Tom Ingram secured the first victory for the Excelr8 Motorsport-built Hyundai i30 Fastback N in the final British Touring Car Championship race at Snetterton.
The reverse-grid draw saw the top seven finishers from race two inverted, handing pole position to Team BMW’s Stephen Jelley, with his team-mate tom Oliphant alongside.
The BMWs led for the first lap, but on the second tour Oliphant was looking to pass his team-mate, flashing his headlights on the approach to the turn 2 hairpin as Jelley locked his brakes.
Two corners later the duo made contact under braking and although Jelley was able to retain the lead, a baulked Oliphant was tapped into a spin by MB Motorsport’s Ollie Jackson, with both tumbling down the order.
For Jackson, the contact marked the end of his race, whilst oliphant dropped to 22nd.
Ingram made his move on Jelley for the lead into the second corner on lap five, with Jelley holding onto second for a further three laps before Ash Sutton passed the BMW driver.
By this time, Ingram had opened up a two and a half second lead and appeared to be in a position to manage the gap behind him.
Sutton had started seventh and by the end of the opening lap was in sixth, the reigning champion then gaining further places when Oliphant and Jackson dropped out.
Having passed Rory Butcher on the first lap, Sutton quickly found himself on the back of Jelley by lap eight and he moved into second at Turn 2, as Gordon Shedden, the leading driver on the soft tyre, followed him through two corners later.
Shedden then spent the final third of the race trying to pass Sutton for second but the Team Dynamics driver was unable to find a way through, instead having to settle for a first visit to the rostrum this year.
BTC Racing’s Josh Cook was one of a few drivers to also have the soft tyre and he hauled his Honda up to fourth by the end of the race, gaining ten places.
Jelley took fifth after dropping behind Cook on lap eight, ahead of the Speedworks Toyota of Butcher in sixth.
Colin Turkington struggled to make progress in the race and brought his BMW home in seventh, ahead of the Ciceley Motorsport BMW of Adam Morgan in eighth.
The top ten was completed by the CUPRA of Jack Goff, again finishing ninth, and the second Team Dynamics Honda of Daniel Rowbottom.
Leaving Snetterton, Sutton is the new championship leader with 80 points ahead of Ingram (78), Turkington (75), Cook (60) and Hill (57).
Race results
| POS | NO | CL | NAT | DRIVER | ENTRANT | CAR | LAPS | TIME | GAP | GD |
| 1 | 80 | I |  |
Tom INGRAM | Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 12 | 23:56.024 | 1:58.076 | 4 |
| 2 | 1 | I | |
Ashley SUTTON | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 12 | 1.144 | 1:58.114 | 7 |
| 3 | 52 | I | |
Gordon SHEDDEN | Halfords Racing with Cataclean | Honda Civic Type-R | 12 | 1.617 | 1:57.910 | 11 |
| 4 | 66 | I | |
Josh COOK | BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 12 | 3.217 | 1:58.134 | 14 |
| 5 | 12 | M | |
Stephen JELLEY | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 12 | 6.756 | 1:58.414 | 1 |
| 6 | 6 | M | |
Rory BUTCHER | Toyota Gazoo Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 12 | 7.469 | 1:58.697 | 3 |
| 7 | 2 | M | |
Colin TURKINGTON | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 12 | 7.768 | 1:58.774 | 6 |
| 8 | 33 | I | |
Adam MORGAN | Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport | BMW 330i M Sport | 12 | 8.744 | 1:58.915 | 8 |
| 9 | 31 | I | |
Jack GOFF | Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct | CUPRA Leon | 12 | 9.916 | 1:58.572 | 9 |
| 10 | 32 | I | |
Daniel ROWBOTTOM | Halfords Racing with Cataclean | Honda Civic Type-R | 12 | 10.355 | 1:58.757 | 15 |
| 11 | 22 | I | |
Chris SMILEY | Ginsters EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 12 | 11.293 | 1:58.646 | 13 |
| 12 | 24 | M | |
Jake HILL | MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square | Ford Focus ST | 12 | 11.718 | 1:58.649 | 24 |
| 13 | 123 | I | |
Daniel LLOYD | Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 12 | 12.403 | 1:58.548 | 12 |
| 14 | 40 | I |  |
Árón TAYLOR-SMITH | Team HARD. with HUB Financial Solutions | CUPRA Leon | 12 | 14.118 | 1:58.950 | 18 |
| 15 | 99 | I | |
Jade EDWARDS | BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 12 | 14.575 | 1:59.067 | 23 |
| 16 | 15 | M | |
Tom OLIPHANT | Team BMW | BMW 330i M Sport | 12 | 15.262 | 1:58.515 | 2 |
| 17 | 16 | I | |
Aiden MOFFAT | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 12 | 16.002 | 1:58.644 | 10 |
| 18 | 11 | I | |
Jason PLATO | Adrian Flux with Power Maxed Racing | Vauxhall Astra | 12 | 17.120 | 1:59.134 | 20 |
| 19 | 3 | I | |
Tom CHILTON | Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport | BMW 330i M Sport | 12 | 18.655 | 1:58.794 | 28 |
| 20 | 4 | M | |
Sam OSBORNE | Racing with Wera & Photon Group | Ford Focus ST | 12 | 19.993 | 1:59.087 | 19 |
| 21 | 96 | I | |
Jack BUTEL | EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 12 | 23.054 | 1:59.555 | 22 |
| 22 | 88 | I | |
Glynn GEDDIE | Team HARD. with Autobrite Direct | CUPRA Leon | 12 | 27.350 | 1:59.033 | 29 |
| 23 | 21 | M | |
Jessica HAWKINS | Racing with Wera & Photon Group | Ford Focus ST | 12 | 27.739 | 1:58.726 | 21 |
| 24 | 62 | I | |
Rick PARFITT Jr | EXCELR8 with TradePriceCars.com | Hyundai i30 Fastback N | 12 | 38.849 | 2:00.189 | 27 |
| 25 | 28 | I | |
Nicolas HAMILTON | ROKiT Racing with iQuoto Online Trading | CUPRA Leon | 12 | 48.741 | 2:00.258 | 25 |
| 26 | 18 | I | |
Senna PROCTOR | BTC Racing | Honda Civic Type-R | 12 | 1:57.596 | 1:58.429 | 16 |
| R | 23 | M | |
Sam SMELT | Toyota Gazoo Racing UK | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 8 | DNF | 2:00.327 | 26 |
| R | 48 | M | |
Ollie JACKSON | MB Motorsport accelerated by Blue Square | Ford Focus ST | 2 | DNF | 2:02.055 | 5 |
| R | 41 | I | |
Carl BOARDLEY | Laser Tools Racing | Infiniti Q50 | 0 | DNF | N/A | 17 |