BTCC: Sutton claims final race victory of the day at Croft

Ash Sutton took victory in the final race of the day at Croft after a very difficult day for the 4 time champion.

Aiden Moffat started on pole ahead of Tom Ingram and as they went into turn 1 side by side before a collision into the first chicane almost sending Ingram round before the Hyundai caught it and kept it going only losing a spot to Charles Rainford. He then went for a move on Rainford before another bit of contact let a charging Ash Sutton through for second place. The Ford managing to take advantage of the two fighting.

After Sutton got by, Ingram would go for a move again on Rainford and successfully getting by for third place. Chaos would continue into lap 2 as a multi car pileup due to Cammish ending up on the grass and spearing into a DeLeon and Smiley. This caused a Safety Car and everyone was brought back together after a chaotic start up and down the field.

The race restart would see Moffat get a solid start over Sutton leaving the NAPA driver to have to defend from Ingram who made a bold move on the restart to get by Sutton on lap 8.

Battles between the top 4 would end up causing Shedden to half spin as Ingram tried to make a move on Moffat and Sutton tried to get passed both of them leading to Shedden losing out a few places. Sutton would take the lead in all the chaos leaving Moffat to continue to defend hard from Ingram and the rest behind.

A flying Senna Proctor would get by his Team Vertu teammate Ingram to get into 3rd place and start going for an assault on Moffat. Moffat would place his car in all the right places before a late dive by Proctor ended in contact between the BMW and the Hyundai sending Moffat off into the grass and down the order to 6th place.

The battle for 2nd would continue as Proctor would have to defend from Ingram while Ingram has to fend off a game Shedden. Ingram would go for a dive into the final corner to get by for second place after a number of laps being sat behind at least one car.

Ingram would start closing in on Sutton as the two championship leaders with a few laps remaining try to chip a couple of extra points in their favour. But, once the turbo boost balanced out so did the pace of both drivers meaning Sutton would take the final race win of the day finishing ahead of Ingram and Proctor who take podium spots. Proctor would make up 15 positions in the race in an excellent recovery after race 2, but contact with Moffat will certainly be looked at by the stewards.

Shedden would finish 4th ahead of Adam Morgan in 5th and Moffat in 6th. Sam Osborne would take home 7th in a great drive while Tom Chilton, Árón Taylor-Smith and Mikey Doble round out the top 10.

At the end of the weekend Ingram leads Sutton by 8 points in the standings as it's the first time this season Sutton leaves the weekend behind Ingram in the championship despite being so close.