BTCC: Sutton extends championship lead with race one victory at Brands Hatch

Ash Sutton takes race one victory at Brands Hatch extending his championship lead.

Sutton would start on pole from Daryl De Leon and Dan Cammish in greasy conditions as the rain started to come down making the track greasy

Sutton got an excellent start in greasy conditions while De Leon struggled off the line, dropping him behind Cammish, Collard and Ingram before going wide into Druids dropping him further back. But at Graham Hill Bend, Cammish would go wide on entry allowing Ricky Collard, Tom Ingram and Adam Morgan through. However, on lap two, Morgan would lock up and go off the circuit at Paddock Hill Bend throwing him into the gravel trap and the barrier causing a Safety Car.

The race would get back underway on lap nine with Sutton coming under pressure from Collard and the chasing pack with Collard trying to find a way up the inside into Clark Curve but he got onto the grass forcing him to lose momentum falling into the clutches of Ingram who gets a better exit and try and go around the outside into Paddock Hill Bend but to no avail as he would ultimately end up losing out on a place to Cammish who manages to swoop back passed.

Despite losing time in the fight with his teammate, Collard would start to claw back the gap to Sutton over the next couple of laps in his hunt for victory. Meanwhile, Dexter Patterson, who was running in the top ten at the time would go off the road at Clark Curve into the gravel. He would manage to keep it running and get out voiding the need to another race stoppage, but he would have to come into the pits. Tom Chilton, who benefitted from Patterson’s off, was on a charge himself making up six places from the start to get to eighth by lap ten and would continue to move forward as the race progressed.

The battle for the lead would recommence as Collard would get an excellent run onto the Brabham straight to start lap eleven pulling alongside Sutton and passed before the braking zone for Paddock Hill bend to take the lead. However, a moment out of Graham Hill Bend would give the position back to Sutton only a few corners later. Collard would continue to cause problems for Sutton but was unable to do anything into Paddock Hill Bend a second time around but would stick to the back of the NAPA Driver for another few laps all while their teammates behind of Cammish and Ingram would begin to scrap themselves.

However, a fastest lap on lap fourteen would be the start of Sutton’s pace showing as he started to pull away while Collard would have to set his eye on defence from Cammish and Ingram as a hard charging Chilton, who had made his way into fifth place, started to catch them.

Collard would pull a small margin over Cammish which gives Ingram the opportunity to make a move passed Cammish to grab the final podium spot before a brief yellow flag would appear for Aiden Moffat after contact on the exit of Druids with Lewis Selby after some harsh fighting earlier in the corner.

The Independent race lead would be a four way fight in the last three laps between Mikey Doble, Chris Smiley and the two BMW’s as the four had nothing between them. Smiley would try everything to get passed the Audi in front but nothing he could do with limited time left in the race.

Out front, Sutton would take yet another race victory this season after an excellent race out front from Collard and Ingram. Cammish would settle for fourth ahead of Chilton who completed the top five. Sam Osborne had a solid race particularly in the early phases to make his way into sixth place ahead of Doble who wins in the Independent class ahead of Smiley, Charles Rainford and De Leon who complete the top ten.