![Ash Sutton, NAPA Racing UK [Alliance Racing], Ford Focus ST NGTC](https://www.touringcars.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/Ash-Sutton-Ford-Focus.jpg "Photo: Pat Cranham")
Ash Sutton delighted in claiming his first British Touring Car Championship pole position since 2023 in wet conditions at Thruxton, with the NAPA Racing UK driver describing conditions as ‘sketchy as hell’.
Heavy rain arrived at the Hampshire circuit just before qualifying got underway, and the wet conditions persisted throughout the 75-minute session.
Sutton, however, was on top throughout, topping his Q1 group by almost four tenths of a second, before also topping Q2 by over three tenths from Power Maxed Racing’s Mikey Doble.
Sutton then went even quicker in Q3 – lapping Thruxton in 1 minute 20.786 seconds and ending up just under three tenths clear of championship rival Tom Ingram – despite catching a huge slide through Allard in a red-flagged final segment.
“I can’t complain – you always want to start at the front, which we achieved,” said Sutton to TouringCars.Net. “The car was really good in those conditions.
“It was sketchy as hell, that’s for sure, but I’m pleased we were able to extract the lap time from the car.
“Ultimately, was there a bit more? Yes, I think everyone would say that, but it’s just about how big of a brave pill you want to take. In those conditions there’s always a safety margin attached to it.
“Overall, NAPA Racing UK have done a mega job, given me a mega car, and I was able to go and deliver.”
Sutton is hoping he can build a slight margin over Ingram in the opening race on Sunday to mitigate the one lap of extra TOCA Turbo Boost [TTB] which the Team Vertu driver holds by dint of being a place behind in the championship heading into the event.
“From a one-lap thing you can get around it [lack of boost] but you can still push a button and overtake.
“The fact that Tom has got that extra lap on top of me could be a threat, but I plan to try and build a bit of a margin and get away.
“We’ve got a good car in the dry – we’re pleased with the pace we had in FP1 and FP2 – so it’s going to be about keeping it clean, keeping out of trouble and building a margin.
“We’re on the same tyre for all three races so there’s no big deltas. Points collecting tomorrow is going to be big. Realistically, once we all get settled into the day, you’re going to see people maximising performance from the car in the dry.
“We’ve still not had a good dry run – it’s been wet in every session we’ve been out in. Tomorrow you’ll see development throughout the day as well.”