Tom Ingram continues Croft domination with dominant pole position

Tom Ingram continued his scintillating pace to  claim pole position in qualifying for the British Touring Car Championship at Croft, beating home hero Dan Cammish by a quarter of a second.

The Team Vertu driver set a new qualifying lap record in the all-important ‘Quick Six’ part of the session, lapping the North Yorkshire circuit in 1 minute 20.522 seconds to score the 12^th pole position of his BTCC career and his second of the season.

NAPA Racing UK’s Dan Cammish was second, having been close to the pace all day but always lacking the edge to usurp the indomitable Ingram.

Power Maxed Racing’s Mikey Doble was an impressive third fastest in his Vauxhall, also topping the Independent drivers, four tenths from pole.

Team Vertu’s Tom Chilton was fourth, his EXCELR8 Motorsport team having had to work to repair his Hyundai following a sizeable second practice shunt at the first sequence of corners on the lap.

The Q3 order was completed by NAPA’s Daniel Rowbottom and Restart Racing’s Daniel Lloyd, the latter aborting his final Q3 lap when he exceeded track limits, leaving him just over a second adrift.

None of the Toyota quartet made it through to Q3, with Árón Taylor-Smith in seventh being the best of the Speedworks Motorsport-run drivers.

Senna Proctor was also a surprising omission from the final part of qualifying, the Team Vertu driver having been second fastest in both practice sessions but ultimately falling half a tenth shy of getting out of Q2 in the more competitive qualifying session.

Charles Rainford was the top WSR BMW driver in ninth, whilst the top ten was completed by his team-mate Daryl DeLeon.

There was, however, disappointment for WSR ahead of the session. Reigning champion Jake Hill dropped out of the event due to illness, and even though Colin Turkington took over his car in second practice and could have qualified as a late change, the team opted to withdraw the Laser Tools Racing-backed car from the event altogether.

Ash Sutton was a lowly 11^th in his NAPA Racing UK Ford, with Team Vertu’s Adam Morgan completing the Q2 runners.

Race one is scheduled to get underway at 12:10 BST on Sunday.

‘Quick Six’ results

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
1	80		Tom INGRAM	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	6	1:20.522	–
2	27		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	6	1:20.789	0.267
3	88		Mikey DOBLE	Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	6	1:20.936	0.414
4	3		Tom CHILTON	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	6	1:20.938	0.416
5	32		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	7	1:21.071	0.549
6	123		Daniel LLOYD	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	6	1:21.593	1.071

Drivers failing to progress from Q2

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
7	40		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	6	1:21.109	0.236
8	18		Senna PROCTOR	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	6	1:21.122	0.249
9	99		Charles RAINFORD	LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	7	1:21.164	0.291
10	2		Daryl DELEON	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	7	1:21.172	0.299
11	116		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	7	1:21.204	0.331
12	33		Adam MORGAN	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	6	1:21.708	0.835

Drivers failing to progress from Q1

POS	NO	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	GAP
13	17		Dexter PATTERSON	ROKiT Racing with Un-Limited Motorsport	CUPRA Leon	6	1:22.171	1.315
14	22		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	6	1:21.653	0.653
15	132		James DORLIN	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	6	1:22.173	1.317
16	16		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	7	1:21.693	0.693
17	52		Gordon SHEDDEN	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	6	1:22.367	1.511
18	77		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	6	1:21.731	0.731
19	12		Stephen JELLEY	ROKiT Racing with Un-Limited Motorsport	CUPRA Leon	6	1:22.537	1.681
20	28		Nicolas HAMILTON	Powder Monkey Brewing Co with Esidock	CUPRA Leon	6	1:22.882	1.882
21	19		Max BUXTON	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	6	1:36.888	16.032
22	50		Nick HALSTEAD	Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	6	1:24.396	3.396