Laser Tools Racing braved a roller-coaster weekend at Thruxton in Hampshire, with a quintet of points-scoring finishes the squad’s reward during the latest rounds of the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship.
While current standings leader Ash Sutton secured seventh spot on the grid during Saturday’s qualifying, a puncture and consequent damage for team-mate Aiden Moffat ended his session early and the Scot settled for 18th, while Carl Boardley’s Infiniti would line up 26th for Sunday’s first race.
The opening encounter saw Boardley make up places from the off, battling with the Ford of Sam Osborne to take 24th place. Sutton’s ballast-laden machine took an impressive fifth at the chequered flag, while Moffat’s 16th-place finish became 18th following a post-race penalty.
Firing into third during the opening tour of race two, a determined Sutton picked off the pack during race two in his #1 Infiniti. The 27-year-old continued a strong run, battling with Josh Cook before taking the lead and ultimately his fourth victory of the campaign on lap 11.
Moffat worked his way into the points during the 16-lap contest, crossing the line 13th, as Boardley once again made up places to take 21st.
With Sutton starting race three from eighth, following the reverse grid draw, and Moffat and Boardley in 13th and 21st respectively, the team’s hopes of strong results from the final outing of the day unfortunately didn’t come to fruition.
With an opening-lap incident kicking the race off under the safety car, Sutton struggled with the additional 75kg of success ballast onboard his Infiniti and, despite fighting back against his rivals, settled for a top ten finish by the conclusion of the 19th lap.
Despite moving into 12th after the opening lap, Moffat went on to defend 13th spot to the flag, but disaster struck for the #41 machine. Two bouts of contact from a rival resulted in race-ending damage for Boardley, concluding the 45-year-old’s trip to Hampshire.
The team next heads to North Yorkshire’s Croft circuit (18/19 September), for Rounds 19, 20 and 21, with Sutton holding on to the top spot in the Drivers’ Standings, while the team is tied on points with BTC Racing at the summit of the Teams’ battle.
