BTCC Thruxton: Ingram wins race three despite penalty to cut into Sutton’s lead

Tom Ingram swept to victory in the final British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Thruxton to put a small dent into Ash Sutton’s points advantage.

Sutton’s second place completed a great day for the four-time champion, especially since it came from sixth on the reversed grid, and his series lead stands at a considerable 59 points.

Ingram, like Sutton in race two, had his start placed under investigation. Unlike Sutton, he was given a five-second penalty, so his winning margin of 5.663s was enough to overcome this and still claim victory. He had pulled out the 5s with one lap remaining of the race.

James Dorlin was on pole in his Restart Racing Hyundai i30 N Fastback, with Ingram’s Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai alongside. There was a slight bump between the two as they raced side by side out of Allard, before Ingram claimed the advantage into the Complex.

The race soon went under the safety car. Contact from Adam Morgan at the middle apex of the chicane sent Josh Cook onto a collision course with Speedworks Motorsport Toyota team-mate Aron Taylor-Smith.

Another Speedworks Toyota, that of Ryan Bensley, then ground to a halt on its way out of the pitlane with deranged left-front, causing an exceptionally long period of recovery.

There was time for 11 more laps of racing and, on the first of those, Sutton’s Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus Titanium got the run on Dorlin out of Church Corner to move up to second place.

Josh Cook, Speedworks Corolla Racing Toyota Corolla GR Sport

Photo by: JEP

Sutton was now 1.563s behind Ingram and, with just one lap of TOCA Turbo Boost to the five of his big rival, it was unlikely that the Hyundai would be beaten.

Sure enough, Ingram came home comfortably ahead of Sutton, while another Alliance Ford, that of Dan Cammish, was third.

“We’ve been quite noisy this weekend, haven’t we?” said Ingram of not only the start investigation but also his track-limits penalty in race two. “We wanted a weekend of no dramas and everyone having a lovely time, but I seem to be involved in drama in every race.

“Spence [Spencer Aldridge, his engineer] came on the radio to tell me that I was under investigation so if we could start to get a five-second gap that would be ideal. It was fairly close, but I had the advantage over Ash towards the end of the race.”

Cammish was out of TOCA Turbo Boost on the final lap and Ricky Collard, recovering all day after alternator failure nixed his Excelr8 Hyundai in the qualifying race, used his final lap of boost to finish right on the Ford’s tail.

Senna Proctor, on his one-off outing with the Alliance Ford team, was the other to get past Dorlin, who was particularly vulnerable out of Church, on his way to fifth.

Behind sixth-placed Dorlin, Dan Rowbottom fought a sketchy looking Plato Racing Mercedes and eventually conceded seventh to Gordon Shedden’s Speedworks Toyota.

Tom Chilton (Excelr8 Hyundai) and Power Maxed Racing Audi A3 Saloon pair Dexter Patterson and Mikey Doble also got past the bearded Midlander in the closing stages to complete the top 10, leaving Rowbottom 11th at the chequered flag.

BTCC Thruxton - Race 3 results

RACE3

All Stats

 

Cla	Driver	#		Car	Laps	Time	Interval	km/h	Retirement	Points
1	T. Ingram Team Vertu			Hyundai i30N	19	27'49.942		96.50		20
2	A. Sutton NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus Titanium	19	+5.663 27'55.605	5.663	96.17		17
3	D. Cammish NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus Titanium	19	+9.603 27'59.545	3.940	95.94		15
4	R. Collard Team Vertu			Hyundai i30N	19	+10.167 28'00.109	0.564	95.91		13
5	S. Proctor NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus Titanium	19	+12.261 28'02.203	2.094	95.79		11
6	J. Dorlin Restart Racing			Hyundai i30N	19	+16.857 28'06.799	4.596	95.53		10
7	G. Shedden Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	19	+19.473 28'09.415	2.616	95.38		9
8	T. Chilton Team Vertu			Hyundai i30N	19	+20.149 28'10.091	0.676	95.35		8
9	D. Patterson Steel Seal with Power Maxed Racing			Audi A3 Saloon	19	+21.268 28'11.210	1.119	95.28		7
10	M. Doble LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing			Audi A3 Saloon	19	+21.584 28'11.526	0.316	95.26		6
11	D. Rowbottom Cataclean Plato Racing			Mercedes A35 Saloon	19	+22.287 28'12.229	0.703	95.22		5
12	D. De Leon West Surrey Racing			BMW 330i M Sport	19	+22.589 28'12.531	0.302	95.21		4
13	C. Smiley Restart Racing			Hyundai i30N	19	+29.791 28'19.733	7.202	94.80		3
14	C. Rainford West Surrey Racing			BMW 330i M Sport	19	+30.517 28'20.459	0.726	94.76		2
15	N. Hamilton Team Vertu			Hyundai i30N	19	+34.608 28'24.550	4.091	94.54		1
16	L. Gilbert West Surrey Racing			BMW 330i M Sport	19	+35.146 28'25.088	0.538	94.51
dnf	A. Moffat LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing			Audi A3 Saloon	13	+6 Laps 20'18.375	6 Laps	90.49	Retirement
dnf	J. Cook Speedworks Corolla Racing			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	13	+6 Laps 22'27.559	2'09.184	81.82	Retirement
dnf	A. Morgan Cataclean Plato Racing			Mercedes A35 Saloon	5	+14 Laps 10'26.718	8 Laps	67.66	Retirement
dnf	R. Bensley Speedworks Corolla Racing			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	2	+17 Laps 3'31.068	3 Laps	80.36	Retirement
dnf	L. Selby NAPA Racing UK			Ford Focus Titanium	2	+17 Laps 3'47.627	16.559	74.52	Retirement
dnf	A. Taylor-Smith Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport			Toyota Corolla GR Sport	1	+18 Laps 2'12.639	1 Lap	63.94	Retirement
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