Photo credit to; Motorsport UK
Aiden Moffat lined up on pole position after his penalty was overturned giving him the race one win from his teammate Mikey Doble, setting him up to possibly take a second win of the weekend! Before the first green flag lap, Gilbert’s battery died on the grid, forcing him to be pushed down the pitlane to the WSR garages – where they fixed the issue, resulting in Gilbert being allowed to start on the grid as he completed the second green flag lap.
The race start saw total chaos as Chilton tried it round the outside of both Doble and Moffat but had the door slammed shut on him round the outside of Copse, with Moffat keeping the lead! Sutton flew up to 8th by the end of the first lap and pulled a double overtake on the franticly battling Shedden and Rainford into Maggots and Beckets, finding himself 5th by the end of the second lap of the race. Sutton quickly dispatched of Doble in 4th and found himself right behind Chilton, up 8 places by the end of lap three! Doble dropped like a stone during lap 4, finding himself all the way back to 8th while his teammate up front – Aiden Moffat – defended from De Leon and Chilton, while Sutton closed in rapidly! De Leon managed to get by Moffat on lap 6 into Brooklands, leaving Moffat to become Sutton’s next victim, which would happen exactly a lap later on lap 7 into Brooklands. Sutton pulled off a absolutely ridiculous move on De Leon into Copse, selling the dummy on De Leon pretending to go around the outside before slicing back underneath De Leon under breaking, going down the inside and flying by the West Surry Racing car!
Rainford fought his way past Moffat after a short battle on lap 11 slotting by into Maggots and Beckets, MB Motorsport and Mikey Doble had a brilliant battle on lap 12, seeing Aron Taylor Smith eventually fly around the outside of both Shedden and Doble in Magots and Beckets, fighting his way into 9th with style! Doble, Selby and Cook all had a ding-dong battle heading onto lap 18 with plenty of rubbing and racing, with Cook eventually getting past Doble on the inside of Copse on lap 19 while Selby filtered past as well – while this was progressing Smiley & Shedden received a 5 second penalty.
Ash Sutton would lead after gaining 11 positions in 7 laps. Something which in itself is a world class achievement. What beats that is winning the title while doing it, and doing it 4 races and a round early. Winning a record 5th title at the same time. That isn’t world class. That’s Ashley Sutton, 5x BTCC Champion