Ash Sutton doubles up in Donington Park race three

Ash Sutton won the final British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Donington Park, after a fierce battle with reverse-grid pole-sitter Ricky Collard.

Collard made a good start, but fellow front-row starter Dexter Patterson was slow away from the line in his Power Maxed Racing Audi, allowing WSR duo Charles Rainford and Daryl De Leon into second and third.

NAPA Racing UK’s Sutton, meanwhile, had jumped from eighth on the grid to fourth by the end of the opening lap and, despite having the least TOCA Turbo Boost [TTB] of anyone in the field thanks to his race two win, was quickly on the offensive.

Collard, meanwhile, had to withstand pressure from Rainford on the second lap, with the BMW driver diving inside at the Old Hairpin to take the lead, although Collard reclaimed the position through the Craner Curves on the following lap.

Sutton got by De Leon to take third, whilst Rainford fell down the order on lap five, leaving Collard leading Sutton and his team-mate Dan Cammish.

Team VERTU’s Collard withstood pressure from Sutton for several laps, but on the ninth tour he went deep into the first corner, allowing Sutton to take the lead which he wouldn’t lose thereafter.

Over the following laps, Collard fell to more than three seconds adrift of Sutton, despite having many more TTB laps, and soon found himself battling with team-mate Tom Ingram, who got into third on lap 13, and Cammish.

The trio continued to battle hard, and although Cammish briefly got back past Ingram into third a lap later through the Craner Curves, Ingram reclaimed the place a few corners later at McLeans.

A lap later, Ingram passed team-mate Collard with ease to take second, but with only three laps to go and a 4.4-second deficit to Sutton, he had to settle for a sole podium finish from his weekend.

Sutton’s second victory of the weekend means he now sits 18 points clear of Rainford at the top of the drivers’ championship standings.

Collard completed the podium in third, the third podium of his BTCC career, whilst Cammish crossed the line in fourth but was handed a ten-second penalty for repeated track limit exceedances, dropping him to tenth.

That elevated Power Maxed Racing’s Aiden Moffat to fourth as the leading Independent, ahead of Rainford in fifth and PMR’s Patterson in sixth.

Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley took seventh, the Northern Irishman making inroads into the top ten in the second half of the race in his best performance of the weekend.

Adam Morgan was Plato Racing’s top driver in eighth, losing out to Smiley on the final lap, whilst the top ten was completed by NAPA duo Osborne and Cammish after the latter’s penalty was applied.

After engine issues in race two, Plato Racing’s Daniel Rowbottom had a solid run to 11^th having started near the back of the grid, finishing ahead of the leading Laser Tools Racing Toyota of Árón Taylor-Smith in 12^th, the Irishman having yo-yo-ed around the fringes of the top ten during the race.

There were two non-finishers in the race; Tom Chilton brought his Team VERTU Hyundai into the pits after picking up a banner on the front of his car on lap four when contact between Shedden and De Leon ahead created a brief moment of mayhem, whilst Josh Cook pitted with an issue whilst running in 11^th, subsequently.

A double victory for Sutton means he comfortably leads the championship standings after the opening weekend with 61 points, ahead of Rainford (43), Moffat (40), Cammish (38) etc.

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	18	20:51.143	1:08.624	8
2	80	M		Tom INGRAM	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	18	2.188	1:08.078	21
3	11	M		Ricky COLLARD	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	18	7.218	1:08.683	1
4	16	I		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing	Audi A3 Saloon	18	9.041	1:08.823	5
5	99	I		Charles RAINFORD	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	18	9.884	1:09.108	3
6	17	I		Dexter PATTERSON	Steel Seal with Power Maxed Racing	Audi A3 Saloon	18	13.018	1:08.999	2
7	22	I		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	18	14.176	1:08.608	12
8	33	M		Adam MORGAN	Cataclean Plato Racing	Mercedes A35 Saloon	18	14.777	1:09.086	9
9	77	M		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	18	14.947	1:08.680	16
10	27	M		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	18	16.895	1:08.698	7
11	32	M		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Cataclean Plato Racing	Mercedes A35 Saloon	18	20.010	1:08.712	19
12	50	I		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	18	20.259	1:09.243	11
13	2	I		Daryl DE LEON	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	18	21.278	1:09.052	4
14	52	I		Gordon SHEDDEN*	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	18	21.309	1:09.331	6
15	132	I		James DORLIN	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	18	21.475	1:08.862	17
16	19	M		Max BUXTON	Speedworks Corolla Racing	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	18	29.569	1:09.408	18
17	15	M		Lewis SELBY	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	18	49.306	1:08.171	15
18	28	M		Nicolas HAMILTON	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	18	50.554	1:09.615	20
19	88	I		Mikey DOBLE	LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing	Audi A3 Saloon	17	+ 1 LAP	1:08.280	14
R	66	M		Josh COOK	Speedworks Corolla Racing	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	15	DNF	1:08.381	10
R	3	M		Tom CHILTON	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	6	DNF	1:09.687	13

* Gordon Shedden was given a post-race 1.1-second penalty for contact with Daryl De Leon.