THE MAKING OF ASH SUTTON
Judder-judder-judder. The left-rear suspension of this BMW M2 Competition, a passenger wagon made available for the day by the British Racing Drivers’ Club, literally has nothing more to give. British Touring Car Championship mega-talent Ash Sutton is at the wheel, beaming and laughing amid armfuls of opposite lock. The addition of a middle-aged Autosport man (85kg-plus at last weigh-in) alongside him means he’s carrying even more ballast than the regulation maximum 75kg success weight he usually has aboard his Laser Tools Racing Infiniti Q50, and even rear-wheel-drive sorcerer Sutton can’t override the basic laws of physics and road-car design. We wave goodbye to any chance of ever seeing the inside of Silverstone’s Luffield turn again, and that left-rear only grips up again once we’re in a straight line and heading down towards Woodcote.
We’re inches from the rear bumper of an identical M2, driven by Ben Tuck, the amiable ‘expat’ who’s been making a very good name for himself this season in GT3 BMW machinery on the Nurburgring Nordschleife. The lads are having a ball, their passengers too. It’s a proper hoonathon.
Half an hour or so before this, Sutton is in relaxed form amid warm autumn sunshine as he chats with us at a wooden table outside the Silverstone paddock cafe. So absorbed is he in his work to win another BTCC title that he can be tough to pin down in the paddock. And so busy is he during the week on his new-but-booming Puresims simulator business that he can be tough to pin down on the phone too. But today is different. The BRDC SuperStars programme has made him available to a select few media; there’s no pressure, no set-up to chase, no sim rig to build, no rush, no distractions.
“WE ACTUALLY REALISED FORMULA VEE WAS CHEAPER THAN KARTING; IT WAS A GOOD WAY TO LEARN THE TRACKS”
It’s incredible to think
