BTCC Knockhill: Chilton sweeps race three

Tom Chilton made no mistake from his gift of reversed-grid pole position by dominating the final race of the British Touring Car Championship round at Knockhill.

Chilton was always the favourite, bearing in mind his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback was one of just seven of the 23 cars able to use soft-compound Goodyear tyres in this race – and the next-highest starter doing the same was Gordon Shedden from sixth on the grid.

Shedden’s hopes evaporated within half a lap, when his Speedworks Motorsport-run Toyota Corolla GR Sport slewed sideways at the chicane with a puncture. The Scottish veteran continued after a visit to the pits to finish a lap down.

Behind Chilton, a trio of Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus Titanium machinery ran in close formation early on, with rookie Lewis Selby ahead of Sam Osborne and Dan Cammish.

Cammish got past Osborne on the third lap, but a commendable effort from Selby resulted in him staying in second place until the ninth lap, when Adam Morgan and Cammish forced their way past.

Morgan had started his Plato Racing Mercedes A35 Saloon from eighth on the grid and was another on the soft tyres. But he had a six-lap deficit to Chilton on TOCA Turbo Boost. There was therefore little chance of catching the Hyundai, which took the chequered flag 3.054 seconds to the good.

“Seeing Adam on the soft tyre coming through, Barry [Plowman] my engineer was on the radio every lap giving me the gap,” said Chilton.

Adam Morgan, Cataclean Plato Racing

Photo by: JEP

“I’ve had a bit of rotten luck on my car this season, so I’m happy for my team as well as for myself.”

While Selby fell down the order, and Osborne went off at McIntyre’s after contact with Dexter Patterson, Cammish upheld Alliance honour with a comfortable third place – the best of the medium-tyred runners.

Patterson had a good race in his Power Maxed Racing Audi A3 Saloon, holding off the West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sport of Charles Rainford for fourth, both on medium tyres. In their wake, Daryl De Leon did a terrific job from 17th on the grid to carve his WSR BMW through to sixth – also on mediums.

Next came a couple of soft-shod runners. Dan Rowbottom ran out of TTB early on in his Plato Mercedes but just held off the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota of Josh Cook for seventh.

Next came Ricky Collard, who had Excelr8 Hyundai team-mate Tom Ingram attempting to get past mid-race on his charge from the back of the grid. Then they happened upon the freefalling Selby who, quite within his rights, did not make life easy for Ingram at the chicane. The reigning champion’s subsequent loss of momentum allowed Mikey Doble past, although Ingram subsequently regained the pace from the PMR Audi man to finish 10th.

Runaway championship leader Ash Sutton also got mixed up in the midfield shenanigans, losing several places just before half-distance. His Alliance Ford recovered to 12th, meaning the loss of just two points to Ingram, with the gap between them still a hefty 81.

RACE3

All Stats

 

Cla	Driver	#		Car	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	T. Chilton Team Vertu			Hyundai i30N	24	21'04.425		86.57		20
2	A. Morgan Cataclean Plato Racing			Mercedes A35 Saloon	24	+3.054 21'07.479	3.054	86.36		17
3	D. Cammish NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus Titanium	24	+7.643 21'12.068	4.589	86.05		15
4	D. Patterson Steel Seal with Power Maxed Racing			Audi A3 Saloon	24	+8.942 21'13.367	1.299	85.96		13
5	C. Rainford West Surrey Racing			BMW 330i M Sport	24	+9.208 21'13.633	0.266	85.94		11
6	D. De Leon West Surrey Racing			BMW 330i M Sport	24	+10.471 21'14.896	1.263	85.86		10
7	D. Rowbottom Cataclean Plato Racing			Mercedes A35 Saloon	24	+11.739 21'16.164	1.268	85.77		9
8	J. Cook Speedworks Corolla Racing			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	24	+12.043 21'16.468	0.304	85.75		8
9	R. Collard Team Vertu			Hyundai i30N	24	+19.988 21'24.413	7.945	85.22		7
10	T. Ingram Team Vertu			Hyundai i30N	24	+20.806 21'25.231	0.818	85.17		6
11	M. Doble LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing			Audi A3 Saloon	24	+22.575 21'27.000	1.769	85.05		5
12	A. Sutton NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus Titanium	24	+23.897 21'28.322	1.322	84.96		4
13	L. Selby NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus Titanium	24	+25.948 21'30.373	2.051	84.83		3
14	C. Smiley Restart Racing			Hyundai i30N	24	+26.350 21'30.775	0.402	84.80		2
15	J. Dorlin Restart Racing			Hyundai i30N	24	+27.013 21'31.438	0.663	84.76		1
16	N. Hamilton Team Vertu			Hyundai i30N	24	+31.614 21'36.039	4.601	84.46
17	A. Taylor-Smith Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	24	+33.116 21'37.541	1.502	84.36
18	L. Gilbert West Surrey Racing			BMW 330i M Sport	24	+33.680 21'38.105	0.564	84.32
19	R. Bensley Speedworks Corolla Racing			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	24	+33.725 21'38.150	0.045	84.32
20	N. Halstead Steel Seal with Power Maxed Racing			Audi A3 Saloon	24	+42.772 21'47.197	9.047	83.74
21	S. Osborne NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus Titanium	24	+52.534 21'56.959	9.762	83.12
22	A. Moffat LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing			Audi A3 Saloon	23	+1 Lap 21'31.350	1 Lap	81.23
23	G. Shedden Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	23	+1 Lap 21'38.447	7.097	80.79
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