Sutton revels in 'crucial' race three win, despite 'bad weekend'

NAPA Racing UK's Ash Sutton says beating his chief British Touring Car Championship title rival Tom Ingram to the win in race three was 'crucial' after enduring a 'bad weekend' at Croft.

The four-time champion bounced back magnificently from his race one woes by winning a thrilling final race of the day, thanks to a spectacular move for the lead at the expense of both Team Vertu's Ingram and West Surrey Racing's Aiden Moffat.

Sutton executed an opportunistic move at the final hairpin, where the Ford driver dived down the inside of Ingram and Moffat to snatch the lead of the race.

That overtake was made all the more spectacular as Sutton completed the double-pass whilst receiving contact from three-time champion Gordon Shedden, who was also attempting to make the same move directly behind from fourth position.

Sutton explained the contact between himself and Shedden inflicted a certain degree of damage to his Ford Focus ST.

"Some of the cars are showing that it was a typical race three! It was really good from our side to come away with that result," said Sutton.

"To beat Tom [Ingram] and get those points was crucial. With race one and what went on there was a real kick in the backside, so we needed that.

"It wasn’t easy. We were nursing a pretty damaged car after the contact with Gordon [Shedden] at the last corner.

"We both thought of the same idea at the same time and unfortunately two cars don’t go well into that last corner. It was just one of those.

“We were 40 degrees left hand down, so that was a bit of a handful. It made it lively round the back of the circuit."

Despite his race three heroics, Sutton was still left to lament his race one puncture, which cost him a potential sixth place finish.

Sutton now trails championship leader Ingram by just 8-points.

"With Tom [Ingram] being three-places ahead on the grid, it was never going to be easy," Sutton continued.

"But we just made the best of someone else’s bad situation and we capitalised with an opportunistic move.

"They say you win your championship through your bad races, or bad weekends and this weekend was a bad weekend believe it or not, despite coming away with the win.

"We didn’t need that DNF in race one. If this our bad weekend, I’ll take that."