Tom Ingram assumes championship lead with measured race one win

Excelr8 Motorsport’s Tom Ingram eased to victory in the opening British Touring Car Championship race on the Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit, allowing him to move to the top of the drivers’ championship standings.

Ingram had to manage two safety car restarts in a race which ultimately had almost half the distance behind the safety car, with a number of incidents involving Team HARD cars requiring recovery.

At the start, Ingram quickly pulled into a clear lead over Toyota’s Rory Butcher, with Ash Sutton holding third as NAPA Racing UK team-mate Dan Cammish found himself on the outside line at Druids and dropping three places, crucially behind MB Motorsport’s Jake Hill.

Hill had earlier made light contact with Sutton away from the line, as the two NAPA Fords sought to close the gap on the fast-starting BMW, although the damage turned out to be superficial for the WSR driver.

On the Grand Prix loop, Power Maxed Racing’s Ash Hand made contact with the rear of Árón Taylor-Smith’s CUPRA, spinning the Irishman into the barriers and out of the race.

That necessitated a four-lap safety car neutralisation, and when racing resumed on lap six it was only for two laps before another intervention when Rick Parfitt Jr and Carl Boardley came together at Hawthorns corner.

Racing resumed for good on lap 12, with Hill piling pressure onto Sutton, who had lost his turbo early on in the race.

That meant Sutton quickly fell back from Ingram and Butcher, acting as a ‘cork in a bottle’ for the chasing pack.

Hill tried to take third at Druids, but Bobby Thompson was able to move inside, dropping Hill briefly to fifth, before he reclaimed the place at Dingle Dell.

Hill again tapped the ailing Sutton at Druids on the next lap, and this time lost three places to Thompson, Ciceley Motorsport’s Adam Morgan and Team BMW’s Colin Turkington.

Hill quickly re-passed Turkington and two laps later took fourth back from Morgan, bringing him back onto the tail of Sutton.

This time it took just one lap to get past the reigning champion, diving through at Sheene corner, as Morgan also tapped the rear of Sutton’s car into a huge slide.

But at the front Ingram secured a crucial win by half a second from Butcher, moving the Hyundai driver into the championship lead by three points.

Hill completed the podium, as Sutton masterfully held on to fourth, leaving him in second in the standings.

Turkington went around the outside of fellow BMW racer Morgan at Turn 1 for fifth on the penultimate lap, with Morgan coming home in sixth.

Thompson was seventh, ahead of the second Ciceley BMW of George Gamble in eighth.

The top ten was completed by NAPA’s Cammish and Team BMW’s Stephen Jelley, the latter having acted as a solid rear-guard for Turkington until the lap after the last restart when he dropped back.

BTC Racing’s Josh Cook had gained a place on the opening lap to progress to eighth, but as he tried to get by Cammish on the first lap of the first restart he lost out to the two Team BMW cars, ultimately finishing as the best-placed Honda driver in 11^th.

Team Dynamics’ Gordon Shedden retired after 13 laps, having been forced wide onto the grass at Stirlings corner whilst running in 12^th.

Also retiring were Laser Tools Racing’s Dexter Patterson, who had gone wide on the opening lap following contact with Turkington, before making contact with Motorbase’s Ollie Jackson later in the race, breaking the latter’s rear suspension.

His Motorbase team-mate Sam Osborne also retired after going off into the gravel two laps from the end.

Race two is scheduled to get underway at 14:30 BST.

Race result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	80	M		Tom INGRAM	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	18	32:40.611	1:31.293	1
2	6	M		Rory BUTCHER	Toyota GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	18	0.581	1:31.306	2
3	24	M		Jake HILL	ROKiT MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	18	8.644	1:31.916	5
4	1	M		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	18	10.408	1:32.035	3
5	50	M		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	18	10.524	1:31.518	10
6	33	I		Adam MORGAN	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	18	10.779	1:31.814	8
7	19	I		Bobby THOMPSON	Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero	CUPRA Leon	18	11.190	1:31.870	6
8	42	I		George GAMBLE	Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	18	11.504	1:31.904	13
9	9	M		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	18	12.259	1:31.381	4
10	12	M		Stephen JELLEY	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	18	12.728	1:31.623	11
11	66	I		Josh COOK	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	18	12.795	1:31.706	9
12	32	M		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type R	18	13.199	1:32.244	15
13	123	M		Daniel LLOYD	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	18	13.690	1:32.434	12
14	21	M		Ricky COLLARD	Toyota GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	18	13.974	1:32.333	18
15	16	I		Aiden MOFFAT	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	18	14.764	1:32.560	19
16	3	M		Tom CHILTON	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	18	17.040	1:32.744	22
17	11	I		Jason PLATO	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	18	17.488	1:32.762	17
18	97	I		Ash HAND	CarStore Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	18	19.234	1:32.655	16
19	96	M		Jack BUTEL	Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	18	20.059	1:32.769	25
20	777	I		Michael CREES	CarStore Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	18	24.602	1:32.834	20
21	28	I		Nicolas HAMILTON	Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing	CUPRA Leon	18	25.509	1:33.627	29
22	99	I		Jade EDWARDS	Rich Energy BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	16	+ 2 LAPS	1:33.024	24
R	77	M		Sam OSBORNE	Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan	Ford Focus ST	16	DNF	1:33.123	27
R	48	M		Ollie JACKSON	Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan	Ford Focus ST	14	DNF	1:33.030	23
R	17	I		Dexter PATTERSON	Laser Tools Racing	Infiniti Q50	14	DNF	1:32.845	7
R	52	M		Gordon SHEDDEN	Halfords Racing with Cataclean	Honda Civic Type R	13	DNF	1:33.439	14
R	62	I		Rick PARFITT JR	Uptonsteel with Euro Car Parts Racing	Infiniti Q50	6	DNF	1:33.709	28
R	41	I		CarL BOARDLEY	Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero	CUPRA Leon	6	DNF	1:33.665	26
R	40	I		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing	CUPRA Leon	0	DNF	N/A	21