Ash Sutton wins feisty final race at Croft

NAPA Racing UK’s Ash Sutton avoided the chaos to claim victory in the final British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Croft, as title rival Tom Ingram eventually followed him home.

WSR’s Aiden Moffat was drawn to start the reverse-grid race from pole position, after finishing ninth in race two, and the Scot came under immediate pressure from Ingram.

The two made contact through the opening turns, with Ingram pitched into a huge slide which he was able to save, as Moffat clung on to his lead ahead of WSR team-mate Charles Rainford, who had slopped into second despite being on the hard compound tyre.

Sutton, meanwhile, was able to capitalise on the bunching ahead of him and dived into second at the complex at the end of the lap, as Ingram found himself baulked by the BMW of Rainford and the Toyota of Gordon Shedden.

Ingram was back into third by Turn 1 of the following lap, but the race would see the safety car called at the end of the lap due to a multi-car accident at the complex.

Rainford and Dan Cammish made contact which pitched Cammish off the circuit, but as the NAPA driver buried the throttle to stay out of the barriers his car came back across the track and collected Daryl DeLeon’s BMW heavily, who in turn was knocked into the Restart Racing Hyundai of Chris Smiley.

The trio were out of the race on the spot, whilst the safety car would be needed for the next five laps, before racing resumed on lap eight.

At the restart, Ingram immediately tried to pass Sutton at the chicane, which the latter cut, with Ingram diving inside to take second at Tower bend.

The pack quickly caught back up to Moffat, who continued to act as a cork-in-the-bottle, and at the hairpin Sutton opportunistically dived inside both for the lead, also making contact with Shedden in the process.

Ingram remained third, as Moffat continued to drive exceptionally defensively, allowing Team Vertu’s Senna Proctor to latch on to the duo.

On lap 11 Ingram almost overtook Moffat at the chicane, but the pass didn’t come off and having lost momentum, Proctor ended up taking third exiting Tower corner.

However, at the complex on the next lap, Proctor dived inside Moffat and made contact with the BMW, sending Moffat onto the grass and losing him four positions.

At the hairpin on the next lap, Ingram dived inside his Team Vertu team-mate to take second, but by this stage Sutton had established a 2.6 second lead.

Ingram was able to reduce the deficit, but ultimately couldn’t close down the gap enough and Sutton won his fifth race of the season by over two seconds from Ingram, with Proctor completing the podium.

As a result, Ingram leads Sutton by just eight points after Croft, with third-placed Daniel Rowbottom a huge 78 points back.

Toyota’s Shedden took fourth, ahead of Team Vertu’s Adam Morgan in fifth and Moffat in sixth.

NAPA’s Sam Osborne was seventh, ahead of Team Vertu’s Tom Chilton, Toyota’s Árón Taylor-Smith and Power Maxed Racing’s Mikey Doble completing the top ten as the top Independent driver.

Restart Racing’s Daniel Lloyd failed to take the start due to an engine issue, after the team identified that he had blown a head gasket on Saturday, resulting in his car being down on power in the earlier races.

Both Toyota’s Max Buxton (12^th) and Power Maxed’s Nick Halstead (14^th) scored their first points of the season in the race of higher-than-usual attrition.

Race result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	116	M		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	18	28:10.541	1:21.808	5
2	80	M		Tom INGRAM	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	18	2.201	1:21.374	2
3	18	M		Senna PROCTOR	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	18	4.506	1:22.453	18
4	52	M		Gordon SHEDDEN	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	18	4.878	1:22.531	3
5	33	M		Adam MORGAN	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	18	7.152	1:22.459	6
6	16	M		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	18	11.745	1:22.538	1
7	77	M		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	18	12.220	1:22.462	12
8	3	M		Tom CHILTON	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	18	21.090	1:23.831	8
9	40	M		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	18	22.930	1:23.947	20
10	88	I		Mikey DOBLE	Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	18	24.672	1:23.578	14
11	17	I		Dexter PATTERSON	ROKiT Racing with Un-Limited Motorsport	CUPRA Leon	18	24.808	1:23.841	11
12	19	M		Max BUXTON	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	18	28.193	1:23.515	17
13	99	M		Charles RAINFORD	LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	18	40.409	1:23.652	4
14	50	I		Nick HALSTEAD	Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	18	46.469	1:25.562	19
15	32	M		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	17	+ 1 LAP	1:23.313	9
R	28	I		Nicolas HAMILTON	Powder Monkey Brewing Co with Esidock	CUPRA Leon	13	DNF	1:24.599	21
R	132	M		James DORLIN	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	12	DNF	1:24.431	15
R	12	I		Stephen JELLEY	ROKiT Racing with Un-Limited Motorsport	CUPRA Leon	9	DNF	1:25.968	16
R	27	M		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	1	DNF	1:32.999	10
R	22	I		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	1	DNF	1:33.204	13
R	2	M		Daryl DELEON	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	1	DNF	1:33.349	7
NS	123	I		Daniel LLOYD	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	–	DNS	N/A	–
WD	1	M		Jake HILL	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	BMW 330i M Sport	–	DNS	N/A	–