Producing an imperious drive, Ashley Sutton dominated the second of the British Touring Car Championship races at Snetterton, crossing the line three seconds ahead of Colin Turkington to take his fourth win of the season.
Starting with 75kg of ballast for winning the first race, Sutton continued his excellent form and remained ahead of Jack Goff and Andrew Jordan on the getaway off the line. Maintaining a steady gap to Goff, Sutton capitalised when the Eurotech Racing driver was pulled into a battle with the three West Surrey Racing BMWs.
At the point when Turkington and Rob Collard had cleared Goff, Sutton had five-and-a-half seconds in hand and left Turkington without enough time to reduce the arrears, allowing the Adrian Flux Subaru Racing driver to secure a second victory of the day and the championship lead.
“We’re in a bit of a rhythm at the minute!” said Sutton to ITV Sport. “The car was absolutely brilliant, and if anything this was better than race one, and I can’t thank the team enough.”
“I was so focused on what I needed to do, I thought ‘right, forget the mirrors if they call me on the radio then they’re getting close and then I need to worry’ so it was just a case of cracking on with it.”
“(A hat-trick) would be a push, it’s gonna be interesting and to do it again with ballast will be a real challenge, but I’m up for it.”
Turkington and Collard occupied the remaining podium slots, having elected to stick together throughout the race and made strong progress through the field as a result. Although the pair came under attack from Mat Jackson in the late stages, the Motorbase Performance driver lost ground to the BMWs and had to settle for fourth place.
Goff – perhaps hindered by the ballast added to his Honda Civic Type-R – could not add to his race one podium and had to be content with fifth, beating Jordan with whom he had battled for the majority of the race.
Gordon Shedden produced a spirited drive to climb up to seventh, but will start the third race without the championship lead. James Cole managed his best ever BTCC finish with a strong drive to finish eighth, and will start from pole in the final race of the day.
The race included a safety car period in the early stages after the returning Stewart Lines hit the wall in the final sector, requiring a clean-up crew for his dog-eared Ford Focus.
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