Ash Sutton insists ‘things will only get tougher’ after points lead cut

Ash Sutton insists that things will only get harder in the fight for the BTCC title after seeing his points lead cut during the fifth meeting of the season at Oulton Park.

Sutton went into the weekend on the back of a stunning run of six wins in nine races, and scored pole for the third successive meeting to ensure he would lead the field away in race one.

Following Jake Hill home in the first two races, Sutton was able to extend his lead over Tom Ingram as he followed the Ford home in third spot, but contact between the pair at the start of race three would result in Sutton hitting the pit wall and breaking his suspension – putting him out of action.

With Ingram able to finish the race in fourth, the gap between the pair now sits at six points going into the summer break.

“I would have much preferred to be on track for the end of race three and not watching in the pits!” Sutton said. “It’s frustrating because we’ve been chipping away at things and finished in front of Tom in the first two races to get the gap to a number I was happy with and all that has been undone.

“We’ve had a mega stint of rounds, but it has all been undone by one incident.”

Sutton added that the way the weekend had panned out in terms of results – with WSR winning all three races – was an indication of the battle that now lay ahead in the second half of the campaign.

“Everyone moaned about NAPA Racing UK taking all three wins at the previous round but BMW have rocked up here and they have had a quick car on the soft tyre,” he added. “It shows that it isn’t all our show and BMW – for one – are going to take the fight to us.

“Tom has also been silently picking up the points and it’s only when you look at that and not just results, you get the true picture. If you do just look at the results, you’d say we’ve been dominant, but then when you look at the points you see we only a lead of around 20 points, which is now much smaller.

“We’re going to see things changing all the time and it will only get tougher from here on; they aren’t far behind.”