Ash Sutton and Colin Turkington treated race fans to a sublime battle in the second Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Knockhill. The duo, both multiple Champions raced nose-to-tail to the finish – with Sutton pipping the 4-time BTCC Champion on the final lap of the race.
There was a prolonged stoppage at the beginning of the race following an unfortunate collision for Nicolas Hamilton on the opening lap – the result of Chris Smiley being lame at the start and all the cars taking evasive action to avoid him – just an unfortunate set of circumstances for the ROKiT Racing with iQuoto Online Trading man.
Somehow, Shedden managed to sneak a few positions on the opening lap and once the race was restarted it was Sutton who began to charge. On lap 12 of the race, once Sutton had made P2 is own it was time to charge after Turkington who was carrying heavy ballast. The 1.4s gap at the front began to tumble lap after lap and when the gap closed to just 0.4s – Turkington had a decision to make. On one hand he could have let Sutton go, he clearly had the pace over the BMW driver, but you don’t get to win four BTCC crowns by capitulating at the first sign of pressure – so the race was on.
With 10 laps on the clock, Turkington was doing well to fend off the pursuit of Sutton, even a safety car period following a racing incident between Butcher and Moffat – which left the latter scrabbling through the gravel and Butcher watching the remainder of the race from the side lines after his car went into the tyre wall at Duffus Dip.
However, defend as he may… Sutton eventually got his man going through the Chicane as Turkington dropped a wheel into the gravel on the exit, allowing Sutton as easy pass on the inside and a straight-forward journey to the top step of the podium. Turkington recovered and secured P2 ahead of the MB Motorsport Ford Focus of Jake Hill.
Post-race, Turkington conceded that Sutton had the pace over his BMW and all things being equal he’s delighted to get back into points-winning ways and was happy to take the second position – if a little disappointed to let that win go on the very last lap after holding Sutton off for so long.
On the other hand, Sutton was complimentary towards Turkington following the toe-to-toe battle on track.
“I like to race like that, it’s good to squeeze each other when you can and afford each other a little space when that’s also required. A great win for all the guys and girls at Laser Tools Racing and mega job by Colin,” concluded Sutton.