Tom Chilton claims first win of season in wet reverse-grid race

Motorbase’s Tom Chilton took his first win of the year in a wet final British Touring Car Championship race at Croft, finishing ahead of BTC Racing’s Josh Cook and Power Maxed Racing’s Jason Plato in wet but drying conditions.

Chilton started the reverse grid race from pole position and, like most of the top ten drivers on the grid, elected to start the race on wet tyres after a heavy downpour just before the race got underway.

Despite the wet track, a number of drivers chose to start the race on slick tyres as the sun came out, with Speedworks’ Tom Ingram the leading driver to take a risk, having been drawn to start the race in third on the grid.

At the start, those on wets had a clear advantage as Chilton led the field whilst Cook slotted into second and Plato moved up to third, as Ingram dropped down the order to finish the opening lap in 22^nd.

An early safety car period was then required when Team HARD’s Jack Goff was hit by BTC Racing’s Chris Smiley, breaking his left-rear suspension and leaving his car stranded at the complex.

Racing resumed on lap six, with Chilton pulling out a moderate lead over Cook as Aiden Moffat, then running in seventh, served a drive-through penalty for a false start.

As the race wore on the lap times of those on the wet rubber began to fall away, but by the by the halfway stage of the race the best of those on slicks was Ingram, down in 21^st.

The Toyota racer began to make progress from lap 11 onwards, passing a driver on almost every lap, but the gamble ultimately failed to pay off.

Chilton managed his tyres to win his first race since Knockhill last year, with Cook’s second returning him to second overall in the drivers’ standings.

By finishing in third, Plato also scored his first podium finish since Croft last year.

The leading trio were comfortably ahead of fourth-placed Ash Sutton, with the Subaru driver having passed Honda’s Matt Neal, who was fifth, for the position on lap 14 at the hairpin – a place where Sutton also picked off Andrew Jordan and Colin Turkington earlier in the race.

Turkington took sixth and thus maintained his points lead, with the Northern Irishman leaving Croft with an 11-point margin over Cook.

AmD Tuning’s Rory Butcher repaid his mechanics hard work in repairing his car overnight by taking eighth in his Honda, having started 14^th, ahead of Jordan in eighth, who lost places to the two ahead of him at the Jim Clark Esses on the final lap.

Ciceley Motorsport’s Adam Morgan and Honda’s Dan Cammish completed the top ten, the latter having slid out of eighth on lap ten.

Slick-shod Ingram just missed out on the points, ending the race in 16^th but gaining a consolation point for posting the fastest lap of the race.

The next-best driver on slicks was Motorbase’s Nic Hamilton in 20^th, whilst Tom Oliphant (23^rd) and Chris Smiley (24^th) also went for the dry tyre.

Race result

POS	NO	CL	DRIVER	NAT	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	3	I	Tom CHILTON		Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher	Ford Focus RS	17	26:56.832	1:29.720	1
2	66	I	Josh COOK		BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	17	0.764	1:29.759	2
3	11	M	Jason PLATO		Sterling Insurance with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	17	1.117	1:29.571	4
4	116	M	Ashley SUTTON		Adrian Flux Subaru Racing	Subaru Levorg	17	5.337	1:30.177	10
5	25	M	Matt NEAL		Halfords Yuasa Racing	Honda Civic Type R	17	7.012	1:29.998	5
6	1	M	Colin TURKINGTON		Team BMW	BMW 330i M Sport	17	9.615	1:30.163	7
7	6	I	Rory BUTCHER		Cobra Sport AmD AutoAid / RCIB Insurance	Honda Civic Type R	17	10.541	1:30.325	14
8	77	M	Andrew JORDAN		BMW Pirtek Racing	BMW 330i M Sport	17	11.168	1:30.018	8
9	33	I	Adam MORGAN		Mac Tools with Ciceley Motorsport	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	17	12.475	1:30.697	11
10	27	M	Dan CAMMISH		Halfords Yuasa Racing	Honda Civic Type R	17	12.856	1:30.591	6
11	48	I	Ollie JACKSON		Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher	Ford Focus RS	17	13.209	1:30.554	20
12	18	M	Senna PROCTOR		Adrian Flux Subaru Racing	Subaru Levorg	17	14.840	1:30.677	13
13	600	I	Sam TORDOFF		Cobra Sport AmD AutoAid / RCIB Insurance	Honda Civic Type R	17	15.354	1:30.595	15
14	19	I	Bobby THOMPSON		GKR Scaffolding with Autobrite Direct	Volkswagen CC	17	15.889	1:30.723	23
15	41	I	Carl BOARDLEY		RCIB Insurance with Fox Transport	Volkswagen CC	17	20.657	1:30.779	22
16	80	M	Tom INGRAM		Team Toyota GB with Ginsters	Toyota Corolla	17	22.420	1:27.817	3
17	32	I	Daniel ROWBOTTOM		Cataclean Racing with Ciceley Motorsport	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	17	24.492	1:31.237	21
18	16	I	Aiden MOFFAT		Laser Tools Racing	Mercedes-Benz A-Class	17	32.648	1:30.659	9
19	8	I	Mark BLUNDELL		TradePriceCars.com	Audi S3	17	32.804	1:31.278	26
20	28	I	Nicolas HAMILTON		ROKiT Racing with Motorbase	Ford Focus RS	17	39.108	1:31.773	28
21	4	I	Sam OSBORNE		Exceler8 Motorsport	MG6	17	39.963	1:31.768	30
22	37	I	Rob SMITH		Exceler8 Motorsport	MG6	17	40.576	1:32.038	24
23	15	M	Tom OLIPHANT		Team BMW	BMW 330i M Sport	17	50.830	1:29.860	18
24	22	I	Chris SMILEY		BTC Racing	Honda Civic Type R	17	54.238	1:28.239	27
25	303	I	Matt SIMPSON		Simpson Racing	Honda Civic Type R	17	1:12.192	1:30.909	17
26	9	M	Rob COLLARD		Sterling Insurance with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	17	1:13.562	1:29.785	19
27	777	I	Michael CREES		GKR Scaffolding with Autobrite Direct	Volkswagen CC	17	1:17.189	1:31.835	25
28	12	I	Stephen JELLEY		Team Parker Racing	BMW 125i M Sport	16	+ 1 LAP	1:30.088	12
R	31	I	Jack GOFF		RCIB Insurance with Fox Transport	Volkswagen CC	1	DNF	1:56.806	16
NS	24	I	Jake HILL		TradePriceCars.com	Audi S3	–	DNS	N/A	29