Ash Sutton produced a carbon copy of his opening race performance by doubling up in the second Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship encounter at Knockhill.
Yet again, Sutton had championship leader Colin Turkington breathing down his neck for the full 27-lap duration – and this time with the BMW 3 Series the lighter of the two machines – but he was still able to keep the #1 car at bay.
Sutton perfectly positioned his car at every possible turn, giving Turkington with little opportunity of sniffing another BTCC victory, and it was the Infiniti man scoring his fourth win of the season with an impressive defensive drive.
The rivalry is nicely bubbling between both Sutton and Turkington but it's also clear that there is a huge amount of respect between the two champions.
"I’m over the moon," said Sutton. "I think I can say that it’s the best ever touring car I’ve driven. Obviously Colin put some huge pressure in at the start and we can never match what the BMW can do off the line, so that was my biggest concern. And from then on it was just a case of managing Colin from there.
"You saw he was constantly there, I was always having to look in my mirrors. I defended probably four or five times more than I did in race one. So it definitely shifted to his favour. He made one slight error 3/4 of the way through the race which just gave me that margin again to bring it home.
"I want to strap myself back in and have another go! It’s still very early doors, it’s only the fourth meeting of the season, so there’s a long way to go yet. But this was my prime time to do that, this weekend, and we’ve done exactly that in races one and two."
"It was very much like race one; the car’s evenly matched over the course of the run and I was at full tilt to try to stay with Ash and make a move, but he just has a bit more pace than us today," responded Turkington. "We went to other tracks where we’ve been stronger, but Ash has got it dialled maybe a bit better than us.
"I think track position counts for a lot too. If you’re in the lead you can manage things, set your pace, it’s a good position to be in. But P2 for BMW again is a fantastic result, more points and hopefully I can reverse the position for race three!
"We’re at Knockhill in August which tricks your mind. It makes you think we’re nearing the end of the season but in any other year we’re really only at Oulton Park, we’re only four weekends in. I’m keeping that to the forefront of my mind and conscious just to keep scoring really good points. We’ve got a long season ahead, we go until mid-November which is a long way away."
Toyota Gazoo Racing UK with Ginsters' Tom Ingram was also involved in the scrap for victory during the first half of the race, before he had to turn his attentions to defending from Halfords Yuasa Racing's Dan Cammish – ultimately allowing the lead duo to scamper away.
Ingram and Cammish benefitted from a lap five incident involving Motorbase Performance's Rory Butcher and MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square's Jake Hill. Butcher nudged his way down the inside of Hill's Honda through the first complex, but couldn't get his car stopped in time for the tight right hander, eventually taking a trip through the gravel.
Aiden Moffat enjoyed one of his most competitive displays of the season so far – making a stellar move by Team BMW's Tom Oliphant to take fifth – whilst BTC Racing's Tom Chilton finished behind them in seventh.
Hill and Butcher eventually had to settle for eighth and tenth respectively following their early loss of ground with the Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai of Chris Smiley wedged between them.
Senna Proctor finished 11th in his 10oth BTCC race and the Hyundai i30 N driver will start his second century of races from pole position, after the #11 was chosen at random for the final reversed grid race later this afternoon.
Josh Cook's miserable start to the season continued when he was fired out of the race on the opening lap – despite his BTC Racing team producing a herculean effort to repair his Honda Civic Type R following the opening race accident. Motorbase Performance also had a similar job to ready Andy Neate's car and they too went unrewarded when the #44 spun out of contention late on.
2020 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship – Race 2 – Knockhill
1 Ashley SUTTON (GBR) Laser Tools Racing 27 laps
2 Colin TURKINGTON (GBR) Team BMW +0.662s
3 Tom INGRAM (GBR) Toyota Gazoo Racing UK with Ginsters +4.033s
4 Dan CAMMISH (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +4.707s
5 Aiden MOFFAT (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +6.282s
6 Tom OLIPHANT (GBR) Team BMW +6.787s
7 Tom CHILTON (GBR) BTC Racing +8.888s
8 Jake HILL (GBR) MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square +10.972s
9 Chris SMILEY (GBR) Excelr8 Motorsport +11.502s
10 Rory BUTCHER (GBR) Motorbase Performance +11.820s
11 Senna PROCTOR (GBR) Excelr8 Motorsport +12.536s
12 Carl BOARDLEY (GBR) HUB Financial Solutions with Team HARD +13.554s
13 Ollie JACKSON (GBR) Motorbase Performance +14.455s
14 Adam MORGAN (GBR) Carlube TripleR Racing with Mac Tools +15.155s
15 Matt NEAL (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +15.922s
16 Mike BUSHELL (GBR) Power Maxed Car Care Racing +17.007s
17 Michael CREES (GBR) The Clever Baggers with BTC Racing +17.485s
18 Sam OSBORNE (GBR) MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square +19.453s
19 Jack GOFF (GBR) RCIB Insurance with Fox Transport +19.751s
20 James GORNALL (GBR) GKR TradePriceCars.com +21.659s
21 Jack BUTEL (GBR) Carlube TripleR Racing with Mac Tools +23.353s
22 Andy NEATE (GBR) Motorbase Performance +19 laps
23 Stephen JELLEY (GBR) Team Parker Racing +21 laps
24 Josh COOK (GBR) BTC Racing +27 laps
DQ Bobby THOMPSON (GBR) GKR TradePriceCars.com
