Ash Sutton looks to the positives

Former champion Ash Sutton was left to look to the positives after a challenging start to his BTCC programme at Donington Park.

The NAPA Racing man looked like being the man to beat in Saturday’s qualifying session as he led the way in Q1, only to lose his best time in Q2 to a track limits infringement – which handed pole to team-mate Dan Rowbottom.

Despite jumping ahead of Rowbottom at the start of race one, contact from Jake Hill’s fast-starting BMW saw Sutton forced off across the grass on the run to Redgate – leaving him to retire to the pits with a radiator full of debris.

Sutton then elected to stick with slicks at the start of race two before being forced to pit for wet tyres, although he would manage to salvage a point in 15th spot.

Firmly on the back foot, Sutton was able to salvage something from race three with an impressive run to third spot but was left to wonder what might have been from round one.

“I think it’s fair to say that it’s been a ‘what could have been weekend’ but to come away with a podium in that last race is a nice way to end things; there are certainly plenty of positives that we can take away from Donington,” he said.



“Since we rolled the car out on Saturday it’s been on absolute rails and we perhaps should have had pole position however I pushed the envelope on track limits and then played it a little too safe because we didn’t have a time on the board in Q2.



“Race one was annoyingly over before it really began and then race two was just bonkers. The radar was telling us the rain was going to pass but it ultimately never did; it perhaps needed me to just grab the bull by the horns and commit to wets a little earlier than we eventually did.



“To start from 15th in that last one and come through to third was a mega way to conclude things though and I think it’s shown that when things do fall our way that we’ve got a really, really good car underneath us.”