Ash Sutton wins race two at Snetterton

Credit: BTCC

Pre-race, the NAPA Racing UK Ford of Dan Cammish had a suspected brake problem, but his team were able to fix it and he started the race from fifth. The top three of Charles Rainford, Team VERTU’s Tom Ingram and Daryl DeLeon were amongst the medium tyre runners, due to finishing on the podium in the opening race of the weekend.

Race one winner, WSR’s Rainford, made another good start from pole, leading DeLeon and Ingram into turn one. Ingram quickly re-passed DeLeon, allowing Rainford to build an early gap as Josh Cook looked to overtake Deleon. Teammates, Tom Chilton and Ricky Collard, battled hard on lap one.

Cammish then made a good overtake on Cook for fourth at the end of the back straight as Sutton moved past Chilton. Ingram quickly reeled in Rainford, taking the lead of the race early in lap two. Meanwhile, Cook dropped back through the pack.

Collard then began to pressure Plato Racing’s Dan Rowbottom, completing the move into turn one on lap three, with Sutton right behind. Sutton eventually managed to overtake the Mercedes. Cammish continued to look for a way past DeLeon, who was right behind his WSR teammate, Rainford.

Credit: BTCC

Collard put up a tough defense as Sutton looked to further his progress in race two. Cammish eventually made the pass on DeLeon, midway through lap five. Things then got worse for the BMW driver, being past by Sutton and Collard, with Chilton following through just a few corners later.

Sutton continued to charge his way through the pack, passing Cammish for third on lap six. Half a lap later, Sutton would pass Rainford for second as he looked to chase down Ingram for the race lead. Rainford continued to struggle on the medium tyre, losing third to Cammish on lap seven. Heading onto lap eight, Sutton was right on the tail of Ingram, who would go deep into turn two thanks to a lock up. This handed the lead to Sutton as the Team VERTU driver dropped down to fifth.

Collard made a terrific overtake, round the outside of Cammish at the end of the back straight, to move into second. The battles continued to devlop heading into the final laps, as DeLeon ran wide at turn one on lap nine. Ingram continued to struggle, following his lockup, as Rainford looked to regain some positions. Both Plato Racing Mercedes of Rowbottom and Adam Morgan then passed the WSR BMW, applying pressure to Ingram.

Tom Chilton, then emulated his teammate, to move up to third, passing the NAPA Ford of Cammish. Ingram then pulled of the circuit on lap ten, after slowing with a suspected car problem. Morgan passed Rowbottom for fifth, with the Toyota of Gordon Shedden just behind.

Credit: BTCC

Sutton would bring home a dominant win, after starting 11th on the grid. Collard scored his best ever BTCC result, finishing second ahead of Chilton. Then came Cammish, Morgan and Rowbottom. Shedden finished seventh, whilst also winning the Independents class. The top ten was completed by Rainford, the fast charging Chris Smiley and DeLeon.

Then came Lewis Selby, Cook, Mikey Doble, Árón Taylor-Smith and Aiden Moffat rounding off the points paying positions. They were followed by Nicolas Hamilton, Sam Osborne, Max Buxton, Dexter Patterson and James Dorlin. Ingram retired from the race after pulling off in the final few laps.

Race three is due to get underway at 17:20 local time.