Rowbottom surges to race two Croft win, Sutton recovers to fifth

NAPA Racing UK's Dan Rowbottom made perfect use of the soft tyre to score a convincing British Touring Car Championship race two victory at Croft.

The Ford Focus ST driver started the second race from fourth, but was the highest placed soft-tyre on the grid, with the top-three runners all starting on the slower hard tyre.

It didn't take long for Rowbottom to press home that advantage, and by lap 3, he found himself in the lead of the race after moving ahead of pole-sitter Ingram at the Complex.

With Ingram electing to run the hard tyre, his Team Vertu stablemate Tom Chilton followed Rowbottom through into second, but was unable to match the pace set by the race leading Ford.

Rowbottom eventually crossed the line 1.8s ahead of Chilton to record his third victory of the season, which also moves him ahead of his NAPA Racing team mate Dan Cammish up to third in the championship standings.

Having endured a tricky Saturday, Daryl DeLeon provided the West Surrey Racing BMW outfit cause for some celebration with a measured drive to a third-place finish.

Team Vertu's Adam Morgan continued his steady rise up the order following a difficult qualifying to finish the second race in fourth, ahead of the hard-charging NAPA Racing UK Ford of Ash Sutton in fifth.

The four-time champion made another of his trademark recoveries after slicing through the field on the soft tyre from last on the grid. Such was his pace, Sutton managed to finish ahead of Ingram and claw back some of the ground lost during race one.

11-points now separate the top-two championship runners heading into race three.

Charles Rainford backed up his WSR team mate DeLeon's podium result with a sixth-place finish, ahead of three-time champion Gordon Shedden in seventh and championship leader Tom Ingram, who finished an eventual eighth.

Aiden Moffat and Dan Cammish completed the remainder of the top-ten in ninth and tenth.