Tom Ingram battles to race two win to take title to the wire

Tom Ingram put in a scintillating opening two laps to claim victory in the penultimate British Touring Car Championship race of the season at Brands Hatch, finishing ahead of title rival Jake Hill.

Whilst the front-row BMWs made a good start, it only took until Druids corner for EXCLER8 Motorsport’s Ingram to be hounding Colin Turkington for second.

Ingram was all over the rear of the Northern Irishman into Surtees, and on the run up to Hawthorns Bend he scythed around the outside for second.

The Hyundai was almost instantly all over Hill for the lead, and he made a late dive inside at Paddock Hill bend on the second lap to move ahead of his title rival.

Ingram then went on to post fastest laps on consecutive tours to gain the crucial additional point, and even though Hill clawed back some time later in the race, Ingram went on to score his sixth win of the season by 1.4 seconds.

By finishing in second, Hill limited the loss of points to his rival, with his advantage reduced to just one point ahead of the final race of the season.

Turkington completed the podium in third, once again acting as rear gunner to Hill, although once Ingram was past on the opening lap there was little more he could do to benefit his WSR stable-mate.

NAPA Racing UK’s Dan Cammish saw off a challenge from team-mate Ash Sutton to claim fourth, although Sutton tried hard on several laps to get the upper hand on his colleague.

Sutton was fifth, having gained six places on the opening lap before gaining another four places on each of the next two laps to quickly assume fifth behind Cammish.

Power Maxed Racing’s Árón Taylor-Smith claimed sixth, his challenge fading over the course of the race such that he brought his Vauxhall home almost ten seconds behind the car ahead.

Speedworks Motorsport’s Josh Cook battled through to seventh making him the top Toyota driver for the 20^th time this season, the result crucially giving the Toyota driver the reverse-grid pole for the final race of the season after Series Director Alan Gow drew the number seven ball.

Cook’s team-mate Aiden Moffat was eighth, having followed him through past EXCELR8’s Tom Chilton at Surtees on the ninth lap.

Chilton and NAPA’s Sam Osborne completed the top ten, the latter moving up when EXCELR8’s Dan Zelos went wide through the gravel at Paddock Hill on lap 11 and dropped seven places.

Three laps from the finish, NAPA’s Daniel Rowbottom had looked likely to claim 11^th, but he went wide at Paddock Hill with a suspected puncture and dropped out of the race.

Toyota’s Andrew Watson was thus 11^th, ahead of the leading CUPRA of Chris smiley in 12^th. After a strong showing in the opening race, Daryl DeLeon slipped backwards and took the finish in 13^th, ahead of Zelos in 14^th. Restart Racing’s Scott Sumpton pipped Toyota’s Rob Huff to the final points-paying position at the finish line on the last lap.

Mikey Doble was running in seventh when he had to limp to the pits with a sparkplug issue causing a misfire in his car’s M-Sport engine, although he managed to rejoin the race late on for some reconnaissance laps.

BMW’s Adam Morgan failed to take the start as his WSR team were continuing to work on replacing the front subframe and engine following his race one crash.

The final race of the season is scheduled to get underway at 17:35 BST.

Race result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	80	M		Tom INGRAM	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	15	22:59.111	1:30.326	3
2	24	M		Jake HILL	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	15	1.421	1:30.966	1
3	20	M		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	15	1.763	1:30.941	2
4	27	M		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	15	6.016	1:31.114	5
5	1	M		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	15	7.708	1:30.508	19
6	40	I		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	15	16.292	1:31.654	6
7	66	M		Josh COOK	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	15	16.646	1:31.433	18
8	16	M		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	15	16.920	1:31.855	16
9	3	M		Tom CHILTON	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	15	17.763	1:31.596	9
10	77	M		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	15	19.285	1:31.705	12
11	11	M		Andrew WATSON	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	15	22.127	1:31.995	10
12	222	I		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	CUPRA Leon	15	23.387	1:31.584	13
13	18	I		Daryl DELEON	Duckhams Racing with Bartercard	CUPRA Leon	15	24.409	1:32.120	7
14	45	M		Dan ZELOS	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	15	24.693	1:31.640	11
15	29	I		Scott SUMPTON	Restart Racing	CUPRA Leon	15	27.912	1:31.867	15
16	12	M		Rob HUFF	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	15	27.930	1:31.788	17
17	22	M		Nick HALSTEAD	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	15	40.370	1:32.808	14
R	32	M		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	12	DNF	1:31.559	8
NC	88	I		Mikey DOBLE	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	9	NCF	1:31.762	4
NS	33	M		Adam MORGAN	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	–	DNS	N/A	20