Tom Ingram claims first win of the season in Thruxton opener

Team Vertu’s Tom Ingram scored his first victory of the season in the opening British Touring Car Championship race at Thruxton, after a door-to-door battle with NAPA Racing UK’s Ash Sutton.

Pole-sitter Sutton was under pressure from the off, with Ingram applying heavy pressure on the opening lap before the safety car had to be called on at the end of the lap for an incident at Noble corner.

Un-Limited Motorsport’s Max Hall had lost the right-rear of his CUPRA, drifting wide onto the grass before spinning across the pack and collecting the unfortunate NAPA Ford of Sam Osborne, sending both into the barriers at Goodwood.

The next six laps were behind the safety car, before racing resumed on lap eight, with Ingram all over the back of Sutton.

Going into the chicane, Ingram looked to pass around the outside, but as Sutton fought to control his car under braking he went deep and made contact with Ingram, prompting both drivers to cut the chicane.

The duo continued at the front of the pack, emerging further in front of third-placed Dan Cammish than when they went into the chicane, but no in-race action was taken.

Sutton remained within three tenths of a second of Ingram for much of the next eight laps, but on lap 15 the Kwik Fit sticker at the front of Sutton’s car got sucked into the radiator intake, which had an almost immediate impact on his speed.

Sutton let Cammish through into second half a lap later, clearly struggling for top-end pace, and although Cammish brought the lead gap down by eight tenths, he couldn’t catch Ingram, who scored his 34^th win in the championship by just over a second from Cammish.

One Motorsport’s Josh Cook completed the podium, having made up 11 places in the race in a determined drive following his qualifying shunt – despite a visit to hospital on Saturday evening and an injury to his ankle.

Cook had ended the opening lap in just 12^th but progressively picked off the drivers in front of him; over the eight laps after the restart there were only two laps in which Cook didn’t make up at least one position. Indeed, on lap nine, Cook pulled off a superb double pass on both Senna Proctor and Adam Morgan to kick-start his ascendancy up the order.

Sutton held fourth despite his radiator issue, ahead of team-mate Daniel Rowbottom in fifth. Both drivers benefitted when Power Maxed Racing’s Mikey Doble retired on lap 15 with an overheating Vauxhall, the Independent driver having looked set for another strong result until that stage.

Laser Tools Racing’s Jake Hill was sixth, losing a place at the start but fighting back past Toyota’s James Dorlin on lap 11, the Speedworks driver having been muscled out of three positions on the same lap.

Dorlin took his best finish in seventh, ahead of Team Vertu duo Morgan and Proctor in eighth and ninth respectively.

Proctor had a lively race; the series returnee has tapped by Tom Chilton on the opening lap, sending the latter into a huge slide at Allard, for which WSR’s Charles Rainford had to take avoiding action and ended up spinning across the circuit.

Proctor ultimately lost eighth to Morgan when he went wide at Church corner on lap 16, but after skipping across the grass he regained composure to only lose one place.

WSR’s Daryl DeLeon completed the top ten, whilst Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley was 11^th and second in the Independents ranking behind Cook.

Toyota’s Gordon Shedden had a lively incident with Proctor on lap nine whilst battling for eighth, resulting in the three-time champion saving a huge slide at Noble and dropping to last, eventually taking the chequered flag down in 18th.

Race two gets underway at 14:35 BST.

Race result

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	80	M		Tom INGRAM	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	19	28:16.617	1:16.698	2
2	27	M		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	19	1.214	1:16.340	3
3	66	I		Josh COOK	One Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R	19	5.199	1:16.203	14
4	116	M		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	19	6.007	1:16.554	1
5	32	M		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	19	6.563	1:16.372	10
6	1	M		Jake HILL	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	BMW 330i M Sport	19	7.447	1:16.371	8
7	132	M		James DORLIN	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	19	7.921	1:16.736	5
8	33	M		Adam MORGAN	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	19	8.264	1:16.920	16
9	18	M		Senna PROCTOR	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	19	9.790	1:16.895	6
10	2	M		Daryl DELEON	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	19	14.306	1:17.126	13
11	22	I		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	19	14.878	1:17.121	17
12	40	M		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	19	15.419	1:17.288	23
13	123	I		Daniel LLOYD	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	19	16.671	1:17.229	15
14	16	M		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	19	18.869	1:17.276	20
15	3	M		Tom CHILTON	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	19	20.002	1:16.914	7
16	14	M		Ronan PEARSON	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	19	22.106	1:17.697	22
17	99	M		Charles RAINFORD	LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	19	22.265	1:17.513	11
18	52	M		Gordon SHEDDEN	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	19	22.821	1:17.409	9
19	12	I		Stephen JELLEY	One Motorsport	Honda Civic Type-R	19	24.644	1:17.874	19
20	17	I		Dexter PATTERSON	ROKiT Racing with Un-Limited Motorsport	CUPRA Leon	19	25.481	1:18.006	12
R	28	I		Nicolas HAMILTON	Powder Monkey Brewing Co with Esidock	CUPRA Leon	15	DNF	1:19.474	24
R	88	I		Mikey DOBLE	Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	14	DNF	1:16.730	4
R	93	I		Max HALL	ROKiT Racing with Un-Limited Motorsport	CUPRA Leon	0	DNF	N/A	18
R	77	M		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	0	DNF	N/A	21
NS	50	I		Nick HALSTEAD	Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	–	DNS	N/A	–