Sutton draws level with Turkington after taking race two victory

Defending British Touring Car champion Ash Sutton has drawn level with Colin Turkington at the top of the drivers' standings after taking the race two Thruxton win on his 200th BTCC start.

Simon Evans

28 Aug 2022

Ash Sutton (GBR) - NAPA Racing UK Ford Focus

Sutton ran in second position for the near entirety of the race behind Dan Cammish, but was waved through into the lead by his NAPA Racing UK team mate on the penultimate lap of the race.

In a near mirror image of race one, Cammish controlled the vast majority of the race in superb fashion before handing the position to his title contending team mate Sutton.

Following Saturday's qualifying Cammish had already stated he would play the team game with Sutton bidding to capture his fourth BTCC title.

As a result, Sutton now sits on the top of the drivers' standings on countback as virtue of clinching four second place finishes to Turkington's three so far this season.

Having handed the reigns to Sutton, Cammish still went on to finish in second position to consolidate a NAPA Racing UK one-two finish for the Ford outfit.

Team Dynamics Honda's Gordon Shedden kept a watching brief of the Ford duo for much of the race, with the three-time champion settling for the final step on the rostrum.

At times, Shedden looked stronger than his fellow three-time champion rival Sutton, but was unable to get close enough to put the Ford driver under any real pressure.

ROKiT MB Motorsport's Jake Hill finished in fourth for the second race in succession, ahead of Toyota Gazoo Racing's Rory Butcher in fifth.

EXCELR8 Motorsport's Tom Ingram has now fallen to joint third in the standings with BMW's Hill after posting a sixth-place finish in race two.

Both Ingram and Hill sit just 10-points adrift of Sutton and Turkington.

Team Dynamics Honda's Dan Rowbottom spent the last half race of the glued to the rear of Ingram's Hyundai i30N, but was unable to get the better of the title challenger and settled for seventh.

BTC Racing's Josh Cook recovered further up the order from his race one woes to finish in eighth ahead of Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall's Michael Crees and Team BMW's Turkington in ninth and tenth.

With team orders now starting to influence the championship battle, Turkington was also waved through by his Team BMW stablemate Stephen Jelley earlier in the race.

Incidentally, Jelley and Turkington will start race three from the front-row of the grid after Jelley's finishing position was chosen in the reverse grid draw.