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Rockingham BTCC: Ash Sutton extends points lead with sixth win

Ash Sutton claimed his sixth British Touring Car Championship victory of the season in the second race at Rockingham to extend his points lead

From third on the grid, the Team BMR driver had been expected to easily dispatch the Eurotech Honda Civic Type R of second-place starter Jack Goff on the run through the first corner, but Goff held firm and, dipping below the white line on the banked Turn 1, held position.

But Sutton hung his rear-wheel drive Levorg around the outside at the Turn 2 Deene hairpin and cleared both Goff and race one winning team-mate James Cole in his Subaru Levorg to snatch a lead.

Sutton pulled out a lead of two seconds on the first lap as Cole - saddled with 75 kilograms of success ballast - held up the chasing pack before the MG of Josh Cook dived into second at Deene on lap two.

Cole ran wide shortly afterwards and dropped to seventh, promoting Mat Jackson to third.

But Sutton's huge lead was wiped out by the deployment of the safety car, which was called out after Gordon Shedden stopped out on track with broken suspension following contact with Rob Austin.

With Shedden's Honda Civic Type R recovered, Sutton bolted on the subsequent restart to avoid attack from any of the train behind.

The points leader offered his rivals a sniff as he locked up at the Tarzan hairpin on the first restart lap, but Cook and Jackson were only bunched up by that moment and Sutton soon pulled away again.

His pace on the restart, combined with his rivals conspiring to slow each other's progress, allowed Sutton to pull an unassailable gap in the middle of the race.

Sutton eventually crossed the line 2.432 seconds clear of his nearest rival, and now leads the drivers' championship by 10 points.

Jackson brought his Ford Focus home in second, just fending off the WSR BMW 125i M Sport of Colin Turkington over the line.

Motorbase driver Jackson briefly dropped to fourth after the restart, with an unsuccessful challenge for second against Cook allowing the Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R of Matt Neal to grab third.

Neal attempted a similar move on Cook at the Deene hairpin a lap later, but as Cook turned in he and Neal touched, sending both onto the grass on the outside of the corner and allowing Jackson to slip into second.

Turkington had been bottled up behind Cole for much of the race but forced a way past the Levorg before dispatching Adam Morgan Morgan and Goff to move into third.

He then whittled down Jackson's advantage and was on the tail of the Focus at the start of the final lap, but couldn't force a way through.

Jason Plato brought his Team BMR Levorg home in fourth ahead of Goff and Morgan, with the second and third WSR BMWs of Andrew Jordan (who will start the reversed-grid race from pole) and Rob Collard seventh and eighth.

Tom Ingram completed a remarkable drive from the back of the field to finish ninth in his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis, having passed Chris Smiley on the final lap.

Result - 18 laps

Pos Driver Team Car Gap
1 Ash Sutton Team BMR Subaru 26m57.861s
2 Mat Jackson Motorbase Ford 2.438s
3 Colin Turkington WSR BMW 2.730s
4 Jason Plato Team BMR Subaru 7.110s
5 Jack Goff Eurotech Racing Honda 9.513s
6 Adam Morgan Ciceley Racing Mercedes 10.101s
7 Andrew Jordan WSR BMW 10.569s
8 Rob Collard WSR BMW 10.756s
9 Tom Ingram Speedworks Motorsport Toyota 14.802s
10 Chris Smiley BTC Racing Chevrolet 15.349s
11 Senna Proctor Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall 15.913s
12 Ollie Jackson AmD Tuning Audi 18.138s
13 James Cole Team BMR Subaru 18.466s
14 Aiden Moffat Laser Tools Racing Mercedes 19.262s
15 Aron Taylor-Smith Triple Eight/MG MG 20.029s
16 Tom Chilton Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall 20.261s
17 Jake Hill Team Hard Volkswagen 21.624s
18 Ant Whorton-Eales AmD Tuning Audi 22.278s
19 Rory Butcher Motorbase Ford 23.389s
20 Martin Depper Motorbase Ford 24.479s
21 Will Burns Team Hard Volkswagen 29.679s
22 Stephen Jelley Team Parker Racing Ford 30.884s
23 Dave Newsham BTC Racing Chevrolet 31.330s
24 Brett Smith Eurotech Racing Honda 35.011s
25 Stewart Lines Maximum Motorsport Ford 43.605s
26 Rob Austin Handy Motorsport Toyota 1 Lap
- Michael Epps Team Hard Volkswagen Retirement
- Josh Cook Triple Eight/MG MG Retirement
- Matt Neal Dynamics/Honda Honda Retirement
- Matt Simpson Dynamics/Honda Honda Retirement
- Gordon Shedden Dynamics/Honda Honda Retirement
- Josh Price Team BMR Subaru Retirement


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