Tom Ingram claims maiden victory in thrilling season opener

Tom Ingram claimed an impressive first race victory after a frantic and action-packed opening round to the 2016 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship, with the Speedworks Motorsport driver leading home defending champion Gordon Shedden and his team-mate Matt Neal at Brands Hatch.

It was Ingram who led the field away on their two green flag laps after securing his maiden pole position during qualifying on Saturday, and the Speedworks Motorsport driver made a good getaway, retaining the lead into Paddock ahead of the Halfords Yuasa Racing duo of Shedden and Neal, but further back it was a disaster for Sam Tordoff, who lost places off the start and then spun after contact with team-mate Collard into Surtees. Meanwhile, the Eurotech Type-R of Martin Depper went off at Druids.

Colin Turkington also hit strife into Graham Hill bend, half-spinning his Subaru Levorg onto the grass, whilst Alex Martin clashed with Hunter Abbott and the former spun backwards heading down Cooper Straight and made contact with the barrier. The safety car was called as a result of the debris , though a late challenge for the lead by Shedden into Clearways left Ingram scampering for the safety car line.

A characteristically feisty Josh Cook made contact into Clearways with Adam Morgan and relegated the Mercedes A-Class to 7^th, before Aron Smith and Collard followed the MG charger through and send Morgan further down the order into Paddock. Jeff Smith also pulled off a fantastic move into Paddock on the inside line to put himself through into 11^th ahead of his former team-mate and 2013 champion, Andrew Jordan.

The initial progress for the quartet of brand-new Team BMR Subaru Levorgs was slow, with Jason Plato finally passing Stewart Lines for 22^nd at roughly half-distance. Along with Turkington’s troubles, which saw him already being lapped by this stage, James Cole, the only other running car after problems for Warren Scott, was running in 29^th and near last.

As Ingram and Shedden began to pull away at the front, the main battle was between Ashley Sutton and Jack Goff for 4^th. Sutton ran wide into Clearways and the Team IHG Rewards Club racer took to the inside, but the reigning Clio Cup champion was able to hold station. Goff then ran wide at Paddock Hill bend and allowed Sutton’s team-mate, Cook, to push him down to 6^th. Hunter Abbott was also in strife, slowing down across the start/finish line after contact with Ollie Jackson.

The race entered a notably calm phase as the laps ticked away, with Ingram maintaining a slight margin over the defending champion Shedden at the front. Then the action resumed once more in typical fashion. Aron Smith passed Jack Goff, before Collard took the outside line and swooped in front of them both. The loss of momentum for Goff allowed Morgan and Jackson to also slip past the one-time race winner, with a rapid Jeff Smith now filling the mirrors of the BMW 125i M-Sport.

Then disaster struck for Smith, who outbraked himself and went into the gravel at Clearways, dropping the Eurotech team principal back down to 15^th, though still in the points. The incident meant Jake Hill, who is finally running a full season with Team. HARD, moved up into a notable 13^th.

That would prove to be the last of the drama, however, as Ingram crossed the line by a margin of 2.284 seconds to take his first win in the series.
Race result

POS	NO	CL	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME/GAP	BEST	GD
1	80		Tom INGRAM		Speedworks Motorsport	Toyota Avensis	27	23:44.664	48.746	1
2	52	M	Gordon SHEDDEN		Halfords Yuasa Racing	Honda Civic Type R	27	2.284	48.764	2
3	25	M	Matt NEAL		Halfords Yuasa Racing	Honda Civic Type R	27	3.925	48.770	3
4	116	M	Ashley SUTTON		MG Racing RCIB Insurance	MG6GT	27	6.07	48.894	5
5	66	M	Josh COOK		MG Racing RCIB Insurance	MG6GT	27	6.423	48.860	6
6	100	C	Rob COLLARD		Team JCT600 with GardX	BMW 125i M Sport	27	7.908	48.929	12
7	40		Árón SMITH		BKR	Volkswagen CC	27	10.314	48.895	10
8	7		Mat JACKSON		Motorbase Performance	Ford Focus	27	11.72	48.961	9
9	33		Adam MORGAN		WIX Racing	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	27	13.495	49.085	7
10	31	C	Jack GOFF		Team IHG Rewards Club	BMW 125i M Sport	27	13.615	48.720	8
11	77		Andrew JORDAN		Motorbase Performance	Ford Focus	27	14.596	49.348	14
12	16		Aiden MOFFAT		Laser Tools Racing	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	27	18.504	49.260	17
13	24		Jake HILL		RCIB Insurance Racing	Toyota Avensis	27	18.769	49.290	19
14	55		Jeff SMITH		Eurotech Racing	Honda Civic Type R	27	22.825	48.959	13
15	17		Dan WELCH		Goodestone Racing	Proton Persona	27	24.456	49.112	25
16	600	C	Sam TORDOFF		Team JCT600 with GardX	BMW 125i M Sport	27	24.64	48.830	4
17	303		Matt SIMPSON		Speedworks Motorsport	Honda Civic Type R	27	24.953	49.370	24
18	57	M	Andy NEATE		Halfords Yuasa Racing	Honda Civic Type R	27	25.157	49.290	18
19	30		Martin DEPPER		Eurotech Racing	Honda Civic Type R	27	28.708	49.431	16
20	12		Mike EPPS		RCIB Insurance Racing	Toyota Avensis	27	29.142	49.531	26
21	99	M	Jason PLATO		Subaru Team BMR	Subaru Levorg GT	27	30.142	49.483	23
22	95		Stewart LINES		Maximum Motorsport	Ford Focus	27	44.497	50.272	30
23	38		Mark HOWARD		BKR	Volkswagen CC	27	49.253	50.192	31
24	22		Chris SMILEY		TLC Racing	Toyota Avensis	26	1 Lap	49.935	28
25	20	M	James COLE		Subaru Team BMR	Subaru Levorg GT	25	2 Laps	49.608	29
R	4	M	Colin TURKINGTON		Subaru Team BMR	Subaru Levorg GT	20	7 Laps	49.296	11
R	84		Kelvin FLETCHER		Power Maxed Racing	Chevrolet Cruze	17	10 Laps	49.672	32
R	53		Hunter ABBOTT		Power Maxed Racing	Chevrolet Cruze	14	13 Laps	49.332	21
R	48		Ollie JACKSON		AmD Tuning	Audi S3	13	14 Laps	49.563	20
R	11		Rob AUSTIN		Handy Motorsport	Toyota Avensis	3	24 Laps	51.702	15
R	14		Alex MARTIN		Dextra Racing with Team Parker	Ford Focus	2	25 Laps	51.825	22
R	39	M	Warren SCOTT		Subaru Team BMR	Subaru Levorg GT	0	27 Laps	N/A	27

Complete race results