Ash Sutton hails ‘awesome’ race three win

Ash Sutton said that finally getting his first win of the British Touring Car Championship season at Thruxton was ‘awesome’, with the four-time champion ‘having the monkey off’ his back now.

NAPA Racing UK’s Sutton started the day in much the same way he has all year, with another podium finish – at that point his eighth of the year – by finishing third, having jumped up two places at the start.

Race two proved more challenging for the 30-year-old, after contact early on in the race damaged his front splitter.

That meant that despite moving up to second at the start, Sutton would gradually fall back to fifth over the following ten laps, as he suffered from increased drag and a lack of hybrid boost due to the damage.

When the reversed grid draw put the Ford Focus racer in fourth on the grid for the final race, Sutton sensed the potential for a first win of 2024.

Despite dropping a place at the start, Sutton gained two places back on the following lap and moved past team-mate Dan Cammish into third.

Sutton made a bold, late lunge on long-time rival Josh Cook on the seventh time around, moving him into second, and he quickly got onto the back of race leader Adam Morgan.

Two laps later, Sutton pounced on the BMW driver for the lead leaving the complex, and with team-mate Cammish following him through they went on to record an emphatic 1-2 result for the team.

Sutton was relieved to final open his win account in 2024, pointing out the strong pace he had shown all day in a variety of situations.

“The pace has been there or thereabouts all day today,” said Sutton to TouringCars.Net. “We had strong pace in race one to be able to progress with no hybrid, which was really good for us.

“In race two I made a really good start and got stuck in early-doors when I was all over the back of Hill, but a little bit of contact led to so much damage.

“It ended up breaking the splitter, which snapped through Church corner, and obviously you then lose a huge amount of downforce.

“We lost our hybrid motor and our hybrid radiator, so our hybrid wasn’t working. There were so many knock-on effects, so we were just nursing the car home. Still, to come home in fifth was mega.

“In the last race I didn’t quite get off the line – I had a little bit too much wheelspin. To come away with a win after dropping back was awesome and it’s a perfect way to reward the guys for all their hard work trying to get the car ready for race three.

“I said before the race that I fancied my changes in race three. I knew the pace was in the car and I feel like we’ve had one of the fastest race cars today, with or without hybrid – the lap time we did in race three was quicker than what we did in qualifying, so it’s a testament to the team.

“It’s been a little bit of the talk of the paddock – ‘when will we get that win’? We’ve got the monkey off our back now, and up to this point we’ve been scoring really good points with our podiums but to get that win was awesome.”