Ash Sutton heads into the final British Touring Car Championship race day of the season ‘over the moon’ after putting his Subaru in third on the grid whilst title rival Colin Turkington struggled.
In a qualifying session where it took until past the half-way point for meaningful times to be posted, Sutton claimed the championship upper hand by ending the day with third on the grid – significantly being 14 places ahead of title rival Colin Turkington.
The Subaru star was delighted to secure such a strong starting position – as he is also one of only two rear-wheel drive racers inside the top ten, along with ninth-placed team-mate Jason Plato.
“If someone had offered me that before, I’d have definitely taken it,” said Sutton to TouringCars.Net. “I’m over the moon – there’s not much more to say on it to be honest. Your luck comes and goes, and our bad luck was at Silverstone. It’s worked in our favour so I’m not complaining.”
Sutton stressed the importance of keeping out of trouble in Sunday’s races, having learnt the hard way at Silverstone about getting too involved in any physical racing with his rivals.
“I just need to keep my nose clean – I’ve got to stay out of trouble. As long as I revert back to how I was thinking before that [incident at Silverstone] – we hadn’t been in the bus up to that point – then I don’t think I have to change. It was only that I took one little risk at Silverstone that we got penalised for it, so I’ll just go back to what I normally do.”
Sutton cannot take the title in race one on Sunday, adding that as a result he is focussed on staying out of trouble in the first race of the day.
“I’ve got to do what I can do, but he [Turkington] has got to get through a fair few cars plus a Subaru to get to me.
“I’ve just got to go and keep my nose clean, see how the start goes, stay out of trouble and get the first few laps out of the way. We’re on the soft tyre, so it’s going to work in our favour as the race goes on.
“I’m feeling confident, I just need to keep it on the black stuff.”