Sutton wins Croft reverse grid thriller

NAPA Racing's Ash Sutton capped off a magnificent recovery from his race one woes by winning a thrilling reverse grid British Touring Car Championship race ahead of chief title rival Tom Ingram at Croft.

The four-time champion started race three from fifth on the grid, but immediately pulled himself right into race-winning contention after taking advantage of Tom Ingram's fierce opening exchanges with BMW duo Aiden Moffat and Charles Rainford.

By the end of the opening lap, it was Moffat who led Sutton with Ingram eventually recovering to reinstate his position in third.

However, before the battle for the lead could truly rage on, a multi-car incident triggered by contact between Rainford's BMW and the Ford of Dan Cammish brought out the safety car.

Cammish appeared to be tipped into a slide by Rainford at the Complex, which sent the Ford spearing across the grass and careered back onto the circuit and straight into the hapless BMW of Daryl DeLeon. Chris Smiley was also eliminated from the race due to the incident.

Once the race got back underway on lap 8, Sutton briefly slipped back behind Ingram into third before pulling off an audacious double-move at the final hairpin to take the lead of the race.

Sutton opportunistically caught Moffat unaware as the BMW defended against Ingram's Hyundai, which allowed the Ford driver to dive up the inside and cleanly muscle past the pair.

While Sutton was able to gallop away, Moffat appeared resolute in defence of second position. However, later contact from Senna Proctor saw the BMW briefly slip off the circuit at the Complex.

That moved Proctor and Ingram up to second and third, and while the championship leader was able to move back past his Team Vertu Hyundai team mate to second, Sutton's lead proved unassailable.

Sutton eventually crossed the line over two-seconds ahead of Ingram, with Proctor holding off three-time champion Gordon Shedden for third.

As a result, just 8-points separate Ingram and Sutton in the Hyundai driver's favour as the series heads to Knockhill in two-weeks’ time.

Team Vertu's Adam Morgan completed the top-five order in fifth, ahead of Moffat, who slipped down to sixth as a result the contact from Proctor.

Sam Osborne scored his best result of the weekend with a strong drive to seventh, while Tom Chilton, Aron Taylor-Smith and Mikey Doble completed the top-ten placings.