BTCC Thruxton: Sutton breaks win drought to regain championship lead

Sutton had to battle from outside the top six, but picked off his rivals in his Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus ST on the way to his 40th career BTCC victory.

Adam Morgan started on pole alongside Colin Turkington in an all-West Surrey Racing BMW front row, but Josh Cook, from third on the grid, pulled off a great manoeuvre on Turkington into the Complex to put his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla into second.

That bunched up the pack, and contact from Turkington fired Dan Rowbottom into the barrier, although the bearded Midlander recovered and rejoined the race.

Wheelspin at the start had converted Sutton’s fourth on the grid to what he estimated was “seventh or eighth”, but he was up to fifth by the end of the opening tour.

On the second lap, Sutton used hybrid to get himself past both Turkington and the sister Ford of Dan Cammish into third place – and set fastest lap and gain an extra point into the bargain.

Up front, Cook was applying serious pressure to race leader Morgan, and after six laps Morgan, Cook, Sutton, Cammish and Turkington were all in a train.

Next time around, Sutton somehow chiselled a gap on Cook at Goodwood, and the Toyota – caught off line – was now easy meat, dropping to the back of the leading group.

On the ninth lap of the intended 16, Sutton divebombed Morgan into Segrave, and the BMW’s lost momentum allowed Cammish to get around the outside at Noble into second place.

Tom Ingram (Photo by: JEP)

Then came a belated safety car – Tom Chilton’s Hyundai had been parked with electrical failure at the side of the track on the run to the Complex for some time before the race was neutralised.

Sutton and Cammish scampered away at the restart over six laps, and Sutton, who felt that the Ford was better than it has been all season, went on to take the win by 4.449 seconds.

Tom Ingram and Jake Hill came into the equation for third place after the safety car.

On the penultimate lap, Ingram’s Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N went around the outside of Morgan into the chicane, but there was contact.

Ingram had to steer out of the move and bypassed the chicane completely, while Morgan skipped the middle part – potentially removing the threat of any penalty being applied to Ingram like in race two.

Hill claimed fifth in his WSR BMW from the fading Cook and Turkington, whose rear tyres had gone off.

Ingram appeared to attempt to address any looming threat of investigation for his move on Morgan by slowing at the chicane on the final lap, meaning Morgan bumped into the rear of his Hyundai, and Hill in turn nerfed into Morgan, but there was no change in the order.

Aron Taylor-Smith was eighth in his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra, while Rob Huff (Speedworks Toyota) and Ronan Pearson (Excelr8 Hyundai) completed the top 10.

BTCC Thruxton - Race 3 results

Main Information Additional Data Additional Data Driver Info

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Main Information Additional Data 1  -  2
Cla	Driver	#		Car	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	A. Sutton NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus ST	19	27'20.097
2	D. Cammish NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus ST	19	+4.449 27'24.546	4.449
3	T. Ingram Team Bristol Street Motors			Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance	19	+7.962 27'28.059	3.513
4	A. Morgan Team BMW			BMW 330e M Sport	19	+8.039 27'28.136	0.077
5	J. Hill Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport			BMW 330e M Sport	19	+8.198 27'28.295	0.159
6	J. Cook LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	19	+8.376 27'28.473	0.178
7	C. Turkington Team BMW			BMW 330e M Sport	19	+9.646 27'29.743	1.270
8	A. Taylor-Smith Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing			Vauxhall Astra	19	+10.002 27'30.099	0.356
9	R. Huff Toyota Gazoo Racing UK			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	19	+10.275 27'30.372	0.273
10	R. Pearson Team Bristol Street Motors			Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance	19	+10.990 27'31.087	0.715
11	M. Doble Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing			Vauxhall Astra	19	+11.315 27'31.412	0.325
12	A. Watson Toyota Gazoo Racing UK			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	19	+12.862 27'32.959	1.547
13	S. Osborne NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus ST	19	+13.843 27'33.940	0.981
14	C. Smiley Restart Racing			Cupra León	19	+14.727 27'34.824	0.884
15	A. Moffat LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	19	+15.186 27'35.283	0.459
16	S. Sumpton Restart Racing			Cupra León	19	+33.156 27'53.253	17.970
17	N. Halstead Team Bristol Street Motors			Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance	18	1 lap
18	D. Rowbottom NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus ST	18	1 lap
dnf	D. De Duckhams Racing with Bartercard			Cupra León	12				Retirement
dnf	T. Chilton Team Bristol Street Motors			Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance	7				Retirement
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