Ash Sutton claims race one win as Colin Turkington spins out

Subaru’s Ash Sutton claimed victory in the opening British Touring Car Championship race at Snetterton after a strong move on Jack Goff, as early leader Colin Turkington spun out of contention whilst in front.

At the start of the race it was BMW’s Turkington who got off to the stronger start, getting the jump on fellow front-row man Goff to lead before the first turn.

Further back, Sutton slotted into third whilst BMW Pirtek Racing’s Andrew Jordan got off to a strong start to move from eighth on the grid to sixth.

Turkington led the race for the first few laps, but on the fifth tour the Northern Irishman appeared to make an uncharacteristic mistake whilst leading and spun out at the Bomb Hole after getting a rear wheel of his car onto the grass on the exit of the corner.

That allowed Goff back into the lead with Sutton, on the harder tyre, in hot pursuit, whilst Turkington dropped down to 11^th as a result of his mistake.

Sutton kept close to the leading Honda’s bumper, and heading onto the penultimate lap he was just half a second adrift. The Subaru driver then made a brave move into Hamilton and took the lead from Goff, going on to take his third win of the season to move into second overall in the driver’s championship standings.

Goff took the chequered flag in second with his best result of the season, whilst Honda’s Matt Neal took third, having stayed out of trouble during the eventful first race.

Fourth went to Jordan, despite race-long pressure from the Subaru of Jason Plato who took fifth, securing his fourth consecutive top ten finish.

Team HARD’s Jake Hill scored his best result of the season in sixth, ahead of the recovering Turkington in seventh, who still edged closer to the front of the drivers’ championship standings despite throwing away a potential win.

Speedworks Motorsport’s Tom Ingram was eighth, having lost out after fellow Toyota driver Rob Austin made an audacious move on lap six. Austin went for a late lunge at Agostini corner, making contact with Ingram and forcing the duo off the road whilst battle for fourth, with Austin later retiring from the race with front-left damage from the incident.

BMW’s Rob Collard and Power Maxed Racing’s Tom Chilton completed the top ten, with the former edging slightly closer to the front of the points as a result.

Championship leader Gordon Shedden salvaged a 13^th place finish to remain at the head of the standings, despite being passed on the last lap by fellow Honda racer Matt Simpson.

AmD Tuning’s Ollie Jackson had been running inside the points in 14^th but contact from the MG of Árón Taylor-Smith on lap eight dropped both drivers down the order and ultimately out of the points.

Subaru’s Josh Price was handed an early drive-through penalty for a jump start and then ultimately retired from the race with front-right damage on his car.

Ciceley Motorsport’s Adam Morgan suffered yet more bad luck after retiring from the race whilst running in sixth with a technical issue on his car, whilst Eurotech Racing’s Brett Smith retired from his début race with damage at the front of his car.

Race two takes place at 14:07 BST.

Race result

POS	NO	CL	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	116	M	Ashley SUTTON		Adrian Flux Subaru Racing	Subaru Levorg GT	12	23:38.526	1:56.537	3
2	31		Jack GOFF		Eurotech Racing	Honda Civic Type R	12	2.332	1:56.365	1
3	25	M	Matt NEAL		Halfords Yuasa Racing	Honda Civic Type R	12	6.707	1:56.939	4
4	77	M	Andrew JORDAN		BMW Pirtek Racing	BMW 125i M Sport	12	6.916	1:57.082	8
5	99	M	Jason PLATO		Adrian Flux Subaru Racing	Subaru Levorg GT	12	7.743	1:57.152	9
6	24		Jake HILL		TAG Racing	Volkswagen CC	12	12.145	1:57.374	11
7	4	M	Colin TURKINGTON		Team BMW	BMW 125i M Sport	12	12.378	1:56.269	2
8	80		Tom INGRAM		Speedworks Motorsport	Toyota Avensis	12	19.459	1:57.110	5
9	5	M	Rob COLLARD		Team BMW	BMW 125i M Sport	12	22.446	1:58.749	10
10	2	M	Tom CHILTON		Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	12	22.792	1:58.083	16
11	3		Mat JACKSON		Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo	Ford Focus	12	27.396	1:58.081	13
12	303	M	Matt SIMPSON		Simpson Racing	Honda Civic Type R	12	29.331	1:58.132	24
13	52	M	Gordon SHEDDEN		Halfords Yuasa Racing	Honda Civic Type R	12	30.158	1:57.725	21
14	22		Chris SMILEY		BTC Norlin Racing	Chevrolet Cruze	12	30.784	1:58.042	22
15	20	M	James COLE		Adrian Flux Subaru Racing	Subaru Levorg GT	12	31.217	1:58.298	26
16	61		Will BURNS		Autoaid / RCIB Insurance Racing	Volkswagen CC	12	31.625	1:58.275	28
17	18	M	Senna PROCTOR		Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	12	31.954	1:58.319	27
18	48		Ollie JACKSON		AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts	Audi S3	12	32.385	1:58.065	17
19	16		Aiden MOFFAT		Laser Tools Racing	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	12	32.782	1:58.348	14
20	10		Ant WHORTON-EALES		AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts	Audi S3	12	38.302	1:58.336	15
21	7		Stephen JELLEY		Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport	Ford Focus	12	41.897	1:59.178	29
22	30		Martin DEPPER		Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo	Ford Focus	12	42.350	1:58.782	30
23	95		Stewart LINES		Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport	Ford Focus	12	1:17.532	2:02.184	31
24	17		Dave NEWSHAM		BTC Norlin Racing	Chevrolet Cruze	11	1 Lap	1:57.761	19
R	40	M	Árón TAYLOR-SMITH		MG Racing RCIB Insurance	MG6GT	9	DNF	1:58.194	25
R	28	M	Josh PRICE		A-Plan Academy	Subaru Levorg GT	8	DNF	1:56.992	18
R	11		Rob AUSTIN		Handy Motorsport	Toyota Avensis	5	DNF	1:56.726	7
R	33		Adam MORGAN		Ciceley Motorsport	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	5	DNF	1:56.827	6
R	12		Mike EPPS		Autoaid / RCIB Insurance Racing	Volkswagen CC	5	DNF	1:57.795	12
R	66		Josh COOK		MG Racing RCIB Insurance	MG6GT	5	DNF	1:57.726	20
R	39		Brett SMITH		Eurotech Racing	Honda Civic Type R	0	DNF	0:00.000	23