Ash Sutton was pleased with how his weekend went on the second visit of the British Touring Car Championship to Thruxton, with the Laser Tools Racing driver having extended his championship advantage.
After qualifying in seventh, three tenths of a second off the pace, with maximum success ballast, Sutton made progress in the opening race of the weekend to take the chequered flag in fifth.
Then with 36 kg less weight on board for race two, Sutton was able to charge through the field to claim his fourth win of the season, holding off race one winner Josh Cook for the victory after passing the Honda on the 11th lap of the race at the first corner.
With the reverse grid for race three putting the Infiniti driver in eighth on the grid, and again with the maximum 75 kg of ballast, Sutton could only manage to finish in tenth but nevertheless extend his run of top ten finishes to six in a row.
Sutton was pleased with his trio of results, pointing out the fact that he considered the high-speed Hampshire circuit to be his last ‘bogey circuit’ of the season.
“It’s been a really good day,” said Sutton. “Coming into the weekend I had it mapped out that race one was about getting a solid result and losing some ballast, then we could really go after it in race two and chase a win.
“Josh didn’t make it easy for me in that second race. I made a few passes early on but once I got into second it was hard to gauge if I was catching him, then my engineer came over the radio and said I’d taken a few tenths out of him – from there it was game on and I managed to get the move done.
“Race three was very stop-start and I was just trying to manage things. It was a bit unfortunate when Tom [Ingram] came through as I was trying to duck in behind him, but I just got out of sequence and that dropped me back a few spots.
“Overall, it has been another mega weekend! I’ve come away extending my points lead and picking up another win at what is probably the only bogey track for me and the car left on the calendar.
“We go to Croft next – which I love – and the aim will be the same once again; to either maintain or extend the championship lead.
“I’m not getting ahead of myself as there is a long way to go and plenty can still happen, but we’re where we want to be.”
Sutton’s championship lead now stands at 30 points ahead of Ingram in second, with 12 races left to run in 2021.