Defending champion, Ash Sutton has claimed his second win of the 2021 British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season in a mesmerising drive from 11th to the race victory in Round Five at Snetterton.
Sutton has made a habit of coming from adverse positions through the grid and did so again surging through the field and past Colin Turkington who led for most of the race and finished second in the end.
This was ahead of Ollie Jackson who rounded out the podium and had a brilliant battle with Tom Ingram who finished fourth ahead of Rory Butcher who rounds out the top five.
To start the race, Adam Morgan and Stephen Jelley get a good start but Turkington took the led into the first corner. But Ingram knew he had to strike early against Turkington only for Jackson to take second as they squabbled allowing the Race One winner to get away.
Further down, Sutton made an excellent start moving into 7th place and was looking ominous as he surged past Morgan into 6th place without the ballast and he moved away from both the Car Gods with Ciceley driver and championship leader, Jake Hill.
Jackson claimed the fastest lap as he started to hunt Turkington but he had Ingram behind him gaining time also before the battle pack of Butcher, Jelley and Sutton with the latter claiming fastest lap.
He continued to fly going past Jelley into 5th before taking the place of Butcher into 4th. The heavily ballast laden cars of Ingram, Jackson and Turkington were next with the latter though over a second ahead.
Sutton was held up for a time against Ingram but prized the door open to breach the podium with Jackson next up in sight. Despite another valiant defensive effort, it was another place gained as he went into second albeit over two seconds back from Turkington.
But with it being Lap 7/12, the chance for a race win was there for Sutton if his pace continued. He continued to take time away with the gap cut by a second as he looked to join Turkington.
He did so on Lap 9/12 and wisely Turkington handed Sutton the lead as he surged away. Ingram moved into third but he went out wide and had a slip allowing Jackson back through after all that work on Lap 11/12.
They continued to squabble on the final lap with the battle for third going to the flag. Rory Butcher in fifth was being chased as well by Oliphant, Jelley and Moffat albeit with the latter having a 10 second time penalty to be applied.
Further ahead though, Sutton though looked to potentially have an issue with his tyres with Turkington closing in to deny him a second win of the season but he just about survived to take the chequered flag ahead of Jackson, Ingram and Butcher to round out the top five. Stephen Jelley was promoted onto pole for the reverse grid after finishing 7th and like the opening weekend will start at the front alongside his teammate Tom Oliphant.
2021 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship – Race 2 – Snetterton
1 Ashley SUTTON (GBR) Laser Tools Racing 12 Laps
2 Colin TURKINGTON (GBR) Team BMW +0.451s
3 Ollie JACKSON (GBR) MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square +8.603s
4 Tom INGRAM (GBR) Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com +8.769s
5 Rory BUTCHER (GBR) Toyota Gazoo Racing UK +10.524s
6 Tom OLIPHANT (GBR) Team BMW +10.859s
7 Stephen JELLEY (GBR) Team BMW +12.065s
8 Adam MORGAN (GBR) Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport +13.364s
9 Jack GOFF (GBR) Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct +13.662s
10 Aiden MOFFAT (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +16.204s
11 Gordon SHEDDEN (GBR) Halfords Racing with Cataclean +16.577s
12 Daniel LLOYD (GBR) Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing +16.925s
13 Chris SMILEY (GBR) Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com +17.228s
14 Josh COOK (GBR) BTC Racing +18.605s
15 Daniel ROWBOTTOM (GBR) Halfords Racing with Cataclean +21.190s
16 Senna PROCTOR (GBR) BTC Racing +22.295s
17 Carl BOARDLEY (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +22.534s
18 Árón TAYLOR-SMITH (IRL) Team HARD. with HUB Financial Solutions +26.536s
19 Sam OSBORNE (GBR) Racing with Wera & Photon Group +26.270s
20 Jason PLATO (GBR) Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing +39.770s
21 Jessica HAWKINS (GBR) Racing with Wera & Photon Group +42.017s
22 Jack BUTEL (GBR) EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com +42.534s
23 Jade EDWARDS (GBR) PHSC with BTC Racing +42.734s
24 Jake HILL (GBR) MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square +44.681s
25 Nicolas HAMILTON (GBR) ROKiT Racing with iQuoto Online Trading +47.417s
26 Sam SMELT (GBR) Toyota Gazoo Racing UK +48.429s
27 Rick PARFITT (GBR) EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com +56.091s
DNF Tom CHILTON (GBR) Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport
DNF Glynn GEDDIE (GBR) Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct
