Sutton scythes through to secure fifth win of year at Knockhill

Subaru’s Ash Sutton claimed victory in a wet opening British Touring Car Championship race at Knockhill, having carved his way through the pack from eighth on the grid to win ahead of Team BMW’s Colin Turkington.

Poleman Dan Cammish got his Honda off the line well at the start, initially leading ahead of the Team Parker Racing BMW of Stephen Jelley and BMW Pirtek Racing’s Andrew Jordan in third.

But it was Sutton who was making moves early on in the race further back, dicing with Speedworks Motorsport’s Tom Ingram on the opening two laps to secure sixth, before setting about pushing past the trio of BMW drivers ahead.

Sutton’s task was helped by BTC Norlin Racing’s Chris Smiley slipping back during the race, moving the reigning champion up to fifth on lap three, before he got past Jordan for fourth on lap seven.

In-fighting amongst the BMW drivers kept the pack closed up behind Cammish in the early laps, with Turkington passing Jelley for second on lap four, with Jelley then losing out to Sutton on lap eight.

That opened the door for Sutton to charge to the leading duo, and he made passes on Turkington and Cammish on successive laps on lap 11 and lap 12 to take the lead.

A safety car intervention was required on lap 21 though, when Turkington, who had lost out to Jelley, tagged the rear of the fellow BMW ahead at Clark curve and spun Jelley out of the race into the gravel.

Sutton managed the restart well three laps later and scored his fifth win of the year, moving him to just 27 points behind Turkington.

The Northern Irishman took the chequered flag in second, and although the incident was investigated after the race the stewards decided to take no further action other than a formal reprimand against Turkington for the incident.

Cammish completed the podium in third as the best of the front-wheel drive runners, ahead of Jordan in fourth.

Power Maxed Racing’s Josh Cook made up several positions late in the race to claim fifth in his Vauxhall, ahead of Ingram in sixth.

Ciceley Motorsport’s Tom Oliphant took his best-ever BTCC result in seventh, ahead of Smiley in eighth, with the Northern Irishman having struggled compared to his top ten rivals in the wet.

Adam Morgan brought home his Mercedes in ninth, whilst Knockhill local Rory Butcher completed the top ten in his AmD Tuning MG.

Along with Jelley, Honda’s Matt Neal retired from the race following contact from Matt Simpson on the tenth lap, as Neal took a wide line at the hairpin and the two drivers attempted to converge onto the same piece of tarmac at the exit, breaking Neal’s right-rear suspension.

Team HARD’s Bobby Thompson failed to take the start after suffering from a continuation of oil issues that struck him on Saturday.

BTC Norlin Racing’s Dan Lloyd, whose windscreen wipers packed up, suffered from a hair-raising spin in front of the pack on the fifth lap and consequently could only finish in 25^th, just ahead of the second Subaru of Jason Plato.

Race two is scheduled to get underway at 14:25 BST.

Race result

POS	NO	CL	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	1	M	Ashley SUTTON		Adrian Flux Subaru Racing	Subaru Levorg GT	27	27:34.050	56.410	8
2	2	M	Colin TURKINGTON		Team BMW	BMW 125i M Sport	27	1.287	56.766	4
3	27	M	Dan CAMMISH		Halfords Yuasa Racing	Honda Civic Type R	27	2.779	57.115	1
4	77	M	Andrew JORDAN		BMW Pirtek Racing	BMW 125i M Sport	27	2.999	56.990	3
5	66	M	Josh COOK		Power Maxed TAG Racing	Vauxhall Astra	27	3.433	56.678	10
6	80		Tom INGRAM		Speedworks Motorsport	Toyota Avensis	27	4.370	57.028	6
7	15		Tom OLIPHANT		Ciceley Motorsport	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	27	6.606	57.540	7
8	22		Chris SMILEY		BTC Norlin Racing	Honda Civic Type R	27	7.015	57.352	5
9	33		Adam MORGAN		MAC Tools with Ciceley Motorsport	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	27	7.778	57.420	9
10	6		Rory BUTCHER		AmD with AutoAid / RCIB Insurance Racing	MG 6	27	8.108	57.274	23
11	55	M	Ricky COLLARD		Team BMW	BMW 125i M Sport	27	8.412	57.379	12
12	3		Tom CHILTON		Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher	Ford Focus RS	27	8.804	57.185	15
13	39		Brett SMITH		WIX Racing with Eurotech	Honda Civic Type R	27	10.166	57.432	11
14	11		Rob AUSTIN		DUO Motorsport with HMS Racing	Alfa Romeo Giulietta	27	10.452	57.437	13
15	31		Jack GOFF		WIX Racing with Eurotech	Honda Civic Type R	27	11.192	57.636	17
16	48		Ollie JACKSON		AmD with Cobra Exhausts	Audi S3	27	11.847	57.549	19
17	600		Sam TORDOFF		Team GardX Racing with Motorbase	Ford Focus RS	27	12.096	57.281	16
18	16		Aiden MOFFAT		Laser Tools Racing	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	27	15.787	57.777	20
19	18	M	Senna PROCTOR		Power Maxed TAG Racing	Vauxhall Astra	27	16.130	57.549	24
20	41		Glynn GEDDIE		AmD with AutoAid / RCIB Insurance Racing	MG 6	27	16.371	57.399	27
21	303		Matt SIMPSON		Simpson Racing	Honda Civic Type R	27	16.634	57.312	26
22	23		Sam SMELT		AmD with Cobra Exhausts	Audi S3	27	17.346	57.128	29
23	21		Mike BUSHELL		Trade Price Cars with Brisky Racing	Volkswagen CC	27	18.388	57.762	25
24	20		James COLE		Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher	Ford Focus RS	27	19.101	57.414	22
25	26		Daniel LLOYD		BTC Norlin Racing	Honda Civic Type R	27	19.287	56.726	14
26	99	M	Jason PLATO		Adrian Flux Subaru Racing	Subaru Levorg GT	27	19.660	57.656	18
27	43		Ollie PIDGLEY		Trade Price Cars with Brisky Racing	Volkswagen CC	27	21.098	58.567	30
28	42		Carl BOARDLEY		Team HARD. with Trade Price Cars	Volkswagen CC	27	21.452	57.830	28
R	60		Stephen JELLEY		Team Parker Racing	BMW 125i M Sport	18	DNF	56.977	2
R	25	M	Matt NEAL		Halfords Yuasa Racing	Honda Civic Type R	11	DNF	58.058	21
R	19		Bobby THOMPSON		Team HARD. with Trade Price Cars	Volkswagen CC	0	DNF	N/A	31