Pyro star cleans up with full house of poles, victories and fastest laps21-year-old soaks up race-long pressure to add to Donington triumphHand homes in on top of title table with maximum score

Having finally broken his Renault UK Clio Cup duck three weeks earlier, Ash Hand demonstrated that he is gaining a taste for victory champagne with a superb performance under intense pressure at Thruxton to clinch a dominant double top. Hand travelled to Thruxton – the fastest and most fearsome circuit in Britain – buoyed by his Donington Park breakthrough and with his tail up from topping the timesheets around the high-speed Hampshire venue during pre-event testing. The talented young Nuneaton ace carried that imperious form over into qualifying, proving untouchable as he secured pole position by more than six tenths-of-a-second – an astonishing margin in the fiercely-disputed, single-make, ITV4-televised British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) support series. Hand immediately converted that advantage into the lead in the opening encounter in front of tens of thousands of trackside spectators, but an early safety car period to clear up an accident further down the order swiftly negated his efforts. Thereafter, try as he might to break away from his pursuers, the strength of the tow and the slipstreaming effect around Thruxton made it all-but impossible. Time and again, the highly-rated Maple Park hotshot would stretch his legs over the first half of the lap behind the wheel of his Team Pyro-prepared and Sigma, The Manchester College and QTS-backed car – and on every occasion, he would be reined back in again over the second half until he was at last able to edge away to take the chequered flag 1.3 seconds to the good. Hand produced another textbook getaway in the second outing, but team-mate Ashley Sutton kept him honest throughout as the inseparable duo pulled inexorably away from the chasing pack. With no breathing space or room for error, the 21-year-old Warwickshire star was peerless in his defence, and even a bold late lunge from his rival into the chicane on the last lap could not deny him a third triumph from six starts in 2015 as he kept his foot firmly planted to take the flag first.“I felt confident after finally getting the monkey off my back at Donington and our pace in testing at Thruxton,” asserted Hand, who has moved up from fourth to third in the title standings and practically halved his deficit to the top of the table from 45 points to just 24. “It’s a really fast circuit and one that I’ve always enjoyed; you need to be completely committed and absolutely on top of your game. You can’t afford to miss a beat – if you do, you’re in trouble, because it’s a track that really punishes mistakes.“I must admit I was slightly taken aback by just how far up the road we were in qualifying. The car was amazing – the best it’s ever been, thanks to the Pyro boys ­– and we had time in the bag to spare, which was just phenomenal! We could have gone even quicker if we’d needed to.“That said, the races were a different matter, since the tow at Thruxton makes it really tough to shake people off. I concentrated on putting in qualifying-style laps to begin with in race one because I knew how important it would be to try to get an early break. It was hard work and it took a while, but once I did pull clear, I just focussed on controlling everything and bringing the car safely home without making any mistakes.“If I’d reckoned that was difficult, though, race two was doubly so! There was barely a couple of tenths between myself and Ashley throughout, and you can lose that kind of time so easily. I needed to be inch-perfect every single lap and handle the pressure in my stride.“Beginning the last lap, I managed to open up a slightly bigger gap and I thought I’d done enough, but Ashley towed onto the back of me again and all-of-a-sudden he appeared on my inside entering the chicane! It was a brave move and we both braked as late as we dared, but there was a lot of respect given and it was good, hard racing. I really enjoyed it.“Overall, it was the perfect weekend – unquestionably the best of my car racing career so far! We ticked every box and cleaned up in the points, so it was mission accomplished. We also set the fastest lap in both races without even benefitting from the tow – I was really pleased with that.“Now we’re already looking ahead to Oulton Park, which is another of my favourite circuits. We’ve always been quick there but things haven’t gone our way over the past couple of seasons – hopefully this year we can make it third time lucky! We’ve got the confidence, we’ve got the car and we’re right in the fight, so it’s game on!”