BTCC Knockhill: Sutton dominates with wet weather masterclass

Torrential rain soaked the teams on the grid, forcing everyone onto wet-weather tyres, and Sutton was the master of the conditions in his Motorbase Performance-run Ford Focus ST. 

He had already made up one position when the safety car unleashed the field after five laps of assessing the conditions, thanks to Aron Taylor-Smith pitting his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra with a technical problem. 

Once the race got going, reversed-grid poleman Ronan Pearson eased away from the field on his local circuit at the wheel of his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N. 

A ferocious battle for second between Ricky Collard (Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla) and Dan Lloyd (Team Hard Cupra Leon) got spicey after two laps of green-flag action. 

They rubbed panels as they raced down the start-finish straight, and Lloyd secured the corner into Duffus Dip, while Collard launched off the inside kerb and into the West Surrey Racing BMW 330e M Sport of Stephen Jelley, delaying both and allowing Sutton to slip through into third. 

The safety car appeared again to allow marshals to extract Nick Halstead’s Hyundai from the gravel at the hairpin, and it took one and a half laps of racing before Sutton got past Lloyd and into second place on the exit of the chicane. 

By the end of the lap, Sutton was 1.398 seconds adrift of Pearson, but he quickly reeled in the Scot. 

At the end of the following tour, Pearson ran wide at the hairpin, and Sutton moved into the lead. 

Pearson remained in second place for six more laps before Josh Cook, charging from eighth on the grid, moved his One Motorsport Honda Civic Type R in front on the run to the hairpin. 

Then, on the final lap, BTCC rookie Pearson allowed title-chasing team-mate Tom Ingram through into third at Clark, a situation the reigning champion described as “I feel like I just kicked a puppy!” 

Ahead of them, Cook briefly trimmed the gap to Sutton, but the leader responded with a new fastest lap and took the chequered flag with a 9.636s advantage. 

After his reversed-grid disasters in the previous two rounds at Oulton Park and Croft, Sutton said: “We’ve got over our race-three hurdle, and what better way to do it than with a win? 

“I needed that, just for myself,” he added after taking a 39-point championship lead over Ingram. “The thing was on absolute rails.” 

Both Cook and Ingram had moved up a couple of positions after the final restart when disaster struck the WSR BMW squad – Jake Hill got onto a wet patch into the hairpin and tapped fifth-placed team-mate Jelley into a spin, bringing both cars effectively to a halt. 

Hill recovered first, but another incident – he ran wide into the gravel at the hairpin – restricted him to 14th place at the finish. 

Lloyd was running fifth with four laps remaining when he ran wide at Duffus Dip defending from Collard, and was forced to concede positions to the Toyota and the sister Hard Cupra of Dexter Patterson. 

Collard then had to fend off the fired-up Patterson, running strongly on his home circuit, while another Scot, Aiden Moffat (One Honda), also got ahead of Lloyd for seventh. 

George Gamble (Speedworks Toyota) and Dan Cammish (Motorbase Ford) rounded out the top 10.

Knockhill BTCC race three result

Main Information Additional Data Additional Data Driver Info

       

Driver Info			Main Information Additional Data
Cla	Driver	#		Car	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	A. Sutton Ashley Sutton NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus ST	27	28'46.947				20
2	J. Cook Josh Cook One Motorsport with Starline Racing			Honda Civic Type R	27	9.636				17
3	T. Ingram Tom Ingram BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8			Hyundai i30N	27	16.568	6.932			15
4	R. Pearson Ronan Pearson BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8			Hyundai i30N	27	17.699	1.131			13
5	R. Collard Ricky Collard Toyota Gazoo Racing UK			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	27	19.841	2.142			11
6	D. Patterson Dexter Patterson Re.Beverages and Bartercard with Team HARD.			Cupra León	27	20.457	0.616			10
7	A. Moffat Aiden Moffat One Motorsport with Starline Racing			Honda Civic Type R	27	21.178	0.721			9
8	D. Lloyd Daniel Lloyd Autobrite Direct with Millers Oils			Cupra León	27	21.969	0.791			8
9	G. Gamble George Gamble Toyota Gazoo Racing UK			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	27	22.906	0.937			7
10	D. Cammish Dan Cammish NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus ST	27	23.055	0.149			6
11	M. Doble Mikey Doble CarStore Power Maxed Racing			Vauxhall Astra	27	24.155	1.100			5
12	R. Butcher Rory Butcher Toyota Gazoo Racing UK			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	27	26.157	2.002			4
13	S. Osborne Sam Osborne NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus ST	27	28.318	2.161			3
14	J. Hill Jake Hill Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport			BMW 330e M Sport	27	29.783	1.465			2
15	A. Taylor-Smith Aron Taylor-Smith CarStore Power Maxed Racing			Vauxhall Astra	27	33.652	3.869			1
16	A. Watson Andrew Watson CarStore Power Maxed Racing			Vauxhall Astra	27	34.011	0.359
17	C. Turkington Colin Turkington Team BMW			BMW 330e M Sport	27	35.589	1.578
18	A. Morgan Adam Morgan Team BMW			BMW 330e M Sport	27	35.677	0.088
19	S. Jelley Stephen Jelley Team BMW			BMW 330e M Sport	27	35.955	0.278
20	T. Chilton Tom Chilton BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8			Hyundai i30N	27	38.492	2.537
21	J. Edwards Jade Edwards Re.Beverages and Bartercard with Team HARD.			Cupra León	27	42.305	3.813
22	J. Butel Jack Butel Go-Fix with Autoaid Breakdown			Cupra León	27	45.590	3.285
dnf	D. Rowbottom Daniel Rowbottom NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus ST	24	3 laps			Retirement
dnf	M. Crees Michael Crees BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8			Cupra León	22	5 laps			Retirement
dnf	R. Huff Rob Huff Go-Fix with Autoaid Breakdown			Cupra León	12	15 laps			Retirement
dnf	D. De Daryl De Re.Beverages and Bartercard with Team HARD.			Cupra León	9	18 laps			Retirement
dnf	N. Halstead Nick Halstead BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8			Hyundai i30N	7	20 laps			Retirement
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