BTCC Snetterton: Ingram heads practice from Hill

Ingram, who lost the points lead last time out at Knockhill, put his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N 0.097 seconds clear of the West Surrey Racing-run BMW 330e M Sport of Jake Hill, who shot into title contention at the Scottish circuit.

Those times were set in the opening, early-morning session, when ambient and track temperatures were still in the twenties.

But by the time of the lunchtime session the ambient temperature had gone up to 31C, with the track in the high thirties, and consequently laptimes were approximately one and a half seconds slower.

It was the same duo at the top of that one, although this time it was Hill in front to the tune of 0.116s.

Ingram and Hill were in a class of their own in the opening period, with the next best over half a second adrift.

That was new series leader Colin Turkington, who is carrying the number 500 this weekend on his WSR BMW since he will notch up half a millennium of BTCC starts during Sunday’s racing.

Turkington, who is still piloting his 2019 title-winning chassis while his 2022 car is refettled following his monster Oulton Park shunt, was ninth in the second session.

Fourth in both outings was the driver with whom Turkington had that Oulton crash, Dan Lloyd at the wheel of his Excelr8 Hyundai.

Jake Hill, ROKiT MB Motorsport BMW 330e M Sport

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

A last-lap improvement hoisted double Croft winner Lloyd up the order in the second session, representing a U-turn following his dismal Knockhill weekend.

Fifth and sixth in the opening period were the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla pairing of Rory Butcher and Ricky Collard.

They headed the BMWs of Adam Morgan (Ciceley Motorsport) and Stephen Jelley (WSR), with Tom Chilton making it three Excelr8 Hyundais in the top nine and Gordon Shedden 10th in his Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R.

Jelley was third in the second session, with Dan Rowbottom (Dynamics Honda) and Ash Hand (Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra) also in the top six.

Best of the BTC Racing Hondas on this occasion was Jason Plato, the veteran taking 11th in session one and seventh later on.

Plato’s former series leading team-mate Josh Cook continues to struggle in the midfield – he was bottom of all three speed traps in the first session, although elevated himself to the giddy heights of 25th out of 29 in one of the traps during the second period.

Another title contender languishing was Ash Sutton, who stopped briefly during the first period in the escape road at the end of the back straight before performing a reset on his Motorbase Performance Ford Focus and motoring back round to the pits.

There was one red flag across the two sessions, caused halfway through the second period by the Team Hard Cupra of Nic Hamilton.

BTCC Snetterton FP1 times:

Cla	Driver	Time	Gap
1	Tom Ingram	1'55.302
2	Jake Hill	1'55.399	0.097
3	Colin Turkington	1'55.916	0.614
4	Daniel Lloyd	1'56.063	0.761
5	Rory Butcher	1'56.085	0.783
6	Ricky Collard	1'56.207	0.905
7	Adam Morgan	1'56.296	0.994
8	Stephen Jelley	1'56.299	0.997
9	Tom Chilton	1'56.300	0.998
10	Gordon Shedden	1'56.358	1.056
11	Jason Plato	1'56.504	1.202
12	Bobby Thompson	1'56.631	1.329
13	Aiden Moffat	1'56.636	1.334
14	Dan Cammish	1'56.657	1.355
15	Ashley Sutton	1'56.687	1.385
16	Daniel Rowbottom	1'56.789	1.487
17	George Gamble	1'57.055	1.753
18	Josh Cook	1'57.145	1.843
19	Ash Hand	1'57.212	1.910
20	Dexter Patterson	1'57.512	2.210
21	Sam Osborne	1'57.729	2.427
22	Michael Crees	1'57.921	2.619
23	Aron Taylor-Smith	1'57.992	2.690
24	Ollie Jackson	1'58.065	2.763
25	Jade Edwards	1'58.230	2.928
26	Nicolas Hamilton	1'58.233	2.931
27	Jack Butel	1'58.545	3.243
28	Will Powell	1'58.852	3.550
29	Rick Parfitt Jr.	2'00.420	5.118
View full results

BTCC Snetterton FP2 times:

Cla	Driver	Time	Gap
1	Jake Hill	1'56.741
2	Tom Ingram	1'56.857	0.116
3	Stephen Jelley	1'57.044	0.303
4	Daniel Lloyd	1'57.342	0.601
5	Daniel Rowbottom	1'57.388	0.647
6	Ash Hand	1'57.491	0.750
7	Jason Plato	1'57.496	0.755
8	Tom Chilton	1'57.496	0.755
9	Colin Turkington	1'57.565	0.824
10	Bobby Thompson	1'57.736	0.995
11	George Gamble	1'57.738	0.997
12	Michael Crees	1'57.939	1.198
13	Josh Cook	1'57.993	1.252
14	Aiden Moffat	1'58.047	1.306
15	Dexter Patterson	1'58.056	1.315
16	Ricky Collard	1'58.066	1.325
17	Adam Morgan	1'58.078	1.337
18	Dan Cammish	1'58.082	1.341
19	Rory Butcher	1'58.146	1.405
20	Ashley Sutton	1'58.222	1.481
21	Ollie Jackson	1'58.466	1.725
22	Gordon Shedden	1'58.501	1.760
23	Jade Edwards	1'58.677	1.936
24	Aron Taylor-Smith	1'58.762	2.021
25	Jack Butel	1'58.987	2.246
26	Sam Osborne	1'59.653	2.912
27	Will Powell	1'59.718	2.977
28	Rick Parfitt Jr.	2'00.824	4.083
29	Nicolas Hamilton	2'00.985	4.244
View full results