Tom Ingram fends off Ash Sutton for opening Oulton Park win

EXCELR8 Motorsport’s Tom Ingram scored a lights-to-flag victory in the opening British Touring Car Championship race at Oulton Park, although not without a controversial incident with NAPA Racing UK’s Ash Sutton.

All of the top seven drivers elected to start the race on the soft tyre, with Power Maxed Racing’s Árón Taylor-Smith and Speedworks Motorsport’s Josh Cook the only drivers in the top ten to choose to run the harder rubber. The rest of the field, save for Nick Halstead, went with hard tyres for the opening race.

At the start, Ingram made the most of his pole position to hold the lead away from the lights, as behind him BMW’s Colin Turkington failed to get away from ninth on the grid.

By the time Turkington’s car was pushed into the pitlane, the leaders had almost completed the opening lap, with Sutton all over the back of the leading Hyundai.

Going into the Island hairpin on lap two Sutton went to make a move on the inside of Ingram, with the two making slight contact.

The pair then ran side-by-side into the chicane, Sutton on the inside but Ingram fractionally ahead on the outside, where a further tap resulted in Ingram cutting across the grass, but crucially holding on to first.

Thereafter, Ingram was able to keep enough of a margin to prevent Sutton having another look, going on to record his 30^th BTCC win and the third of his season by just under two seconds from the Ford driver.

NAPA’s Dan Cammish completed the podium in third, distant from the leading duo but comfortably ahead of the squabbling cars behind.

Daniel Rowbottom crossed the finish line in fourth, but the NAPA driver had been shown the black-and-orange flag three laps from the finish due to a flapping right-rear wheel arch.

That meant Rowbottom should have pitted to have the issue dealt with, but he continued on track ahead of the BMW of Adam Morgan, leaving the issue to be resolved post-race. Stwards decided that Rowbottom should have pitted, and he was given a post-race 30-second penalty, dropping him to 15th.

Morgan was therefore fourth and the leading BMW driver, ahead of Laser Tools Racing’s Jake Hill in fifth. Hill, however, had run in fourth, having gained two places away from the line and passed Tom Chilton on lap three, but he gave the place away when he locked his brakes into the hairpin on lap nine and ceded ground to Rowbottom and Morgan.

Chilton took sixth, losing three places in two laps early on, the EXCELR8 driver having admitted to adopting a somewhat ‘loose’ setup for the race.

Taylor-Smith brought his Vauxhall home in seventh – one place ahead of where he started thanks to Rowbottom’s penalty – as the leading hard compound driver.

Speedworks duo Josh Cook and Aiden Moffat were ninth and tenth respectively, once again out-performing the factory-backed Toyotas.

Rob Huff followed his Toyota stablemates home to complete th top ten, whilst Power Maxed’s Mikey Doble was 11^th – although at the chequered flag the place had been held by Toyota’s Andrew Watson, but he was given a five second time penalty for a false start, meaning he was classified in 14^th.

Unlimited Motorsport’s Daryl DeLeon and Restart Racing’s Scott Sumpton also received time penalties of ten seconds for false starts, dropping them to 18^th and 19^th respectively, although Sumpton would have finished there anyway after a pitstop.

WSR mechanics managed to get Turkington’s car started in the pitlane and the Northern Irishman could do nothing other than finish 20^th and last, two laps down.

Race two is scheduled to get underway at 14:40 BST.

Revised 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	21:39.143	1:25.742	1
2	1	M		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	15	1.913	1:25.885	2
3	27	M		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	15	4.557	1:25.358	3
4	33	M		Adam MORGAN	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	15	10.230	1:25.973	6
5	24	M		Jake HILL	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	BMW 330e M Sport	15	14.700	1:25.901	7
6	3	M		Tom CHILTON	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	15	16.238	1:26.405	4
7	40	I		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	15	26.078	1:27.058	8
8	66	M		Josh COOK	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	15	26.646	1:27.344	10
9	16	M		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	15	30.817	1:27.538	12
10	12	M		Rob HUFF	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	15	31.366	1:27.519	11
11	88	I		Mikey DOBLE	Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	15	35.664	1:27.561	13
12	14	M		Ronan PEARSON	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	15	37.165	1:27.175	15
13	222	I		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	CUPRA Leon	15	37.944	1:27.760	16
14	11	M		Andrew WATSON	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	15	39.218	1:27.623	14
15	32	M		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	15	39.858	1:25.626	5
16	77	M		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	15	40.996	1:28.026	17
17	22	M		Nick HALSTEAD	BRISTOL STREET MOTORS	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	15	50.082	1:27.998	20
18	18	I		Daryl DELEON	Duckhams Racing with Bartercard	CUPRA Leon	15	51.842	1:27.948	18
19	29	I		Scott SUMPTON	Restart Racing	CUPRA Leon	15	1:34.773	1:28.236	19
20	20	M		Colin TURKINGTON	Team BMW	BMW 330e M Sport	14	+ 1 LAP	1:25.627	9