Team Toyota GB’s Tom Ingram converted pole position into victory in race one of the British Touring Car Championship at Snetterton, fending off early pressure from Dan Cammish’s Honda.
Ingram defended on the opening lap but eventually extended the gap to over three seconds over front-row starter Cammish after the former secured pole by just two thousandths yesterday.
Behind them, Motorbase’s Tom Chilton had leapfrogged Sam Tordoff at turn one and was a firm part of the leading trio before his left-front tyre punctured at Coram on the fifth lap.
That promoted Tordoff back into this starting position of third and meant the 2016 runner-up completed the podium ahead of reigning champion Colin Turkington who was the highest finisher not on the soft compound rubber.
He headed home WSR stablemate and title rival Andrew Jordan, who muscled his way past Jason Plato on lap 10, the pair rubbing at Brundle and Nelson before Jordan completed the move into the Bomb Hole.
That demoted Plato to sixth, forcing him to defend from Rob Collard who in turn managed to hold off Ollie Jackson’s Ford and Matt Simpson’s Honda as they placed seventh, eighth and ninth respectively.
AmD Tuning stablemates Jake Hill and Rory Butcher put in a solid performance to hang on to points despite running the far less favourable harder tyre, while Sutton progressed from 18th on the grid to come home 12th.
Team HARD’s Bobby Thompson secured a handful of points in 13th, while Chris Smiley and Daniel Rowbottom rounded out the points-paying positions in 14th and 15th.
The third BMW of Tom Oliphant was next, while Aiden Moffat enjoyed a positive debut in the Infiniti Q50 to come home 17th.
Notably, both Matt Neal and Adam Morgan retired while they had been running strongly in the top ten, the former seemingly with accident damage and the latter with a gearbox issue.
The second race of the day for the British Touring Car Championship at Snetterton is set to get underway at 14:10 BST.
Race result
| POS | NO | CL | DRIVER | NAT | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | BEST | GD |
| 1 | 80 | M | Tom INGRAM |  |
Team Toyota GB with Ginsters | Toyota Corolla | 12 | 23:26.771 | 1:55.747 | 1 |
| 2 | 27 | M | Dan CAMMISH | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 12 | 3.071 | 1:55.682 | 2 |
| 3 | 600 | I | Sam TORDOFF | |
Cobra Sport AmD AutoAid / RCIB Insurance | Honda Civic Type R | 12 | 7.199 | 1:56.197 | 3 |
| 4 | 1 | M | Colin TURKINGTON | |
Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 12 | 12.499 | 1:56.502 | 5 |
| 5 | 77 | M | Andrew JORDAN | |
BMW Pirtek Racing | BMW 330i M Sport | 12 | 16.918 | 1:56.740 | 7 |
| 6 | 11 | M | Jason PLATO | |
Sterling Insurance with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 12 | 19.783 | 1:56.649 | 6 |
| 7 | 9 | M | Rob COLLARD | |
Sterling Insurance with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 12 | 20.333 | 1:56.815 | 10 |
| 8 | 48 | I | Ollie JACKSON | |
Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher | Ford Focus RS | 12 | 20.492 | 1:56.843 | 12 |
| 9 | 303 | I | Matt SIMPSON | |
Simpson Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 12 | 21.090 | 1:56.766 | 15 |
| 10 | 24 | I | Jake HILL | |
TradePriceCars.com | Audi S3 | 12 | 28.584 | 1:57.466 | 14 |
| 11 | 6 | I | Rory BUTCHER | |
Cobra Sport AmD AutoAid / RCIB Insurance | Honda Civic Type R | 12 | 29.419 | 1:57.741 | 11 |
| 12 | 116 | M | Ashley SUTTON | |
Adrian Flux Subaru Racing | Subaru Levorg | 12 | 29.689 | 1:57.498 | 18 |
| 13 | 19 | I | Bobby THOMPSON | |
GKR Scaffolding with Autobrite Direct | Volkswagen CC | 12 | 33.946 | 1:57.535 | 16 |
| 14 | 22 | I | Chris SMILEY | |
BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 12 | 34.871 | 1:57.800 | 13 |
| 15 | 32 | I | Daniel ROWBOTTOM | |
Cataclean Racing with Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 12 | 36.178 | 1:57.590 | 17 |
| 16 | 15 | M | Tom OLIPHANT | |
Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 12 | 44.997 | 1:58.801 | 20 |
| 17 | 16 | I | Aiden MOFFAT | |
Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 12 | 45.475 | 1:58.174 | 29 |
| 18 | 31 | I | Jack GOFF | |
RCIB Insurance with Fox Transport | Volkswagen CC | 12 | 45.886 | 1:59.102 | 21 |
| 19 | 18 | M | Senna PROCTOR | |
Adrian Flux Subaru Racing | Subaru Levorg | 12 | 46.199 | 1:58.976 | 23 |
| 20 | 66 | I | Josh COOK | |
BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 12 | 52.334 | 1:59.285 | 19 |
| 21 | 41 | I | Carl BOARDLEY | |
RCIB Insurance with Fox Transport | Volkswagen CC | 12 | 53.244 | 1:58.829 | 24 |
| 22 | 28 | I | Nicolas HAMILTON | |
ROKiT Racing with Motorbase | Ford Focus RS | 12 | 53.834 | 1:57.705 | 22 |
| 23 | 8 | I | Mark BLUNDELL | |
TradePriceCars.com | Audi S3 | 12 | 56.934 | 1:58.919 | 26 |
| 24 | 4 | I | Sam OSBORNE | |
Exceler8 Motorsport | MG6 | 12 | 58.699 | 1:59.621 | 28 |
| 25 | 12 | I | Stephen JELLEY | |
Team Parker Racing | BMW 125i M Sport | 12 | 1:03.242 | 1:58.606 | 30 |
| 26 | 37 | I | Rob SMITH | |
Exceler8 Motorsport | MG6 | 12 | 1:06.880 | 1:59.863 | 27 |
| 27 | 777 | I | Michael CREES | |
GKR Scaffolding with Autobrite Direct | Volkswagen CC | 12 | 1:41.591 | 1:58.800 | 25 |
| R | 33 | I | Adam MORGAN | |
Mac Tools with Ciceley Motorsport | Mercedes-Benz A-Class | 5 | DNF | 1:56.311 | 9 |
| R | 3 | I | Tom CHILTON | |
Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher | Ford Focus RS | 4 | DNF | 1:55.908 | 4 |
| R | 25 | M | Matt NEAL | |
Halfords Yuasa Racing | Honda Civic Type R | 1 | DNF | 2:07.875 | 8 |
