out a bit of a gap. ‘I’ll settle for the minute,’ I thought.”
“Then I saw an opportunity, a car width gap beside Tom, big enough for my MG. There was a little bit of contact but nothing unfair.”
“Down to turn one we were side by side but I came out on top. We’ve got to continue the momentum.”
Sutton will start the second contest from pole position once more, though with a full quota of success ballast now aboard his MG6 GT it could be an entirely different story when race two begins at 14:32.