Ash Sutton storms to race three victory amidst Knockhill deluge

Ash Sutton stormed from sixth on the grid to secure victory in the final BTCC race of the weekend, strengthening his grip on the 2023 title in the process.

With the top seven from race two having been reversed, Sutton started the race from the third row of the grid, with a torrential downpour just before the scheduled start leading to the action being delayed before the race kicked off behind the safety car.

The field was released after four laps, with EXCELR8 rookie Ronan Pearson leading the way from Ricky Collard and Dan Lloyd; the Scot edging out a slender lead over three laps before an off for team-mate Nick Halstead at the final corner brought the safety car back out.

Prior to that, Lloyd had moved ahead of Collard into second spot , with a wild moment for Collard through turn one dropping him behind Sutton, who had made up ground in the early stages.

Clearing Lloyd’s Cupra on lap twelve, Sutton then took the lead from Pearson at the hairpin before romping away to secure a comfortable eighth victory of the campaign to extend his lead in the points.

Pearson would hold onto second spot before being chased down by Josh Cook, who had worked his way through from eighth on the grid to join the podium fight. Cook nipped ahead on the run to the hairpin on 18 but was unable to close in on Sutton ahead as he instead was left to settle for the runner-up spot.

Pearson looked set to take a maiden podium finish as he ran third ahead of Lloyd and Tom Ingram, but when Ingram moved up into the top fourth in the closing stages, he was able to close in on his team-mate before securing the podium place on the final lap.

That allowed him to reclaim second in the standings, with Pearson left with the consolation of a Jack Sears Trophy win for the first time with fourth place.

Collard took fifth place in his Toyota ahead of Dexter Patterson, who produced his most impressive drive in the series by far to come through to sixth spot ahead of Aiden Moffat and Lloyd, who found himself slipping down the order as the performance of his tyres dropped away.

George Gamble and Dan Cammish then rounded out the top ten.

The race would prove to be something of a disaster for WSR, with double race winner Jake Hill involved in contact with team-mate Stephen Jelley after aquaplaning at the hairpin – dropping both outside the top ten and earning a grid penalty for the next event at Donington Park.

Hill would recover to 14th, but Jelley would be outside the points in 19th – crossing the line behind team-mates Colin Turkington and Adam Morgan.