Alan Gow expecting “gladiatorial battle” at Brands Hatch

Series director Alan Gow says he expects Brands Hatch to provide a “gladiatorial battle” between Ash Sutton and Colin Turkington as the pair go head-to-head for the BTCC title.

Team BMR driver Sutton takes a ten point lead over his WSR rival Turkington into the weekend, with Gordon Shedden and Tom Ingram retaining the slimmest of mathematical chances of stealing the most unlikely of titles.

Sutton will be gunning for his first championship title in only his second season in the series, with Turkington looking to join a select band of drivers to have lifted the crown three times.

Speaking ahead of the finale, Gow said he was expecting the fight for honours to be one that would enthrall the watching fans and expressed a desire to see the pair going wheel-to-wheel for the crown.

“Realistically it is down to Ash and Colin, and it will be a gladiatorial battle between them,” he said. “It would be nice to see it decided without any drama and I certainly don’t expect there to be any between them as they are both above doing anything contentious.

“The dream for me is for those two to go head-to-head with each other in all three races and for the title to be decided that way. I just want to see an enthralling and exciting race meeting.

“Neither of them can afford to have a bad race, or even an ordinary race. They are going to have to hit the mark and be perfect in every race because there isn’t another meeting to try and recover – it all comes down to this.”