BTCC STAR LINKED TO WALKINSHAW

BTCC Star linked to Walkinshaw – Photo: LAT

BRITISH touring car star Ash Sutton is a shock candidate to team with Chaz Mostert at Walkinshaw Andretti United in 2020.

By BRUCE NEWTON

European sources have confirmed to Auto Action the 2017 BTCC champion is on a shortlist of no more than four drivers to join the privateer Holden Commodore team’s 2020 driver line-up.

That group of prospects is also understood to include incumbent Scott Pye and potentially another international driver.

One of them seems certain to be team-mate to partner Mostert, who is understood to have agreed on a significant deal with WAU to swap from Tickford Racing.

James Courtney has already confirmed he is leaving WAU for a new home in 2020.

The possible link between 25-year old Sutton and WAU came to public light at the Silverstone World Endurance Championship opener recently.

The Adrian Flux Subaru Racing Levorg driver was spotted in the garage of United Autosports, the UK team that is a part-owner of WAU and an entrant in the WEC LMP2 class.

United Autosports is part-owned by Zak Brown, who is also CEO of the McLaren Racing, while the other co-investor alongside the Walkinshaw family is IndyCar legend Michael Andretti’s Andretti Autosport.

While issuing an emphatic no comment when asked directly about Sutton, WAU co-owner Ryan Walkinshaw was prepared to admit international drivers were on WAU’s consideration list for 2020.

“We are looking at all sorts of options,” said Walkinshaw. “We see ourselves as a global team and that is what we want to portray ourselves as locally and globally.”

“That opens up the doors with Zak in Europe and Michael in the US to opportunities with international drivers and of course we are exploring that.”

Asked about Pye, Walkinshaw confirmed the team was in “ongoing negotiations”.

“Scott is someone we are talking to. We have not made a call on that seat and we are not going to go into any details beyond what I have just said.”

Matt Stone Racing driver Todd Hazelwood has also been linked with WAU in recent weeks, but the young star who posted his best result in Supercars with fifth place last Sunday at Pukekohe, has also been connected with several other moves, as well as potentially staying where he is.

IndyCar driver Marco Andretti, the son of Michael Andretti, has also been mentioned as a possible team recruit, but that is regarded as being well wide of the mark.

Sutton has real appeal to WAU because of his obvious talent and his youth. AA understands there is strong belief in the team he could be moulded into an elite Supercars driver within a couple of seasons.

This year he runs the sixth in the BTCC and is clearly wringing the neck of a car that handles well but is down on straight-line speed compared to the rivals such as the 3 Series BMWs and Honda Civic Type Rs.

Certainly, he has a fan in WAU technical chief Carl Faux, who designed the rear-wheel-drive Levorg BTCC racer and was integral to Sutton’s BTCC success.

Faux told Auto Action in an interview earlier this year he rated Sutton amongst the best three drivers he worked with in his British and European career alongside Fabrizio Giovanardi and Jason Plato.

From Bishops Stortford in Essex, Sutton came to the fore in British racing with third place in the 2014 Formula Ford championship, before taking the Renault Clio Cup in 2015 and graduating to the BTCC in 2016.

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