Daniel Lloyd wins finale as team-mate Tom Ingram secures maiden title

Excelr8 Motorsport had double celebrations in the final race of the British Touring Car Championship season at Brands Hatch, as Daniel Lloyd took a lights-to-flag win whilst Tom Ingram secured a first-ever drivers’ title with fifth.

Lloyd controlled the race from lights-to-flag, as an early challenge from Team HARD’s Bobby Thompson went up in smoke on lap three, when the field was behind the safety car, due to a suspected turbo failure.

The safety car intervention had been required due to Rick Parfitt’s Infiniti ending up in the gravel at Westfield, following suspected contact with Excelr8’s Jack Butel.

Prior to that, Ingram had got the jump on MB motorsport title rival Jake Hill at the start to end the opening lap in ninth, whilst Sutton held position in sixth, knowing that he would need to make significant progress in order to stand a chance of defending his title.

Racing resumed on lap six and Ingram immediately began to pressure NAPA Racing UK’s Dan Cammish for sixth, but with Hill also hot on his tail he found no room to pass.

Hill then passed Ingram for seventh on lap ten at Westfield – somewhere the BMW driver has been stronger than the Hyundai racer all weekend.

The order then changed on lap 11 when Cammish made contact with the back of Ciceley Motorsport’s Adam Morgan, who had dropped from second to fifth on the lap of the restart, at Druids, spinning the BMW almost into the path of the chasing Hill and Ingram.

Both made it through unscathed, promoting Hill and Ingram to fifth and sixth, hot on the tail of NAPA’s Sutton.

But despite Hill applying lap after lap of pressure, he couldn’t find a way past the Ford. On the penultimate lap of the race, Hill tried the outside of Sutton at Paddock Hill Bend, but in turn allowed Ingram into fifth – and as Hill also slipped behind George Gamble and Cammish his chances of second in the standings also ebbed away.

At the front, Lloyd cruised to a third win of the season ahead of BTC Racing’s Cook, with the Toyota of Rory Butcher completing the podium after getting past Sutton for the place on the run to Surtees on the ninth tour.

Outgoing champion Sutton – who immediately handed the #1 sticker to Ingram after the race – was fourth, ahead of new champion Ingram in fifth.

Gamble brought his Ciceley BMW home in sixth, with Hill in seventh – the result meaning that he ended the year third in the drivers’ standings, just one point behind Sutton.

Cammish was eighth, whilst the top ten was completed by Team BMW’s Stephen Jelley and Laser Tools Racing’s Aiden Moffat.

Toyota’s Ricky Collard – who earlier revealed he would not be continuing in the championship in 2023 – was 11^th.

Dramas on the last lap saw Power Maxed Racing’s Michael Crees end his season on his roof in the Clark Curve gravel trap.

Team Dynamics’ Daniel Rowbottom also retired from the race, having been turned around by BMW’s Colin Turkington going down Hawthorn Hill on the second lap, although he was able to continue after a pitstop, with Turkington in turn having been elbowed out wide by Gamble in the start of the incident.

BTC racing’s Jason Plato ended his BTCC career with a points-less weekend in 17^th.

Race result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	123	M		Daniel LLOYD	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	17	27:43.343	1:30.966	1
2	66	I		Josh COOK	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	17	0.724	1:30.568	4
3	6	M		Rory BUTCHER	Toyota GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	17	4.409	1:31.028	7
4	1	M		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	17	8.555	1:31.063	6
5	80	M		Tom INGRAM	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	17	9.479	1:31.120	10
6	42	I		George GAMBLE	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	17	9.831	1:31.446	11
7	24	M		Jake HILL	ROKiT MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	17	10.327	1:31.142	9
8	9	M		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	17	11.472	1:31.137	3
9	12	M		Stephen JELLEY	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	17	17.304	1:31.729	15
10	16	I		Aiden MOFFAT	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	17	21.511	1:31.917	12
11	21	M		Ricky COLLARD	Toyota GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	17	21.733	1:31.775	16
12	50	M		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	17	21.932	1:31.742	8
13	52	M		Gordon SHEDDEN	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type R	17	22.219	1:31.911	19
14	17	I		Dexter PATTERSON	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	17	22.332	1:31.720	20
15	97	I		Ash HAND	CarStore Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	17	22.644	1:31.806	17
16	77	M		Sam OSBORNE	Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan	Ford Focus ST	17	23.308	1:31.923	22
17	11	I		Jason PLATO	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	17	23.593	1:31.848	18
18	3	M		Tom CHILTON	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	17	24.12	1:31.599	14
19	96	M		Jack BUTEL	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	17	24.713	1:32.011	24
20	40	I		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing	CUPRA Leon	17	25.167	1:31.776	27
21	99	I		Jade EDWARDS	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	17	25.388	1:32.175	25
22	48	M		Ollie JACKSON	Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan	Ford Focus ST	17	25.713	1:32.274	23
23	33	I		Adam MORGAN	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	16	+ 1 LAP	1:30.997	5
R	777	I		Michael CREES	CarStore Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	16	DNF	1:32.036	21
R	32	M		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type R	12	DNF	1:31.250	13
R	28	I		Nicolas HAMILTON	Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing	CUPRA Leon	10	DNF	1:33.279	28
R	41	I		CarL BOARDLEY	Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero	CUPRA Leon	8	DNF	1:33.481	29
R	19	I		Bobby THOMPSON	Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero	CUPRA Leon	2	DNF	1:31.848	2
R	62	I		Rick PARFITT JR	Uptonsteel with Euro Car Parts Racing	Infiniti Q50	1	DNF	1:47.372	26