Ash Sutton paces opening practice at Thruxton
Ash Sutton set the pace for Team BMR in a drying opening practice session of the weekend at Thruxton.
The current BTCC points leader edged out Andrew Jordan to the quickest time in a session where slippery conditions meant there was little meaningful running until the closing moments.
Even then, a number of front-runners – Matt Neal, Dan Cammish, Tom Ingram, Josh Cook and Chris Smiley – wouldn’t set a timed lap.
The Cobra Sport AmD Honda of Rory Butcher had been the early pacesetter before a red flag period caused by Mark Blundell sliding off into the barriers in his Audi, but it was Sutton who would ultimately lead the way; jumping up to top spot in the final five minutes in his Subaru Levorg.
A lap of 1:16.531 was good enough to beat Jordan by 0.071 as the WSR driver hit the track in his repaired BMW 330i M Sport, with double Donington winner Colin Turkington completing a rear-wheel drive 1-2-3 in the first of the Team BMW cars.
Jake Hill was best of the front-wheel drive cars having gone fourth quickest in his Audi, with Adam Morgan and Stephen Jelley rounding out the top six; the latter keen to bounce back from a tough weekend at Donington last time out.
Butcher would end up seventh just ahead of team-mate Sam Tordoff, with the top ten completed by Senna Proctor and Rob Collard.
