FORD TO THE FORE IN THRUXTON THRILLERS
The champion is coming, and he is coming with a vengeance. A win and a third for Ash Sutton at Thruxton has put him right in the heart of the BTCC title fight.
The Motorbase Performance driver has struggled to get on top of his Ford Focus this year, but he and team-mate, race-one winner, Dan Cammish, reaped the big rewards in Hampshire. Sutton is now just six points adrift of the WSR BMW of Colin Turkington.
A race win in the reversed-grid finale wasn’t enough to realistically rescue BTC Racing Honda Civic Type R driver Josh Cook’s outside title hopes.
Race one
While Cammish and Cook shared the front row, most eyes were looking at third-placed Jake Hill (MB Motorsport) to display heroics at the get-go.
However, Cammish performed a great launch to reach Allard first while Hill went toe-to-toe with Cook around the right-hander and they levelled going up to the Complex for the first time. What those two hadn’t factored into the equation was Sutton, who looked to the inside of them both.
While Cook left his braking extremely late on the outside line – a copycat of the move that took him into the lead of race one at the Hampshire venue back in May – Sutton and Hill made the briefest of contacts into the right-hander and Sutton had better traction away from the incident.
Cook was hanging tough around the outside (despite a lurid slide), which gave him the inside for the left-hander at Cobb. As he bounced off the kerb, Sutton was still there on the outside and, on the run
