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Race report
BTCC Silverstone (National Circuit)

BTCC Silverstone: Ingram holds off Hill in wet opening race

Hyundai driver trims points gap to the top of the championship

Tom Ingram, Team Bristol Street Motors Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance

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Tom Ingram held off British Touring Car Championship title rival Jake Hill to take victory in a wet opening race of the day at Silverstone.

2022 champion Ingram led from pole to the finish in his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback but had to fend off a concerted challenge from the Laser Tools-liveried West Surrey Racing BMW 330e M Sport of Hill, who had started from fifth on the grid.

Hill immediately jumped the slow-starting Dan Cammish at the getaway, then rounded Josh Cook at Copse Corner to grab third place behind the sister WSR BMW of Colin Turkington, who is entertaining his own hopes of a fifth BTCC crown.

Turkington had no answer to the pace of Ingram, who was three and a half seconds in front by the seventh of 22 laps, and on lap eight he left the door wide open for Hill to cruise around the outside of him into the Brooklands left-hander.

Hill now began his charge, and with five laps remaining had brought the gap below a second. Two laps later he was right on Ingram’s rear bumper and tried to get past into Brooklands, the two cars inches from contact as the BMW’s rear wheels locked.

But Ingram had been canny with his hybrid allocation - with two laps remaining Hill had used all his up, and Ingram took the flag 0.641 seconds in front.

Hill, instead, had to defend a resurgent Cammish, who had dropped to seventh at the start in his Valvoline-liveried Alliance Racing Ford Focus ST before sweeping around the outside of Adam Morgan and Dan Rowbottom at Becketts for fifth.

Cammish then got into a fierce battle for fourth with the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport of Cook, before the sister Ford of Dan Rowbottom joined the party.

Cammish had been on the wrong side of a couple of moves and had dropped to sixth when Rowbottom nerfed Cook wide at Becketts, the former forced to retire the Focus due to the damage and Cook dropping to eighth.

Tom Ingram, Team Bristol Street Motors Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance

Tom Ingram, Team Bristol Street Motors Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance

Photo by: JEP

This freed up Cammish to go after Turkington, and he sailed around the outside of the BMW at Brooklands on the 10th lap to grab third.

One lap later, Ash Sutton, up from 14th on the grid, got his Alliance Ford past Turkington, and grabbed the fastest lap point away from Cammish as the top four threatened to concertina together.

But Sutton then fell away, and instead it was Cammish who tried an outside move at Brooklands on Hill on the final lap before settling for third.

The result means that Hill’s championship lead over Ingram has been cut to four points.

“I was mindful of the pace that Jake had,” said Ingram. “I had to save the hybrid to deploy it towards the end – I had to hold my nerve, keep my powder dry and not make any mistakes.

“I maybe took a little bit too much out of the tyres at the start, but I was happy to build a buffer – it was almost like the Goodwood Revival [where Ingram chased down Hill to snatch victory] with roles reversed!”

Turkington claimed a distant fifth, while Adam Morgan ran sixth for much of the race in the third of the WSR BMWs before he spun at Copse Corner under pressure from the recovering Cook.

That promoted Cook to sixth, before the Excelr8 Hyundai of Tom Chilton muscled the position away with two laps remaining, only to be penalised back behind the Toyota for this move after the race.

Sam Osborne took his Alliance Ford to eighth, with Andrew Watson (Speedworks Toyota) ninth and Dan Zelos putting in a terrific drive from the back of the grid to 10th on his second BTCC weekend in an Excelr8 Hyundai.

BTCC Silverstone Race 1 Results:

   
1
 - 
4
   
   
1
 - 
2
   
Cla Driver # Car Laps Time Interval km/h Retirement Points
1 United Kingdom T. Ingram Team Bristol Street Motors   Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance 22

23'38.761

  91.57    
2 United Kingdom J. Hill Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport   BMW 330e M Sport 22

+0.641

23'39.402

0.641 91.53    
3 United Kingdom D. Cammish NAPA Racing UK   Ford Focus ST 22

+0.771

23'39.532

0.130 91.52    
4 United Kingdom A. Sutton NAPA Racing UK   Ford Focus ST 22

+3.520

23'42.281

2.749 91.34    
5 United Kingdom C. Turkington Team BMW   BMW 330e M Sport 22

+8.199

23'46.960

4.679 91.04    
6 United Kingdom T. Chilton Team Bristol Street Motors   Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance 22

+14.666

23'53.427

6.467 90.63    
7 United Kingdom J. Cook LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ   Toyota Corolla GR Sport 22

+15.854

23'54.615

1.188 90.56    
8 United Kingdom S. Osborne NAPA Racing UK   Ford Focus ST 22

+23.412

24'02.173

7.558 90.08    
9 United Kingdom A. Watson Toyota Gazoo Racing UK   Toyota Corolla GR Sport 22

+24.691

24'03.452

1.279 90.00    
10
D. Zelos Team Bristol Street Motors
  Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance 22

+24.857

24'03.618

0.166 89.99    
11 United Kingdom A. Morgan Team BMW   BMW 330e M Sport 22

+26.802

24'05.563

1.945 89.87    
12 Ireland A. Taylor-Smith Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing   Vauxhall Astra 22

+27.480

24'06.241

0.678 89.83    
13 United Kingdom C. Smiley Restart Racing   Cupra León 22

+28.668

24'07.429

1.188 89.76    
14 United Kingdom A. Moffat LKQ Euro Car Parts with SYNETIQ   Toyota Corolla GR Sport 22

+32.903

24'11.664

4.235 89.50    
15
S. Sumpton Restart Racing
  Cupra León 22

+33.182

24'11.943

0.279 89.48    
16
N. Halstead Team Bristol Street Motors
  Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance 22

+34.337

24'13.098

1.155 89.41    
17 United Kingdom R. Huff Toyota Gazoo Racing UK   Toyota Corolla GR Sport 21

+1 Lap

24'04.892

1 Lap 85.83    
18
D. De Duckhams Racing with Bartercard
  Cupra León 21

+1 Lap

24'25.217

20.325 84.64    
dnf United Kingdom D. Rowbottom NAPA Racing UK   Ford Focus ST 4

+18 Laps

4'36.922

17 Laps 85.30 Retirement  
dnf
M. Doble Evans Halshaw Power Maxed Racing
  Vauxhall Astra 0

 

    Retirement  

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