Champion Sutton to use car number one as positive motivation

Very little fazes Ash Sutton.

The defending BTCC champion sounds as relaxed as ever on the eve of his title defence, which gets under way this weekend at Brands Hatch.

Barring a blizzard of media interviews and awards nights, the 24-year-old’s approach to the coming season is no different to 12 months ago when, it’s fair to say, far less was expected of him outside the Team BMR garage.

Photo credit: Gergo Toth Photography (Also main image)

This time, the number one on his Subaru Levorg marks him out as the man to beat, the champion to be  taken down by 31 challengers on a typically packed and competitive grid, including last season’s runner-up Colin Turkington, a host of former champions and exciting newcomers like Dan Cammish.

But Sutton is handling the increased media work and fan expectation as well as you’d imagine a man who won the title at only his second attempt would.

“People are kind of expecting me to get out of the blocks fast, and I’d love to do that,” he says, breaking off from the day-job training racers in the Renault Clios.

“That’s the only bit of pressure I’m feeling – maybe not delivering to everyone else’s expectations. Apart from that it’s all been much the same – the number one is just a number on a car.

“It means a hell of a lot to me because it shows what I achieved last year, but performance wise it won’t mean much.

“Once I’m in the car I’m not worrying about anyone else’s number. If anything, I’ll use it as a positive, as a bit of threat to everyone else – it shows I’ve been there, done that, got the t-shirt.”

Similarly, the increased round of interviews has been approached as affirmation of a job well done in 2017 rather than an imposition on his time.

“I’ve been more in high demand when it comes to interviews and press,” he says. “But I enjoy it, it’s part and parcel of the job and it’s not been at all a bad way of being snowed under. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it.”

Photo credit: Gergo Toth Photography

The prospects of a flying start on the Indy circuit at Brands Hatch this weekend have been tempered somewhat by limited testing time, but Sutton still hopes to leave the Kent track in better shape than a year ago.

“We’ve not had a huge amount of testing at all,” he adds. “As a result, we’re a little bit on the back foot, which makes it harder for this opening weekend.

“But we’ll try to get as many points as possible. In a way it’s similar to last year, where I really only got going at Donington, so we’ll be trying to replicate that but leave Brands with more points than last year.

“There have been a few little changes the team have been working hard to do over the winter, so it’s not 100 per cent the same car. I’m adapting to it, and finding my feet a little bit. But overall, it’s like putting an old pair of trainers on.”

New drivers and new cars present a new challenge to all the drivers who raced last season, and Sutton is in no doubt it will be more difficult to defend his title than win it in the first place – even though he starts as the bookies’ favourite.

Photo credit: Gergo Toth Photography

“There are a lot of new faces on the grid I haven’t raced against before, plus a couple of new cars that are unknowns,” he says.

“When you get the combination of both, like with Dan Cammish and the Civic Type R, no-one knows where his strengths and weaknesses are going to be so you need to think a little bit more about when to pull off a move. It’s a learning curve but we’ll know after a couple of races.”

We’ll have to wait a little longer than that to know if Sutton can propel his Adrian Flux Subaru Racing Levorg to the top of the pile once more as another long season of wheel-to-wheel racing awaits.

Read our pre-season interview with Jason Plato.

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