Knockhill BTCC: Ingram heads Proctor in final race
Tom Ingram put in a beautifully judged drive from fourth on the grid to take victory in the reversed-grid finale to the British Touring Car Championship round at Knockhill.


With the top three drivers on the grid all running the less favourable option medium tyres in this race, Ingram was the pre-race favourite with his soft-shod Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N.
Sure enough, Ingram picked his way through to take the lead with eight laps remaining, although his path to victory was far from straightforward.
And, with Ash Sutton finishing fifth, that means Ingram has narrowed the points deficit back to 14 against the championship-leading Laser Tools Racing Infiniti Q50 star.
First of all, Ingram made an opportunist dive on Senna Proctor into McIntyres on the opening lap to move into third.
Up front, polesitter Stephen Jelley’s West Surrey Racing-run BMW 330i M Sport was keeping the Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra of Jason Plato at bay, via an early safety car to retrieve the BTC Racing Honda Civic Type R of Josh Cook, which had coasted to a halt on the opening lap with a suspected fuel-pressure problem.
On the 10th lap of 25, Plato feinted to the outside of Jelley at the hairpin, and Ingram needed no invitation to fill the gap on the inside of the Vauxhall.
Ingram then shouldered Plato wide on the exit, allowing Senna Proctor’s BTC Honda through into third.
Seven laps later, Ingram pulled off a ludicrously late dive on Jelley into the hairpin, and somehow got the Hyundai stopped; the lost momentum for both of them meant Jelley also conceded second to Proctor.
At that point it seemed likely that Ingram, on 33kg of success ballast, would drive away from Proctor, who was on 27kg and on the medium Goodyear.
But Proctor did a fine job to stem Ingram’s advantage, as the pair of them pulled away from the field.
Ingram only got the gap over one second with four laps to go, before taking victory.
“I had electrical gremlins, and lost the flat-shift in the car,” said Ingram, “so I was having to lift off for each gear change.
“I was getting alarms on the dash, saying low fuel pressure, high fuel pressure.
“But what we did today [on tyre strategy across the three races] was what we tried to do at Oulton Park [the previous round], and it’s so nice to do it around a circuit like this.”

Stephen Jelley, Team BMW BMW 330i M Sport
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Jelley did a terrific job to keep his BMW ahead of the soft-tyred Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R of Gordon Shedden, while second-race winner Sutton, with 75kg of ballast on his Infiniti, rose to fifth and almost grabbed fourth from Shedden when they crossed the finish line side by side.
Chris Smiley was right on the back of this trio, the second of the Excelr8 Hyundai drivers doing a good job to recover from his second-race stall.
Aiden Moffat (LTR Infiniti) completed a good day at his home circuit to take seventh ahead of Colin Turkington.
The four-time champion was running ahead of the trio of Infinitis when he ran wide at Clark’s, but managed to get his WSR BMW back up to eighth on 66kg of ballast, and is now back up to third in the championship.
Plato faded to ninth, while Dan Rowbottom got his Dynamics Honda into the final top 10 spot after a tough weekend.
Jake Hill was running a strong fourth, on 57kg of success weight in his Motorbase-run MB Motorsport Ford Focus, when he came up behind Jelley just after the BMW driver had been passed by Ingram and Proctor.
Hill was blocked out on the outside of Clark’s by Jelley, and immediately lost places to Shedden and Sutton. He then bounced over the grass at Duffus Dip in a fight with Smiley, and headed to the pits shortly afterwards.
Related video

Knockhill BTCC: Sutton grabs thrilling last-lap win over Turkington in race two
The increasingly varied CV behind a new BTCC title challenger

Latest news
De Vries cleared of wrongdoing in dispute over €250K loan
Nyck de Vries has been cleared of any wrongdoing in an Amsterdam court over a claim launched against him by real estate magnate Jeroen Schothorst relating to a €250,000 loan.
Horner admits Red Bull’s real RB19 will be ‘somewhat different’
Red Bull boss Christian Horner says the real RB19 that will appear in Formula 1 testing in Bahrain later this month will be ‘somewhat different'.
Horner hints at closer links between Mercedes and Williams F1 teams
Red Bull Racing boss Christian Horner has hinted that there could be a closer relationship between the Mercedes and Williams Formula 1 teams in the wake of James Vowles’s move.
Ford remains committed to WRC amid F1 return
Ford has stated that it remains committed to its programme in the World Rally Championship following confirmation of its return to Formula 1 as an engine supplier from 2026.
Autosport writers' most memorable moments of 2022
The season just gone was a memorable one for many of our staff writers, who are fortunate enough to cover motorsport around the world. Here are our picks of the best (and in some cases, most eventful) from 2022
How the BTCC's new hybrid era aced its first test
Expectations were high for the start of the British Touring Car Championship’s hybrid power era, and despite nerves and problems to solve prior to its debut the new rules gained widespread approval. Here’s how the first test at Donington Park was passed and the thorough examinations that are to follow
The Ford BTCC superteam combining two reigning TOCA champions
Reigning BTCC champion Ash Sutton and Porsche Carrera Cup GB victor Dan Cammish form a potent line-up at the Motorbase-run NAPA Racing team as the series adopts hybrid power. With Sutton bringing the key components of his title-winning Laser Tools Racing set-up, and Cammish eager to prove a point on his return, their dynamic is set to be one of the season's major talking points
The stalwart tin-top boss still shaping careers more than 40 years on
Veteran team manager Marvin Humphries and former Tech-Speed team boss has worked not only with stars of the British Touring Car Championship, but legends including Gil de Ferran, Hans Stuck and Tom Sneva in a long and varied career that has spanned five decades across tin-tops, single-seaters and sportscars
The grassroots rise that shaped an understated BTCC star
Having started out in club-level competitions alongside his own university engineering studies, Josh Cook's journey to becoming an established frontrunner in the British Touring Car Championship is atypical. But it's these experiences that have moulded the 30-year-old into a humble star, respected throughout the paddock
Ranking the top 10 BTCC drivers of 2021
A refresh in equipment and some returning faces helped contribute to a supremely competitive 2021 British Touring Car Championship campaign. Ash Sutton was crowned a three-time champion, successfully defending his 2020 title, but faced stiff competition in the final year before the switch to hybrid. Autosport picks out the best performers
Why the BTCC's ballast increase couldn't stop champion Sutton
Ballast will be gone from the BTCC next year as hybrid power enters the scene, but for its final season the maximum was increased from 60kg to 75kg. Despite having to carry that nearly all season, Ash Sutton was always the favourite to pocket a third title - the 27-year-old getting his reward for a season of speed tempered by savvy to nail his opportunities
The much-loved tin-top superstar bowing out at 59
OPINION: It's not often that a driver achieves widespread affection for their personality, as well as their on-track performances. One such individual is Gabriele Tarquini, who will soon bring the curtain down on a remarkable career that has yielded touring car titles on the European and global stage - and, famously, in Britain too
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.