Ash Sutton opens 2024 win account after battling to victory

NAPA Racing UK’s Ash Sutton recorded his first British Touring Car Championship win of the year in the final race at Thruxton, battling his way forward from fourth on the grid.

Sutton’s car was only ready at the very last minute before the race, as his Alliance Racing team frantically worked to repair the front end of his car which had been damaged in race two.

BMW’s Adam Morgan had been drawn to start the reverse-grid race from pole position after the top eight in race two were reversed, and the WSR driver duly led away from the lights.

Directly behind Morgan, Speedworks Motorsport’s Josh Cook made a rapid start to jump a place up to second, after BMW’s Colin Turkington made an uncharacteristically average start.

Laser Tools Racing’s Jake Hill made a strong initial launch but found himself boxed in by the NAPA cars of Sutton, Dan Cammish and Daniel Rowbottom, leaving the BMW driver in seventh going into the complex.

That became sixth when Rowbottom fell by the wayside at Seagrave, having been turned around following contact with Turkington, although the NAPA driver’s contact with barriers was light enough to enable him to continue at the back of the pack.

Hill and EXCELR8 Motorsport’s Tom Ingram began battling hard for sixth on the second lap, allowing Power Maxed Racing’s Árón Taylor-Smith to seize the initiative and sail through at the exit of the complex, although both drivers would get back by the Vauxhall two laps later.

Approaching mid-distance Morgan was still leading, as Cook came under attack on the seventh lap from Sutton, who had got by Cammish on the second tour.

Sutton dived inside Cook with a late lunge at Goodwood to steal second, and in turn opened the door for Cammish and Turkington to follow through.

Cook lost another two places a lap later as Hill and Ingram followed by into fifth and sixth respectively.

At the front though, Sutton was all over the back of Morgan and on lap nine he took the lead from the BMW at Seagrave, with Cammish following through into second.

The race then had to be neutralised under the safety car for four laps after EXCELR8’s Tom Chilton stopped on the track between Allard and Green, with Sutton leading Cammish and thee BMWs of Morgan and Turkington at this stage.

Four laps from the finish, Ingram went around the outside of Turkington for fourth at the chicane, and he tried to repeat the move on Morgan for third on the penultimate lap.

However, Morgan made contact with Ingram and the latter had no choice but to cut the chicane, although he held on to third, having been ahead going into the corner.

But at the front Sutton was long gone, winning his 40^th BTCC race by over four seconds from Cammish and Ingram.

Morgan held on to fourth, ahead of Hill in fifth, who had passed stable-mate Turkington into Noble on the penultimate lap.

Indeed, Turkington faded in the closing stages of the race, with Cook recovering to sixth and the Northern Irishman taking the chequered flag in seventh.

Power Maxed’s Taylor-Smith completed a day of consistently being in the top ten with eighth, with the top ten completed by Toyota’s Rob Huff and EXCELR8’s Ronan Pearson.

Daryl DeLeon ended the race in the pitlane, whilst Nick Halstead crashed his Hyundai heavily at Goodwood on the final lap of the race.

Sutton has returned to the top of the drivers’ championship standings with his win, holding 169 points, ahead of Hill (164), Ingram (155) and Turkington (136).

Race result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	1	M		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	19	27:20.097	1:15.753	4
2	27	M		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	19	4.449	1:16.548	6
3	100	M		Tom INGRAM	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	19	7.962	1:16.622	8
4	33	M		Adam MORGAN	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	19	8.039	1:16.429	1
5	24	M		Jake HILL	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	19	8.198	1:16.528	7
6	66	M		Josh COOK	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	19	8.376	1:16.457	3
7	20	M		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	19	9.646	1:16.577	2
8	40	I		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	19	10.002	1:16.979	9
9	12	M		Rob HUFF	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	19	10.275	1:17.292	10
10	14	M		Ronan PEARSON	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	19	10.990	1:17.398	12
11	88	I		Mikey DOBLE	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	19	11.315	1:17.215	14
12	11	M		Andrew WATSON	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	19	12.862	1:16.905	20
13	77	M		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	19	13.843	1:16.908	15
14	222	I		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	CUPRA Leon	19	14.727	1:17.428	16
15	16	M		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	19	15.186	1:17.076	13
16	29	I		Scott SUMPTON	Restart Racing	CUPRA Leon	19	33.156	1:17.729	18
17	32	M		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	18	+ 1 LAP	1:16.570	5
R	22	M		Nick HALSTEAD	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	18	DNF	1:19.970	19
R	18	I		Daryl DELEON	Duckhams Racing with Bartercard	CUPRA Leon	12	DNF	1:18.060	17
R	3	M		Tom CHILTON	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	7	DNF	1:17.351	11