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Snetterton BTCC: Ingram gives Hyundai maiden win

Tom Ingram claimed the first British Touring Car Championship win for the Excelr8 Motorsport team and the Hyundai marque in the finale at Snetterton.

Tom Ingram, Excelr8 Trade Price Cars Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance

Tom Ingram, Excelr8 Trade Price Cars Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance

JEP / Motorsport Images

Ingram, who started from fourth on the grid, instantly moved up to third, and then hunted down the front-row-sitting West Surrey Racing-run BMWs of Tom Oliphant and Stephen Jelley.

Jelley led from reversed-grid pole ahead of the sister 330i M Sport of Oliphant, but locked up into the Wilson hairpin on the second lap.

Jelley then appeared to brake early for the Agostini left-hander, and Oliphant ran into the back of him. Ingram’s Hyundai i30 N swept around the outside into second, and Oliphant spun off thanks to contact from the MB Motorsport Ford Focus of Ollie Jackson.

Ingram then played a waiting game before making the decisive move on Jelley into Wilson on the fifth lap of 12.

He was already 1.129 seconds ahead of Jelley by the end of that lap, and managed the gap to Ash Sutton and Gordon Shedden, who had moved into second and third, to win by 1.144s.

“It was a crazy start – probably one of the best I’ve ever done,” said Ingram. “I got shot of who I needed to early on, and I started to attack the people ahead.

“I could see Stephen was nervous and Tom was desperate to get past – there was a certain amount of inevitability about what happened.

“This is such a great weekend for the team – their first win and on home ground.”

Tom Ingram

Tom Ingram

Photo by: JEP/ Motorsport Images

Sutton, with 75kg of success ballast aboard his Laser Tools Racing Infiniti Q50, was on the move from seventh on the grid, while the unballasted Team Dynamics Honda Civic Type R of Shedden was running the soft option tyres from 11th on the grid.

A series of spectacular moves from Shedden brought him into fourth by lap four, behind Sutton, and he followed the reigning champion past Jelley with five laps remaining.

Shedden had taken a huge knock on the early lap in contact with Josh Cook’s Honda, which bent the steering, and elected not to try a risky move on Sutton to move into second place.

Instead the Scot settled for third, the first podium of his BTCC comeback season.

Cook, like Shedden, was on the option tyre with his BTC Racing Honda, and he made superb progress from 14th on the grid to finish fourth, but was unable to catch the leading trio.

Jelley hung on to take fifth ahead of the Speedworks Motorsport-run Toyota Corolla of Rory Butcher, while Colin Turkington lost ground during the first half of the race and brought his WSR BMW home in seventh.

That means Turkington has lost his brief championship lead, with Sutton now in front by two points from Ingram, and Turkington a further three adrift.

Ashley Sutton, Laser Tools Racing Infiniti Q50

Ashley Sutton, Laser Tools Racing Infiniti Q50

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

Adam Morgan completed a solid weekend with eighth in his Ciceley Motorsport BMW, likewise Jack Goff in ninth in his Team Hard Cupra Leon.

The top 10 was completed by the second Dynamics Honda of Dan Rowbottom.

Pre-weekend points leader Jake Hill recovered to 12th in his MB Ford, while team-mate Jackson retired after his incident with Oliphant, who finished 16th.

Race 3 results:

 Cla   Nº   Driver   Car / Engine   Laps  Gap 
1 80  Tom Ingram Hyundai 12  
2 1  Ash Sutton Infiniti 12 1.144
3 52  Gordon Shedden Honda 12 1.617
4 66  Josh Cook Honda 12 3.217
5 12  Stephen Jelley BMW 12 6.756
6 6  Rory Butcher Toyota 12 7.469
7 2  Colin Turkington BMW 12 7.768
8 33  Adam Morgan BMW 12 8.744
9 31  Jack Goff Cupra 12 9.916
10 32  Daniel Rowbottom Honda 12 10.355
11 22  Chris Smiley Hyundai 12 11.293
12 24  Jake Hill Ford 12 11.718
13 123  Daniel Lloyd Vauxhall 12 12.403
14 40  Árón T.-Smith Cupra 12 14.118
15 99  Jade Edwards Honda 12 14.575
16 15  Tom Oliphant BMW 12 15.262
17 16  Aiden Moffat Infiniti 12 16.002
18 11  Jason Plato Vauxhall 12 17.120
19 3  Tom Chilton BMW 12 18.655
20 4  Sam Osborne Ford 12 19.993
21 96  Jack Butel Hyundai 12 23.054
22 88  Glynn Geddie Cupra 12 27.350
23 21  Jessica Hawkins Ford 12 27.739
24 62  Rick Parfitt Hyundai 12 38.849
25 28  Nicolas Hamilton Cupra 12 48.741
26 18  Senna Proctor Honda 12 1'57.596
(24) 23  Sam Smelt Toyota 8 16'26.553 Retirement
(6) 48  Ollie Jackson Ford 2 4'09.752 Retirement
  41  Carl Boardley Infiniti 0   Retirement
 

 

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