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.
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
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| Cla | Driver | # | Car | Laps | Time | Interval | km/h | Retirement | Points | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1 |  A. Sutton NAPA Racing UK |
Ford Focus ST | 19 |
27'20.097 |
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| 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
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Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance | 19 |
+10.990 27'31.087 |
0.715 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 11 |
M. Doble Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing
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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
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Cupra León | 19 |
+33.156 27'53.253 |
17.970 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 17 |
N. Halstead Team Bristol Street Motors
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Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance | 18 |
1 lap |
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| 18 | D. Rowbottom NAPA Racing UK |
Ford Focus ST | 18 |
1 lap |
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| dnf |
D. De Duckhams Racing with Bartercard
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Cupra León | 12 |
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Retirement | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| dnf | T. Chilton Team Bristol Street Motors |
Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance | 7 |
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Retirement | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| View full results | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
