Ash Sutton tops sodden FP1 at Croft
Ash Sutton emerged quickest from a sodden opening BTCC practice session of the weekend at Croft.
The Subaru driver was fastest for most of the session, which was ended slightly early when the Toyota of Tom Ingram ground to a halt on the circuit.
Sutton’s best time of 1min 31.657secs made him the only person to break the 1min 32secs marker, with the Oulton Park race winner four-tenths of a second clear of Matt Simpson, who impressed with the second quickest time at the wheel of his Dynamics-run Honda Civic.
Having struggled through the opening four rounds of the campaign, the rain would prove to be a great leveler for Jason Plato as he went third quickest in the second of the Subarus, although the double champion did have a brief scare with a trip across the grass at the Chicane.
Rob Austin was fourth in the first of the Toyotas, with points leader Gordon Shedden and the BMW of Colin Turkington rounding out the top six.
Aside from Plato, Jack Goff and Rob Collard would also suffer off-track excursions at the Chicane after being caught out by the conditions, with the latter doing a full 360 before rejoining.
Having switched back to Triple Eight, Josh Cook was twelfth quickest in his MG6, lapping three-tenths of a second behind new team-mate Aron Taylor-Smith, with his replacement at Maximum Motorsport – Swede Dennis Strandberg – posting the 24th best time.
