BTCC Knockhill: Sutton takes victory in rain-affected second race
Subaru Levorg racer Ash Sutton won the second British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Knockhill after heading the field home in a shortened rain-affected race
Team BMR man Sutton led from pole position ahead of Colin Turkington and Andrew Jordan but the race was immediately neutralised after an accident involving AmD Tuning Audi S3 driver Ollie Jackson.
Sutton controlled the restart as Turkington was the first to fall foul of the conditions when he slid wide at the top of Duffus Dip on lap 10 of the scheduled 24.
His error allowed Jordan into second place, and things got worse for Turkington when Ingram overhauled him at the hairpin on the next lap.
There was another long safety car period to remove the cars of Tom Oliphant and Carl Boardley from the gravel traps.
When the event restarted it only lasted one more tour. In that lap, Ingram managed to dive down the inside of Jordan going into Duffus Dip to grab second spot.
Next time around, Sam Smelt went into the tyres in his AmD Audi and the red flags flew.
Sutton said: "That was a long race. There was a lot of standing water and I was just controlling the pace. I didn't want to push too hard and slip up.
"I could see Ingram in second place, but I had set my fastest lap when he was behind me, and I could have gone harder if I had wanted to."
Ingram said he had no chance of catching the leader: "We simply didn't have the same pace.
But I was pleased with how our car behaved and once you take the success ballast out of the Toyota, it comes alive. I would have been happy to race on."
Behind Jordan, Josh Cook took fourth place in the Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra ahead of Dan Cammish (Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R) and the recovering Turkington.
There was a glimmer of hope for Turkington though, as the number six was drawn out of the hat for the reversed-grid third race.
Revised race result
| Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Laps | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andrew Jordan | WSR | BMW | 20 | 24m12.823s |
| 2 | Josh Cook | Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall | 20 | 1.222s |
| 3 | Dan Cammish | Team Dynamics | Honda | 20 | 1.835s |
| 4 | Colin Turkington | WSR | BMW | 20 | 2.577s |
| 5 | Adam Morgan | Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes | 20 | 3.077s |
| 6 | Tom Chilton | Motorbase | Ford | 20 | 3.659s |
| 7 | Rory Butcher | AmD Tuning | MG | 20 | 4.305s |
| 8 | Jack Goff | Eurotech Racing | Honda | 20 | 6.981s |
| 9 | Rob Austin | HMS Racing | Alfa Romeo | 20 | 7.653s |
| 10 | Chris Smiley | BTC Norlin | Honda | 20 | 8.239s |
| 11 | Sam Tordoff | Motorbase | Ford | 20 | 8.586s |
| 12 | Ricky Collard | WSR | BMW | 20 | 8.913s |
| 13 | Aiden Moffat | Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes | 20 | 9.413s |
| 14 | Daniel Lloyd | BTC Norlin | Honda | 20 | 10.083s |
| 15 | Glynn Geddie | AmD Tuning | MG | 20 | 10.522s |
| 16 | Senna Proctor | Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall | 20 | 11.107s |
| 17 | Matt Neal | Team Dynamics | Honda | 20 | 11.755s |
| 18 | James Cole | Motorbase | Ford | 20 | 12.219s |
| 19 | Brett Smith | Eurotech Racing | Honda | 20 | 12.585s |
| 20 | Matt Simpson | Simpson Racing | Honda | 20 | 14.839s |
| 21 | Ollie Pidgley | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 20 | 16.001s |
| - | Ash Sutton | Team BMR | Subaru | 20 | Disqualified |
| - | Tom Ingram | Speedworks | Toyota | 20 | Disqualified |
| - | Sam Smelt | AmD Tuning | Audi | 20 | Retirement |
| - | Jason Plato | Team BMR | Subaru | 20 | Retirement |
| - | Bobby Thompson | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 17 | Retirement |
| - | Mike Bushell | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 17 | Retirement |
| - | Tom Oliphant | Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes | 10 | Retirement |
| - | Stephen Jelley | Team Parker Racing | BMW | 10 | Retirement |
| - | Carl Boardley | Team Hard | Volkswagen | 6 | Retirement |
| - | Ollie Jackson | AmD Tuning | Audi | 0 | Retirement |
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About this article
| Series | BTCC |
| Drivers | Jake Hill , Ashley Sutton |
| Teams | BTC Racing |
| Author | Matt James |
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