BTCC Donington Park: Sutton storms to final victory of opening weekend

Ashley Sutton stormed through to win the final race of the British Touring Car Championship’s opening weekend at Donington Park to cement his points lead.

While the four-time champion charged through from eighth on the grid in his Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus Titanium, reigning title holder Tom Ingram scythed from 21st and last to second at the wheel of Excelr8 Motorsport’s lead Hyundai i30 N Fastback.

Sutton and Alliance Ford team-mate Dan Cammish both started from the fourth row, and were the highest-placed on the grid on the soft option tyres – with the exception of front-row man Dexter Patterson.

But they were low on TOCA Turbo Boost. Sutton was up to fourth on the opening lap, while reversed-grid poleman Ricky Collard led the way in his Excelr8 Hyundai. He was past Daryl De Leon for third on lap two, then got ahead of De Leon’s West Surrey Racing BMW team-mate Charles Rainford fifth time around to move up to second.

Collard was the only driver ahead of Sutton, who was on the bootlid of the Hyundai by the end of the eighth lap. Collard went too late on the brakes at Redgate, slid wide and conceded the lead, but the never-say-die former British GT champion kept in Sutton’s wheeltracks for a couple of laps.

Collard then fell back into a feisty scrap with Cammish, which allowed the looming Ingram onto their tail. Some ferocious racing between Cammish and Ingram ended with the Hyundai squeezing through at Schwantz Curve on the 14th lap of 18, and Ingram then quickly dispatched Collard for second.

Sutton was now 4.034 seconds in front, and Ingram had three laps of TTB to Sutton’s one. He slashed the gap to 2.239s by the start of the final lap, but was now out of TTB. Sutton never even used his power boost, and crossed the line 2.188s to the good.

Cammish got ahead of Collard, but a 10s penalty for track limits demoted the Ford to 10th. Collard therefore ended up on the podium.

Aiden Moffat completed a strong day by taking fourth in his Power Maxed Racing Audi A3 Saloon, with Rainford fifth and Patterson’s PMR Audi sixth.

Next came Chris Smiley (Restart Racing Hyundai), Adam Morgan (Plato Racing Mercedes A35 Saloon) and Sam Osborne’s Alliance Ford in seventh, eighth and ninth respectively.

A fourth-lap shemozzle at Coppice, triggered when Gordon Shedden made contact with De Leon, also involved Tom Chilton and Josh Cook as collateral damage, both having to visit the pits. It also opened the way for Ingram to leapfrog a sizeable proportion of the midfield on his rise up the order.

After a dreadful time in the first two races, Ingram ends the opening weekend eighth in the points, but crucially facing no TTB restriction as the series heads to its second round of the Brands Hatch Indy Circuit.

Sutton leads the way by 18 points from Rainford, with Moffat lying third.

RACE3

All Stats

 

Cla	Driver	#		Car	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	A. Sutton NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus Titanium	18	20'51.143		102.39		20
2	T. Ingram Team Vertu			Hyundai i30N	18	+2.188 20'53.331	2.188	102.21		17
3	R. Collard Team Vertu			Hyundai i30N	18	+7.218 20'58.361	5.030	101.80		15
4	A. Moffat LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing			Audi A3 Saloon	18	+9.041 21'00.184	1.823	101.65		13
5	C. Rainford West Surrey Racing			BMW 330i M Sport	18	+9.884 21'01.027	0.843	101.58		11
6	D. Patterson Steel Seal with Power Maxed Racing			Audi A3 Saloon	18	+13.018 21'04.161	3.134	101.33		10
7	C. Smiley Restart Racing			Hyundai i30N	18	+14.176 21'05.319	1.158	101.24		9
8	A. Morgan Cataclean Plato Racing			Mercedes A35 Saloon	18	+14.777 21'05.920	0.601	101.19		8
9	S. Osborne NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus Titanium	18	+14.947 21'06.090	0.170	101.18		7
10	D. Cammish NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus Titanium	18	+16.895 21'08.038	1.948	101.02		6
11	D. Rowbottom Cataclean Plato Racing			Mercedes A35 Saloon	18	+20.010 21'11.153	3.115	100.78		5
12	G. Shedden Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	18	+20.209 21'11.352	0.199	100.76		4
13	A. Taylor-Smith Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	18	+20.259 21'11.402	0.050	100.76		3
14	D. De Leon West Surrey Racing			BMW 330i M Sport	18	+21.278 21'12.421	1.019	100.67		2
15	J. Dorlin Restart Racing			Hyundai i30N	18	+21.475 21'12.618	0.197	100.66		1
16	M. Buxton Speedworks Corolla Racing			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	18	+29.569 21'20.712	8.094	100.02
17	L. Selby NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus Titanium	18	+49.306 21'40.449	19.737	98.50
18	N. Hamilton Team Vertu			Hyundai i30N	18	+50.554 21'41.697	1.248	98.41
19	M. Doble LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing			Audi A3 Saloon	17	+1 Lap 21'17.930	1 Lap	94.67
dnf	J. Cook Speedworks Corolla Racing			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	15	+3 Laps 18'35.709	2 Laps	95.66	Retirement
dnf	T. Chilton Team Vertu			Hyundai i30N	6	+12 Laps 9'07.341	9 Laps	77.85	Retirement
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