Ash Sutton: ‘I’ve never felt this confident in a touring car’ after Brands double

Ash Sutton came alive in the British Touring Car Championship races on the Brands Hatch Indy circuit to come away having ‘never felt this confident in a touring car’.

The NAPA Racing UK driver left the second event of the year having two wins and a second place from the three races.

Despite the Sunday going near perfect for Sutton, the weekend as a whole had not gone exactly how he had hoped.

“Qualifying didn’t quite go to plan, but then we pulled it back with that second in race one on mediums against everyone else and won race two when we’re up against the BMW, which are known to be fast here,” said Sutton to TouringCars.Net. “And then [from] 11th on the softs [in race three] as well.

“That’s just something special. It’s mega. The boys and girls in that race needed that.”

It was apparent early on in race three that making six places on the opening lap was not the original plan for the race.

“The plan was to obviously try and lock in that fastest lap. That’s why the use of hybrid was there at the beginning, also so we could pass people as well. I can’t remember if it was [Rory] Butcher or [George] Gamble, I think it was Butcher. I used hybrid to get past.

“Once I kind of got into a bit of clear air which is Bobby [Thompson] and Ricky [Collard] in front I then just settled down and didn’t use any hybrid for that. I got to the last few laps and Ricky got his penalty, but I still used it a little bit to try and get alongside him and stuff. Ultimately I finished second on the road.”

Having such a strong round means that Sutton walks away only ten points from team-mate Dan Cammish in the standings, leaving only reigning champion Tom Ingram separating the pair with five points either side. Having this upturn in form has given Sutton a lot of excitement for the season ahead.

“It’s just… momentum is the key word, but I think it’s just so crucial that we’ve just shown what we’ve extracted out through the winter. I know ‘Dan Cam’ had a good run, but this is our dry pace. It was our weakness last year.

“We’ve just focused so hard over winter on it and the car is in such a nice place. Looks after the tyres, it’s dialled in. I’ve never felt as confident as this in a touring car.

“Obviously there’s going to be some tracks which are going to suit us, some tracks aren’t, but if you base that, today on what we can do, when we get this thing in the working window, she’s fast.”