Aiden Moffat wins race three as Tom Ingram edges closer in title fight

Laser Tools Racing’s Aiden Moffat scored a first win of the season in the final British Touring Car Championship race at Silverstone, finishing ahead of title rivals Tom Ingram and Colin Turkington.

Having been drawn to start the reverse-grid race from pole position, Scot Moffat kept his nerve throughout the race to take his first win since the final meeting of 2017, despite a mid-race safety car intervention wiping out his narrow lead.

Moffat had to withstand pressure from Ingram’s Toyota for much of the race, with the Speedworks Motorsport driver having got himself into the position by lap seven, helped when Eurotech Racing’s Jack Goff was handed a drive-through penalty for a false start whilst he was running in second.

But Ingram himself had to withstand pressure from behind from firstly the Alfa Romeo of Rob Austin and then championship rival Turkington, who hauled his BMW up to the final podium position whilst running with little ballast on the prime tyre.

Turkington tried to pass his rival for second, including drawing alongside on the final lap, but the BMW driver couldn’t find a gap and had to settle for second, losing just two points to his rival to leave the gap at 34 points heading to the last meeting of the year.

Fourth went to Power Maxed Racing’s Josh Cook, who hauled his Vauxhall past both Austin and the Motorbase Performance Ford of Tom Chilton on the penultimate lap, after the trio spent most of the race dicing for the final podium position in a six-car train at the front.

Austin held on to fifth, despite the best efforts of Chilton, taking his best finish since a podium all the way back at the start of the year.

Chilton was sixth, despite the Honda of Matt Neal closing up late on in the race, and with it the Reigate racer has moved up to third overall in the drivers’ championship standings, mathematically but not practically still in the title race.

Neal finished just ahead of team-mate Dan Cammish, who was eighth. BMW Pirtek Racing’s Andrew Jordan and Team BMW’s Ricky Collard completed the top ten, the latter being the best-placed driver on the less-favourable harder compound tyre.

The second Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall of Senna Proctor just missed out on a top ten, with the 20-year-old taking the chequered flag in 11^th.

By finishing in just 12^th position, defending champion Ash Sutton has now formally been eliminated from contention for the overall honours, after a trying weekend for the Team BMR Subaru outfit.

The safety car intervention, which was called for four laps on lap nine, was to retrieve the stricken car of Ollie Pidgley from the Woodcote gravel trap, as he had been contacted by team-mate Bobby Thompson exiting Luffield which broke his right-rear suspension and pitched him into the barriers.

There was also a late-race crash involving AmD Tuning’s Ollie Jackson and Team Parker Racing’s Stephen Jelley, who had been battling outside the points around 20^th position.

Along with Goff, Matt Simpson was also handed a drive-through penalty, with the Honda driver being stung for exceeding track limits once too often.

The final meeting of the year takes place at Brands Hatch on the 29^th and 30^th September.

Race result

POS	NO	CL	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	16		Aiden MOFFAT		Laser Tools Racing	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	25	27:08.580	59.533	1
2	80		Tom INGRAM		Speedworks Motorsport	Toyota Avensis	25	0.221	59.191	7
3	2	M	Colin TURKINGTON		Team BMW	BMW 125i M Sport	25	0.322	59.123	8
4	66	M	Josh COOK		Power Maxed TAG Racing	Vauxhall Astra	25	2.347	59.082	12
5	11		Rob AUSTIN		DUO Motorsport with HMS Racing	Alfa Romeo Giulietta	25	2.642	59.151	9
6	3		Tom CHILTON		Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher	Ford Focus RS	25	2.788	58.790	13
7	25	M	Matt NEAL		Halfords Yuasa Racing	Honda Civic Type R	25	3.000	59.243	14
8	27	M	Dan CAMMISH		Halfords Yuasa Racing	Honda Civic Type R	25	3.304	59.291	15
9	77	M	Andrew JORDAN		BMW Pirtek Racing	BMW 125i M Sport	25	4.504	59.503	22
10	55	M	Ricky COLLARD		Team BMW	BMW 125i M Sport	25	5.518	59.642	4
11	18	M	Senna PROCTOR		Power Maxed TAG Racing	Vauxhall Astra	25	5.953	59.520	10
12	1	M	Ashley SUTTON		Adrian Flux Subaru Racing	Subaru Levorg GT	25	6.503	59.407	27
13	21		Mike BUSHELL		Trade Price Cars with Brisky Racing	Volkswagen CC	25	7.887	59.419	24
14	600		Sam TORDOFF		Team GardX Racing with Motorbase	Ford Focus RS	25	8.264	59.869	5
15	26		Daniel LLOYD		BTC Norlin Racing	Honda Civic Type R	25	8.634	59.490	19
16	15		Tom OLIPHANT		Ciceley Motorsport	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	25	10.729	59.760	11
17	33		Adam MORGAN		MAC Tools with Ciceley Motorsport	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	25	12.189	59.800	6
18	99	M	Jason PLATO		Adrian Flux Subaru Racing	Subaru Levorg GT	25	12.725	59.789	17
19	39		Brett SMITH		WIX Racing with Eurotech	Honda Civic Type R	25	13.556	1:00.056	21
20	20		James COLE		Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher	Ford Focus RS	25	13.810	59.809	28
21	19		Bobby THOMPSON		Team HARD. with Trade Price Cars	Volkswagen CC	25	16.037	59.796	31
22	31		Jack GOFF		WIX Racing with Eurotech	Honda Civic Type R	25	16.421	59.489	2
23	23		Sam SMELT		AmD with Cobra Exhausts	Audi S3	25	16.940	59.685	26
24	32		Ethan HAMMERTON		Team HARD. with Trade Price Cars	Volkswagen CC	25	18.289	59.793	20
25	303		Matt SIMPSON		Simpson Racing	Honda Civic Type R	25	33.965	59.967	3
R	60		Stephen JELLEY		Team Parker Racing	BMW 125i M Sport	23	DNF	59.948	30
R	48		Ollie JACKSON		AmD with Cobra Exhausts	Audi S3	23	DNF	59.673	25
R	6		Rory BUTCHER		AmD with AutoAid / RCIB Insurance Racing	MG 6	15	DNF	59.400	16
R	54		Josh CAYGILL		AmD with AutoAid / RCIB Insurance Racing	MG 6	9	DNF	1:00.283	29
R	43		Ollie PIDGLEY		Trade Price Cars with Brisky Racing	Volkswagen CC	6	DNF	1:00.237	23
R	22		Chris SMILEY		BTC Norlin Racing	Honda Civic Type R	2	DNF	1:00.701	18