ASH SUTTON STANDS IN FOR CROCKER IN TCR UK AT OULTON PARK

This Saturday’s TCR UK races at Oulton Park will see the reigning BTCC champion Ashley Sutton join the grid for the first time following a late switch of drivers. Sutton will replace Finlay Crocker at the wheel of the Verizon Connect Honda Civic Type-R TCR that Crocker has campaigned in every round of this year’s championship.

Increased business commitments looked as though they would force Crocker to miss the Oulton Park event entirely, but the Scot offered Sutton the opportunity to drive the car this weekend and the 24-year old was more than happy to accept. The car will be run under the Verizon Connect Racing banner.

Sutton started karting at the age of 6 and began competing in Formula Vee in 2010. A serious road accident in 2011 put his racing career on hold for two and half years, but a return in 2014 saw Ash competing in the MSA Formula Ford series, in which he won the Scholarship Championship. A move to the UK Renault Clio Cup followed in 2015, where he won the Graduate Championship before also clinching the overall UK Clio title at the final round of the season. Sutton then got his first taste of Touring Cars in 2016 and the rest is history…

Ash Sutton said: “This weekend will be my first real experience of a TCR car, but I may not be able to attend the test on Friday and so I’ll only have a single half-hour session in the car before Qualifying. As a result, I have no expectations or targets and so I can just enjoy the experience. From my point of view, both myself and BMR are looking at TCR as something we’d very much like to do in the future and so when Finlay contacted me to offer me the chance to drive his car, I saw it as a prime opportunity to find out what it’s all about.”

Finlay Crocker added: “I’m sorry that I won’t be competing at Oulton Park this weekend, but there’s a lot going on in my business just now and that simply has to come first. I know that Ash will do a good job for the team and for my sponsors Verizon Connect and I firmly believe that he can show what the car is capable of despite it being his first taste of TCR UK. I wouldn’t have asked him to step into the seat if I’d had any doubts.”