Tom Ingram reigns supreme in Knockhill race three

Tom Ingram claimed a comfortable win in the final British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Knockhill, winning ahead of Gordon Shedden and Colin Turkington despite two safety car interventions.

Ingram took the lead from reverse-grid pole-sitter Ant Whorton-Eales on the second lap of the race when the AmD Tuning driver appeared to suffer from a failure on the left-rear corner of his car as he went through the chicane.

Speedworks Motorsport’s Ingram then went on to build up a huge nine-second lead, before a safety car period on lap 18 was required when Ollie Jackson briefly stopped his AmD Audi on the exit of the hairpin.

After a brief restart period, a second safety car period was then required as Team HARD’s Will Burns buried his car in the barriers at the hairpin.

Neither interruption caused Ingram any undue stress as he managed two successful restarts to claim his third win of the season and remain with an outside shot of the title at 61 points adrift leaving Scotland.

Honda’s Shedden took second, having worked his way up into the position by lap six after early passes on brother-in-law Rory Butcher and BTC Racing’s Dave Newsham.

Turkington was the leading BMW racer in third, making it three third-place finishes out of three races, whilst his team-mate Rob Collard finished down in 11^th place after falling off the circuit on lap 26, having been as high as second just after the half-way stage of the race.

Three podiums in a row means that Turkington leaves Knockhill as the new leader of the championship with a four-point margin heading into the next meeting at Rockingham.

Ash Sutton headed a Subaru trio in fourth, with team-mates James Cole and Jason Plato finishing in fifth and sixth respectively.

Motorbase’s Mat Jackson had a strong race to come through from 16^th on the grid to take seventh, ahead of Honda’s Matt Neal in eighth, who made up 14 places after his race two retirement saw him start from 22^nd.

Scottish duo Rory Butcher and Newsham completed the top ten, the former having admitted to being surprised by the aggressiveness of touring car racing as he slipped from second on the grid to tenth.

Turkington leaves Knockhill with 265 points ahead of Sutton on 261 and Shedden on 253.

Race result

POS	NO	CL	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	80		Tom INGRAM		Speedworks Motorsport	Toyota Avensis	27	26:33.852	52.045	3
2	52	M	Gordon SHEDDEN		Halfords Yuasa Racing	Honda Civic Type R	27	1.167	52.565	5
3	4	M	Colin TURKINGTON		Team BMW	BMW 125i M Sport	27	1.556	52.266	8
4	116	M	Ashley SUTTON		Adrian Flux Subaru Racing	Subaru Levorg GT	27	4.172	52.147	10
5	20	M	James COLE		Adrian Flux Subaru Racing	Subaru Levorg GT	27	4.463	52.384	6
6	99	M	Jason PLATO		Adrian Flux Subaru Racing	Subaru Levorg GT	27	5.179	52.789	9
7	3		Mat JACKSON		Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo	Ford Focus	27	5.538	52.682	16
8	25	M	Matt NEAL		Halfords Yuasa Racing	Honda Civic Type R	27	5.784	52.460	22
9	6		Rory BUTCHER		Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo	Ford Focus	27	6.333	52.750	2
10	17		Dave NEWSHAM		BTC Norlin Racing	Chevrolet Cruze	27	7.193	52.979	4
11	5	M	Rob COLLARD		Team BMW	BMW 125i M Sport	27	7.614	52.367	7
12	30		Martin DEPPER		Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo	Ford Focus	27	9.215	53.074	11
13	77	M	Andrew JORDAN		BMW Pirtek Racing	BMW 125i M Sport	27	9.316	52.134	31
14	303	M	Matt SIMPSON		Simpson Racing	Honda Civic Type R	27	9.775	52.845	13
15	16		Aiden MOFFAT		Laser Tools Racing	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	27	10.407	53.352	15
16	31		Jack GOFF		Eurotech Racing	Honda Civic Type R	27	10.73	52.580	24
17	33		Adam MORGAN		Ciceley Motorsport	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	27	11.091	52.686	26
18	2	M	Tom CHILTON		Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	27	12.152	52.822	12
19	39		Brett SMITH		Eurotech Racing	Honda Civic Type R	27	12.89	52.457	18
20	11		Rob AUSTIN		Handy Motorsport	Toyota Avensis	27	13.059	52.950	28
21	7		Stephen JELLEY		Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport	Ford Focus	27	16.267	53.492	27
22	24		Jake HILL		TAG Racing	Volkswagen CC	27	17.095	52.677	25
23	12		Mike EPPS		Autoaid / RCIB Insurance Racing	Volkswagen CC	27	18.503	53.439	17
24	40	M	Árón TAYLOR-SMITH		MG Racing RCIB Insurance	MG6GT	27	18.727	52.858	23
25	18	M	Senna PROCTOR		Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	27	24.014	52.855	29
26	22		Chris SMILEY		BTC Norlin Racing	Chevrolet Cruze	26	1 Lap	52.771	14
27	10		Ant WHORTON-EALES		AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts	Audi S3	25	2 Laps	52.188	1
28	95		Stewart LINES		Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport	Ford Focus	25	2 Laps	53.680	21
29	66		Josh COOK		MG Racing RCIB Insurance	MG6GT	24	3 Laps	52.990	30
R	61		Will BURNS		Autoaid / RCIB Insurance Racing	Volkswagen CC	19	DNF	53.158	20
R	48		Ollie JACKSON		AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts	Audi S3	15	DNF	52.987	19
R	28	M	Josh PRICE		A-Plan Academy	Subaru Levorg GT	8	DNF	54.091	32