Ash Sutton wins by biggest margin in 27 years in race two at Oulton Park

NAPA Racing UK’s Ash Sutton dominated the second British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Oulton Park, recording the biggest winning margin this century ahead of Team VERTU’s Tom Ingram.

With the top three drivers in race one mandated to start race two on the hard tyre, it was going to be a tall order for Dan Cammish to repeat his victory feat from race one.

At the start, Sutton enjoyed a superb getaway from the line, leaping from seventh on the grid up to fifth in the first few hundred metres, as Toyota’s Josh Cook was passed by Ingram through the first corner.

Laser Tools Racing’s Árón Taylor-Smith then took third from Cook into the Hislops chicane, before Sutton followed through into fourth at Lodge corner at the end of the lap.

Taylor-Smith, the top-placed driver on the soft rubber, then tried to go around the outside of Ingram at the Island hairpin on the next lap, but the Hyundai driver held firm and Taylor-Smith went wide, allowing Sutton into third.

Half a lap later, Sutton eased by Ingram into second at Old Hall Corner, before Cammish allowed him into the lead at the end of the lap.

From there, the four-time champion was in a class of his own, going on to win by a mammoth 19.3 seconds in the largest winning margin in the BTCC for 27 years, since Alain Menu won by over 22 seconds at Knockhill in 1999.

“There were a few factors for pushing so much,” Sutton told TouringCars.Net. “Because we experienced a five-second penalty at Snetterton, where luckily I still kept the win, the target was always going to be a ten-second gap if we can get to it, so then I’ve covered myself.

“But at the same time, we knew there was rain coming at the end and we didn’t know how much. Tony [Carozza, Sutton’s race engineer] then came over the radio and said, ‘right, there’s rain due, just crack on, get going’.

“So I carried on pushing on as if it was a bit of a qualifying session. As we then saw in the last two laps, rain came down, and you never know what’s going to happen in that scenario.”

“I gave myself a huge amount of buffer. That’s all we did. We were just solely focused on stretching that gap out for the right reasons, not for any record.”

Ingram eventually passed Cammish for second on lap 12 with a late move into Lodge, but continued to fall further behind Sutton in the closing laps, which saw rain arrive on the final tour. Cammish completed the podium in third.

A fierce battle soon developed for fourth; Taylor-Smith, involved in an incident with Tom Chilton on lap four which saw the Hyundai driver spear off the circuit at Dentons and miraculously avoiding the barriers, seemed to lack the pace to keep up with the hard-tyre shod cars in front and acted as a cork-in-the-bottle for the chasing pack.

The Irishman held fourth for the first ten laps of the race, but eventually WSR’s Daryl De Leon got by on lap 11, after several laps of trying and moments of being forced wide, to take fourth.

Power Maxed Racing’s Mikey Doble and Laser Tools Racing’s Gordon Shedden followed through a lap later into fifth and sixth respectively, where they would stay to the chequered flag.

Taylor-Smith initially held on to take seventh, but was later penalised by ten seconds for the incident with Chilton, dropping the Laser Tools Racing driver to 18th.

Thus Team VERTU’s Ricky Collard was seventh, having fought his way into the top ten in the second half of the race.

Power Maxed Racing’s Dexter Patterson, WSR’s Charles Rainford and NAPA Racing UK’s Sam Osborne completed the top ten, whilst Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley was classified in 11^th and will thus start the final race of the day from pole position after Sutton randomly selected him to start from pole.

Race three is scheduled to get underway at 17:20 BST.

Revised race result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	116	M		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	15	21:30.959	1:24.254	7
2	80	M		Tom INGRAM	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	15	19.333	1:25.886	3
3	27	M		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	15	19.704	1:25.934	1
4	2	I		Daryl DE LEON	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	15	21.746	1:25.559	10
5	88	I		Mikey DOBLE	LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing	Audi A3 Saloon	15	23.554	1:25.766	6
6	52	I		Gordon SHEDDEN	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	15	23.907	1:25.293	12
7	11	M		Ricky COLLARD	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	15	24.753	1:25.209	14
8	17	I		Dexter PATTERSON	Steel Seal with Power Maxed Racing	Audi A3 Saloon	15	26.719	1:25.660	11
9	99	I		Charles RAINFORD	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	15	27.527	1:25.676	15
10	77	M		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	15	28.157	1:25.787	13
11	22	I		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	15	28.775	1:25.220	9
12	32	M		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Cataclean Plato Racing	Mercedes A35 Saloon	15	29.237	1:25.677	16
13	132	I		James DORLIN	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	15	30.131	1:25.803	17
14	15	M		Lewis SELBY	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	15	30.832	1:25.864	21
15	66	M		Josh COOK	Speedworks Corolla Racing	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	15	31.076	1:26.340	2
16	19	M		Max BUXTON	Speedworks Corolla Racing	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	15	34.195	1:26.125	18
17	3	M		Tom CHILTON	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	15	34.255	1:24.905	8
18	50	I		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	15	34.326	1:25.820	4
19	33	M		Adam MORGAN	Cataclean Plato Racing	Mercedes A35 Saloon	15	43.004	1:26.146	20
20	28	M		Nicolas HAMILTON	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	15	1:02.634	1:26.224	19
21	16	I		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing	Audi A3 Saloon	14	+ 1 LAP	1:25.296	5