DONINGTON PARK SUBARU RACE REPORT
Another tough weekend for the Adrian Flux Subaru Racing Team but points are on the board with two podiums for Ash Sutton.
The centre of gravity changes for the 2017 season affect the performance of the Subaru Levorg in addition to the cars struggling with a straight-line speed deficit, which has meant the Adrian Flux Subaru Racing Team Engineers are working tirelessly to get the car performing at its best.
When the drivers entered qualifying on Saturday afternoon, they were as determined as ever to get put in a quick time. Last year’s pole man Ash drove the car on the edge as he hung on and put in a magnificent pole position lap a tenth of a second quicker than his rivals.
Sutton finished on Pole position for Race one on Race Day. He smashed the current lap record held by our very own Jason Plato, only for it to be then whipped from his grasp when he was penalised for a technical infringement due to an overboost issue. Ash was excluded from the results and forced to start from the back of the grid. The reigning Jack Sears Trophy Champion refused to let it get the better of him and showed admirable maturity, keeping his head down and fully focused throughout the weekend. Jason qualified 17th with James 25th and Josh 30th
For Race One Ash incredibly sprinted up the order fighting his way through the field to finish in an outstanding 13th place. James had a difficult start to the day ending up in the gravel trap on the opening lap with Jason also retiring to the pits at the end of lap 3. Josh made up several places to finish in 22nd place.
Ash went even better in Race Two and worked his magic on the Subaru Levorg once more pulling the absolute maximum from the car after a storming drive through the grid from 13th to finish in his first podium position of the year in 3rd place. Jason made up several positions to finish 20th ahead of James in 24th and Josh in 29th, who made a brief pit stop to change a punctured tyre.
For Race Three the reverse grid draw put Ash in a starting position of 6th and we weren’t expecting too much from the drivers with the harder Option Tyre being nominated for the last race of the day in addition to Ash having 57kgs of success ballast on board. However, the heavens opened resulting in a switch to the Dunlop BluResponse wet weather tyres. The rain increased as the race started and numerous cars found themselves in the gravel on the opening lap calling for a safety car, which was then red flagged in hope that the conditions would improve. The rain held off and it was blue skies once again for the restart and all four drivers had a great battle with Ash finishing in 4th position, Jason just outside the points in 17th, James 23rd and Josh behind him in 24th.
The race was won by Team Dynamics Gordon Shedden who was then excluded from the results due to a technical infringement which then boosted Ash up to third position awarding him his second piece of silverware of the day.
There is still a lot of work to be done and Adrian Flux Subaru Racing Team are looking forward to the next race at Thruxton on 6th and 7th May.
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