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BTCC Brands Hatch: Ingram wins opener to take points lead

Tom Ingram leapfrogged into the British Touring Car Championship points lead with victory in the opening race of the day at the Brands Hatch finale.

Tom Ingram, Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com Hyundai i30N

Tom Ingram, Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com Hyundai i30N

JEP / Motorsport Images

Pre-weekend points leader Ash Sutton was beaten by Jake Hill in the fight for third, meaning they are respectively three and six points adrift of Ingram, while Colin Turkington kept himself just in the title hunt with a tenacious drive from 10th to fifth.

While the racing was manic from third place down, it was something of a non-event at the front, thanks in part to extremely lengthy recovery processes during two early safety-car periods – fewer than three and a half laps of racing had been completed by the time it went green for a seven-lap sprint to the finish.

Ingram got the jump from pole position to put his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N into the lead ahead of fellow front-row starter, Rory Butcher’s Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla.

The race went under safety car on the second lap, and Ingram appeared to catch Butcher napping at the restart, with the Scot seeming to do the same to third-placed Sutton.

Butcher was closer on the second restart and Ingram was never able to shake the Toyota from his mirrors, finishing 0.581 seconds clear.

“It again felt good,” said Ingram. “I was happy to let Rory be there. I didn’t want to take any risks, and I was happy to drive it round and play it safe.

“This puts us in the best place we can possibly ask for going into race two. I can breathe a big sigh of relief knowing that the really stressful part of it… if the first race goes wrong, then you’re really on the recovery.”

Ash Sutton lacked race pace and had to settle for fourth

Ash Sutton lacked race pace and had to settle for fourth

Photo by: Jakob Ebrey

The action behind kicked off from the start, with Hill attempting to insert his West Surrey Racing BMW 330e M Sport between the two second-row-starting Motorbase Performance Ford Focuses of Sutton and Cammish.

Hill got pincered and made contact with Sutton, delaying his progress, and the BMW driver only secured fourth place when Cammish ran wide at Druids and lost two positions.

Once the race got going properly, Hill got on Sutton’s case, but the reigning three-time champion seemed to catch Hill out on the brakes into Druids – minor contact was made again and Bobby Thompson took advantage to move into fourth place in his Team Hard Cupra Leon.

Hill made a superb repass on Thompson at Sheene Curve and caught up Sutton again, but an audacious move at Druids promoted the Cupra back into fourth, before a nudge from Hill at Graham Hill Bend sent Thompson wide, delayed Hill and allowed the Ciceley Motorsport BMW of Adam Morgan up to fourth.

Hill wasted little time getting ahead of Morgan next time round at Druids, then yet again closed the gap to Sutton, who was struggling hugely for race pace.

The move came on the 16th lap of 18 – Hill forced Sutton to defend at Hawthorn which cost the Ford driver momentum through Westfield too, and Hill once again made an incisive move at Sheene.

Such was Sutton’s lack of pace that, once Hill was up to third, he was seven seconds adrift of the leading pair.

The WSR BMW of Turkington was also embroiled in this battle – he moved ahead of Morgan in the wake of the Hill/Sutton war on the 16th lap, and only just pipped by Sutton for fourth as he drew alongside on the run to the chequered flag.

Behind sixth-placed Morgan, Thompson clinched the Jack Sears Trophy title in seventh, with George Gamble’s Ciceley BMW eighth and Cammish ninth. The third WSR BMW of Stephen Jelley nabbed the final top-10 spot off Josh Cook (BTC Racing Honda Civic Type R) on the final lap.

BTCC Brands Hatch race one result - 18 laps

Cla Driver Time Gap
1 United Kingdom Tom Ingram 32'40.611  
2 United Kingdom Rory Butcher 32'41.192 0.581
3 United Kingdom Jake Hill 32'49.255 8.644
4 United Kingdom Ashley Sutton 32'51.019 10.408
5 United Kingdom Colin Turkington 32'51.135 10.524
6 United Kingdom Adam Morgan 32'51.390 10.779
7 Bobby Thompson 32'51.801 11.190
8 George Gamble 32'52.115 11.504
9 United Kingdom Dan Cammish 32'52.870 12.259
10 United Kingdom Stephen Jelley 32'53.339 12.728
11 United Kingdom Josh Cook 32'53.406 12.795
12 United Kingdom Daniel Rowbottom 32'53.810 13.199
13 United Kingdom Daniel Lloyd 32'54.301 13.690
14 United Kingdom Ricky Collard 32'54.585 13.974
15 United Kingdom Aiden Moffat 32'55.375 14.764
16 United Kingdom Tom Chilton 32'57.651 17.040
17 United Kingdom Jason Plato 32'58.099 17.488
18 United Kingdom Ash Hand 32'59.845 19.234
19 Jersey Jack Butel 33'00.670 20.059
20 Michael Crees 33'05.213 24.602
21 Nicolas Hamilton 33'06.120 25.509
22 Jade Edwards 33'06.910 2 Laps
  United Kingdom Sam Osborne 29'55.734 2 Laps
  United Kingdom Ollie Jackson 26'46.438 4 Laps
  Dexter Patterson 26'46.542 4 Laps
  United Kingdom Gordon Shedden 25'13.422 5 Laps
  Rick Parfitt Jr. 12'10.147 12 Laps
  United Kingdom Carl Boardley 12'10.959 12 Laps
  Ireland Aron Taylor-Smith 18 Laps  

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