Race report
BTCC Brands Hatch II
Brands Hatch BTCC: Sutton closes out season with Race 3 win
Ash Sutton proved his British Touring Car Championship title-winning credentials in emphatic fashion with a commanding victory in the final race of the season at Brands Hatch.
Marcus Simmons
Edited: Oct 25, 2021, 8:31 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Sutton was drawn fourth on the reversed grid, but a slow start from Rory Butcher aided the progress of the Laser Tools Racing Infiniti Q50 into third position off the line, and then Sutton got a good exit from Westfield to pass Tom Chilton for second at Dingle Dell.
Out front was poleman Stephen Jelley, but Sutton immediately slashed the gap to the West Surrey Racing-run BMW 330i M Sport, with Dan Rowbottom in pursuit after passing Chilton.
Sutton got a good run through Clearways at the end of the third lap and, aided by a push from Rowbottom, was able to easily clear Jelley by the time he reached Paddock Hill Bend.
A forceful Rowbottom got his Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R around the outside of Jelley at Druids, and claimed second place on the inside line at Graham Hill Bend, as Jelley was flicked wide onto the grass.
By the end of that fourth lap, Sutton was one second in front, but Rowbottom trimmed the gap on the next lap before the safety car emerged thanks to Jack Mitchell crashing at Hawthorn.
Sutton aced the restart, and within three laps was over a second ahead of the Honda of Rowbottom. He extended the gap to 3.378s with a lap remaining before backing off to cross the line 1.369s in front.
"We were laughing – it's the first race I've done that hasn't mattered in my touring car career, and the pressure was off," said Sutton, whose previous two title wins came in the final race.
"Stephen was always going to be tough, but I got a sweet cutback out of the last corner and a push from Dan helped."
Rowbottom came under pressure in the late stages from a surging Tom Ingram, who had rocketed his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N up from 12th on the grid, but the calm Honda ace had enough in hand to keep his pursuer at arm's length.
Daniel Rowbottom, Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Another charger was Jake Hill, who forced his way up from 10th on the grid to claim fourth in his Motorbase-run MB Motorsport Ford Focus, via contact at Surtees with Jelley when the Ford went up the inside but the BMW closed the door.
As Jelley wobbled off course to the back of the field, Hill got stuck into a ferocious scrap and sliced ahead of Josh Cook's BTC Racing Honda and Chilton's Ciceley Motorsport BMW in one move after Cook had gone up the inside of Chilton at Stirling's.
Hill set fastest lap, but was too far behind Ingram to catch the Hyundai and had to settle for fourth.
Cook completed an excellent weekend and finished fifth, completing a come-from-behind day to grab third place in the championship from under the noses of Ingram (who ended up fourth) and Hill (fifth).
Chilton finished sixth, while Gordon Shedden's Dynamics Honda just fended off the Team Hard Cupra of Jack Goff for seventh.
Butcher ended up ninth in his Speedworks Motorsport-run Toyota Corolla after first-lap contact at Graham Hill Bend with championship runner-up Colin Turkington.
That sent the Northern Irishman off track, and a nasty rut ripped out the right-rear suspension, putting him out of the race.
Jason Plato completed the top 10 in his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra.
BTCC Brands Hatch II Race 3 results - 18 laps
Cla Driver Chassis Time Gap 1 Ashley Sutton 30'22.671 2
Daniel Rowbottom 30'24.040 1.369 3
Tom Ingram 30'24.173 1.502 4
Jake Hill 30'25.945 3.274 5
Josh Cook 30'30.672 8.001 6
Tom Chilton 30'31.631 8.960 7
Gordon Shedden 30'32.353 9.682 8
Jack Goff 30'32.714 10.043 9
Rory Butcher 30'34.663 11.992 10
Jason Plato 30'35.673 13.002 11
Ollie Jackson 30'37.477 14.806 12
Chris Smiley 30'38.016 15.345 13
Daniel Lloyd 30'38.633 15.962 14
Aron Taylor-Smith 30'39.885 17.214 15
Tom Oliphant 30'40.132 17.461 16
Adam Morgan 30'40.368 17.697 17 Sam Osborne 30'41.847 19.176 18
Aiden Moffat 30'42.068 19.397 19
Senna Proctor 30'43.216 20.545 20 Jade Edwards 30'43.814 21.143 21
Sam Smelt 30'44.133 21.462 22 Andy Neate 30'54.636 31.965 23 Nicolas Hamilton 30'55.174 32.503 24
Stephen Jelley 31'04.798 42.127 25 Andy Wilmot 1 lap 26
Jack Mitchell Jr. 14 laps 27
Colin Turkington 17 laps 28
Carl Boardley 18 laps 29 Rick Parfitt Jr. 18 laps View full results
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article COTA W Series: Chadwick champion after dominating finale
Next article The United States GP as it happened
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Marcus Simmons
A motorsport life in graphic detail
General
A motorsport life in graphic detail
Latest news
The ten closest finishes from the 2026 NASCAR season
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup 2 h
The ten closest finishes from the 2026 NASCAR season
‘Lewis suspected a conspiracy’ – Nico Rosberg explains how Lewis Hamilton F1 rivalry went awry at Mercedes
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1 3 h
‘Lewis suspected a conspiracy’ – Nico Rosberg explains how Lewis Hamilton F1 rivalry went awry at Mercedes
BMW "proud of what we achieved" after securing runner-up in 2026 WEC
WEC
WEC WEC
Monza
4 h
BMW "proud of what we achieved" after securing runner-up in 2026 WEC
The numbers that reveal how sprint races have turned the MotoGP title fight upside down
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Qatar GP
6 h
The numbers that reveal how sprint races have turned the MotoGP title fight upside down
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe