Ashley Sutton claimed the maiden victory of his British Touring Car Championship career in the final race of the weekend at Croft, which took place amid wet conditions.
The MG driver and reigning Clio Cup UK champion led home WSR’s Sam Tordoff after making a move on the championship leader on the penultimate lap at Tower Bend.
Tom Ingram completed the podium in the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Avensis, having put up a a stoic defence of third, having developed a queue of cars in his wake.
Behind them came a closely fought battle for fourth on the road, which eventually fell in favour of WSR’s Rob Collard as the series stalwart out-manoeuvred Andrew Jordan, Suttons’ team-mate Josh Cook and race one victor Colin Turkington.
Subaru racer Turkington lost out on the very last corner of the last lap of the race when Cook made an opportunistic pass which allowed Jordan through as well, despite Turkington having just a handful of corners challenged Collard for fourth.
BKR’s Árón Smith took the flag in eighth, ahead of the third WSR BMW of Jack Goff and Subaru’s Jason Plato, who completed the top ten after a somewhat low-key race.
Of note, championship protagonist Matt Neal could only finish the race in 11th position in what was a difficult day for Honda, with Gordon Shedden finishing outside the points after wrongly choosing to start on slick tyres.
The race featured three safety car periods, the first of which came when the Subaru of Warren Scott was tagged out by Chris Smiley at the first corner and became beached in the gravel.
A second safety car period was required when Motorbase’s Mat Jackson, who made the brave decision to start the race on slick tyres, went wide at Turn 1 and rejoined at Turn 2 in the path of Ciceley Racing’s Aiden Moffat, breaking the suspension on both cars.
A final safety car period had to be called late in the race when Power Maxed Racing’s Hunter Abbott was collected by Eurotech Racing’s Jeff Smith in an almost identical repeat of the earlier incident between Jackson and Moffat.
The result enriches what is already an impressive debut campaign for Sutton, currently the runaway leader of the Jack Sears Trophy rookie award, and ensures he has a maiden victory to add to his first pole position, claimed at Donington Park in just his second meeting behind the wheel of the MG6 GT.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME/GAP | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 116 | M | Ashley SUTTON |  |
MG Racing RCIB Insurance | MG6GT | 18 | 32:50.206 | 1:33.231 | 4 |
| 2 | 600 | C | Sam TORDOFF | |
Team JCT600 with GardX | BMW 125i M Sport | 18 | 1.337 | 1:33.468 | 1 |
| 3 | 80 | Tom INGRAM | |
Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 18 | 2.284 | 1:33.975 | 2 | |
| 4 | 100 | C | Rob COLLARD | |
Team JCT600 with GardX | BMW 125i M Sport | 18 | 2.86 | 1:33.508 | 8 |
| 5 | 77 | Andrew JORDAN | |
Motorbase Performance | Ford Focus | 18 | 3.759 | 1:33.730 | 9 | |
| 6 | 66 | M | Josh COOK | |
MG Racing RCIB Insurance | MG6GT | 18 | 4.324 | 1:33.733 | 14 |
| 7 | 4 | M | Colin TURKINGTON | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 18 | 4.683 | 1:33.758 | 6 |
| 8 | 40 | Árón SMITH |  |
BKR | Volkswagen CC | 18 | 4.947 | 1:33.967 | 11 | |
| 9 | 31 | C | Jack GOFF | |
Team IHG Rewards Club | BMW 125i M Sport | 18 | 5.942 | 1:33.811 | 5 |
| 10 | 99 | M | Jason PLATO | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 18 | 6.29 | 1:33.425 | 7 |
| 11 | 25 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 7.578 | 1:34.032 | 10 |
| 12 | 11 | Rob AUSTIN | |
Handy Motorsport | Toyota Avensis | 18 | 8.685 | 1:35.030 | 12 | |
| 13 | 23 | Daniel LLOYD | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 9.835 | 1:35.058 | 23 | |
| 14 | 33 | Adam MORGAN | |
WIX Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 18 | 10.999 | 1:35.100 | 31 | |
| 15 | 12 | Mike EPPS | |
RCIB Insurance Racing | Toyota Avensis | 18 | 12.417 | 1:34.871 | 30 | |
| 16 | 30 | Martin DEPPER | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 14.227 | 1:34.989 | 28 | |
| 17 | 17 | Dan WELCH | |
Goodestone Racing | Proton Persona | 18 | 14.818 | 1:35.045 | 29 | |
| 18 | 55 | Jeff SMITH | |
Eurotech Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 16.955 | 1:35.022 | 18 | |
| 19 | 95 | Stewart LINES | |
Maximum Motorsport | Ford Focus | 18 | 17.24 | 1:35.144 | 21 | |
| 20 | 24 | Jake HILL | |
RCIB Insurance Racing | Toyota Avensis | 18 | 17.813 | 1:35.187 | 20 | |
| 21 | 20 | M | James COLE | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 18 | 17.925 | 1:35.011 | 32 |
| 22 | 52 | M | Gordon SHEDDEN | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 18 | 18.639 | 1:34.104 | 13 |
| 23 | 22 | Chris SMILEY | |
TLC Racing | Toyota Avensis | 18 | 18.730 | 1:36.053 | 24 | |
| 24 | 38 | Mark HOWARD | |
BKR | Volkswagen CC | 18 | 34.869 | 1:38.055 | 27 | |
| 25 | 14 | Alex MARTIN | |
Dextra Racing with Team Parker | Ford Focus | 17 | 1 Lap | 1:36.932 | 25 | |
| 26 | 48 | Ollie JACKSON | |
AmD Tuning | Audi S3 | 17 | 1 Lap | 1:38.364 | 15 | |
| R | 84 | Kelvin FLETCHER | |
Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 15 | 3 Laps | 1:36.285 | 22 | |
| R | 53 | Hunter ABBOTT | |
Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet Cruze | 12 | 6 Laps | 1:34.744 | 19 | |
| R | 7 | Mat JACKSON | |
Motorbase Performance | Ford Focus | 4 | 14 Laps | 1:39.268 | 3 | |
| R | 16 | Aiden MOFFAT | |
Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 4 | 14 Laps | 1:36.526 | 17 | |
| R | 303 | Matt SIMPSON | |
Speedworks Motorsport | Honda Civic Type R | 4 | 14 Laps | 1:35.532 | 16 | |
| R | 39 | M | Warren SCOTT | |
Silverline Subaru BMR Racing | Subaru Levorg GT | 0 | 18 Laps | N/A | 26 |