Tom Chilton heads Team Vertu 1-2 in final race at Donington Park

Tom Chilton led Team Vertu team-mate Tom Ingram home in the final British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Donington Park, with NAPA Racing UK’s Ash Sutton completing the podium.

Chilton started the reverse-grid race from pole position after Sutton randomly selected the top six to be inverted after race two, and the Hyundai driver quickly built a comfortable lead at the front.

Sutton passed team-mate Dan Cammish around the outside heading into the first corner, as Cammish also slipped behind Ingram on the opening lap.

Ingram then got alongside Laser Tools Racing’s Jake Hill heading through the Craner curves on the second lap, completing the pass for third into the Old Hairpin, where Sutton was also able to follow past the BMW.

Hill slipped back further on the next lap, as Cammish took fifth on the run to McLeans and Aiden Moffat swept by on the run to the chicane.

By lap four Hill had dropped another four places to 11^th as the reigning champion struggled on the medium-compound tyres.

Ingram passed NAPA’s Daniel Rowbottom for second on the fifth lap, by which time Chilton was almost two seconds clear on the soft tyre, with Sutton breezing past his team-mate into third two laps later.

Thereafter, Ingram couldn’t close down the gap to Chilton, who took the 17^th win of his BTCC career, whilst Ingram had to contend with attacks from Sutton behind.

Indeed, on the final lap, Sutton briefly overtook Ingram down the inside at McLeans, but Ingram used his boost effectively and immediately repassed, claiming second by just under two tenths of a second.

Cammish was fourth after getting by Rowbottom on lap ten, with Team Vertu’s Adam Morgan also passing the Ford four laps from the finish.

Rowbottom, on soft tyres, held on to take sixth, ahead of Power Maxed Racing’s Mikey Doble, who bagged his second Independents’ win of the day in seventh.

Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley spent much of the race battling in the lower half of the top ten, losing out to Doble on the last lap to take eighth – the first time since 2021 that the Northern Irishman has finished all three races in a day inside the top ten.

WSR’s Aiden Moffat and stable-mate Hill completed the top ten, the latter recovering just one place from Toyota’s James Dorlin from his slide down the order in the opening four laps.

One Motorsport’s Josh Cook salvaged some points in 11^th, ahead of the leading Toyota of Árón Taylor-Smith, who finished a race for the first time in the day ahead of team-mate Gordon Shedden in 13^th and Ronan Pearson in 14^th.

Un-Limited Motorsport’s Dexter Patterson ended the race in the Redgate gravel on lap 16, whilst Restart Racing’s Daniel Lloyd had an off-track excursion on the run up to McLeans on the penultimate lap and had to pull off the circuit when his car over-heated.

Sutton leads the championship with 58 points after two wins, ahead of Ingram (51), Chilton (42), Cammish (37) and Rowbottom (36).

Race results

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	3	M		Tom CHILTON	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	18	21:00.867	1:08.765	1
2	80	M		Tom INGRAM	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	18	3.485	1:08.938	5
3	116	M		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	18	3.627	1:09.161	6
4	27	M		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	18	7.928	1:09.451	4
5	33	M		Adam MORGAN	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	18	11.099	1:09.751	10
6	32	M		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	18	14.804	1:09.388	2
7	88	I		Mikey DOBLE	Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	18	15.611	1:09.853	16
8	22	I		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	18	15.799	1:09.853	8
9	16	M		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	18	16.333	1:09.813	7
10	1	M		Jake HILL	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	BMW 330i M Sport	18	16.511	1:09.811	3
11	66	I		Josh COOK	One Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R	18	16.718	1:09.688	20
12	40	M		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	18	19.013	1:09.737	21
13	52	M		Gordon SHEDDEN	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	18	24.918	1:09.654	11
14	14	M		Ronan PEARSON	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	18	27.188	1:09.959	18
15	2	M		Daryl DELEON	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	18	29.877	1:10.166	12
16	99	M		Charles RAINFORD	LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	18	30.425	1:09.632	22
17	12	I		Stephen JELLEY	One Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R	18	30.858	1:09.897	15
18	77	M		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	18	31.504	1:09.961	24
19	777	M		Michael CREES	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	18	35.315	1:10.382	17
20	93	I		Max HALL	ROKiT Racing with Un-Limited Motorsport	CUPRA Leon	18	36.509	1:10.927	13
21	132	M		James DORLIN	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	18	38.755	1:09.650	14
22	28	I		Nicolas HAMILTON	Powder Monkey Brewing Co with Esidock	CUPRA Leon	18	43.136	1:10.655	19
R	123	I		Daniel LLOYD	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	17	DNF	1:09.834	23
R	17	I		Dexter PATTERSON	ROKiT Racing with Un-Limited Motorsport	CUPRA Leon	15	DNF	1:10.367	9