Ash Sutton produced a dominant, near lights-to-flag, victory during round 21 of the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship season at a red-hot Snetterton 300 last weekend to secure his and NAPA Racing UK’s second win in as many events.
Starting the last of the weekend’s three races from pole position, Sutton made a good start but he was somehow edged back to second out of Riches by Dan Rowbottom’s Honda Civic. It didn’t take long for the response to come, though, with the No.1 Ford Focus moving back through at Agostini.
Never headed thereafter, his lead of 0.7 seconds at the start of lap two was built-on lap by lap and his eventual winning margin was 4.5 seconds for the Motorbase Performance-run squad. Sutton also claimed the fastest lap of the race.
Beginning raceday at the scorching hot Norfolk track with ninth place in round 19, having qualified 11th quickest, Sutton went on to finish ninth again in round 20 after battling back from a lap one incident which also involved team-mate Dan Cammish.
It really was a weekend of what could have been, not for the first time this season, for Cammish after a strong qualifying – the fastest of the Motorbase drivers with the eighth best time – and a solid and competitive seventh place in race one, achieved after passing Rowbottom on lap three.
Rightly aiming to push towards the podium in race two, and with the car to do it, everything went awry at the second corner while he was running in seventh place, contact triggering an incident which involved both NAPA Racing UK Fords.
Cammish came off worst, plummeting down the order outside the top 20 and eventually working his way back through to finish in 18th. Starting so far back in race three, he did all he could to take the chequered flag just outside the points in 16th position.
The sunshine at Snetterton certainly shone on Ollie Jackson who produced a fantastic season-best ninth place in the last of Sunday’s three races, the Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan driver charging through from 13th on the grid after a similarly strong performance in the preceding contest.
In race one he gained six places on a superb opening lap, moving up from 25th on the grid – brake bias troubles limiting qualifying – into 19th place. Although edged back after an early Safety Car he fought back to 18th. Serving up another terrific start in race two, storming into 10th on lap one, he finished 13th and therefore only missed the top 12 ‘reverse grid’ draw for race three by one place.
Team-mate Sam Osborne was somewhat frustrated after qualifying, feeling he didn’t get the most out of the car that was available to him, but from mid-distance in race one he started to make some steps forward. Racing strongly, a late battle with Josh Cook was the highlight and Osborne only just missed out on a top 20 finish after trading places with the Honda driver a couple of times.
From 21st on the grid in round 20, Osborne didn’t have the best of the first lap and slipped back three places. Recovering to 22nd before a mid-race Safety Car, he broke into 20th position with a few laps to go. Starting on row 10 for round 21, he raced well into 17th place by lap six but on lap nine he was put off the circuit twice in succession – ultimately recovering to finish in 20th spot.
Speaking after the weekend, Oly Collins – Motorbase Performance Team Manager said: “It was great to finish the weekend off like that, a fantastic, dominant display from Ash in race three showing what could have been this weekend.
“That win keeps Ash in the title fight. Unfortunately, the RWD cars were untouchable again this weekend and played with us a bit, but we did have more pace than we got to show with numerous innocent incidents over the weekend preventing us from showing the full pace, which is frustrating. We’ve got nine races left with plenty to play for.”
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