Ingram flies to season opener victory before being disqualified

Team VERTU’s Tom Ingram initially claimed victory in the opening British Touring Car Championship race of the season at Donington Park, with pole-sitter Daniel Rowbottom having been jumped at the start.

However, Ingram was later disqualified from the result for a boost infringement – handing victory to Mikey Doble.

Four drivers chose to run the faster soft tyre for the opening race – pole-sitter Rowbottom and fellow front-row starter Josh Cook, along with Mikey Doble and Charles Rainford.

When the lights went out, Rowbottom bogged down and was slow away from the line, allowing Ingram to vault into a clear lead.

The Hyundai driver was a second and a half clear by the end of the opening lap, as Speedworks Motorsport’s Cook assumed second, having fended off a challenge from the fast-starting BMW of Rainford at the first corner.

Rainford was then re-passed by Rowbottom along the back straight, whilst NAPA Racing UK’s Ash Sutton gained eight places on the opening lap to move up to 13^th.

Cook closed in on Ingram’s lead over the opening half dozen laps, but the Toyota driver then suffered a left-rear puncture going into the chicane on lap seven, sending his Corolla across the gravel and out of the race.

The safety car was required for four laps to retrieve Cook’s car, with the action resuming on lap 12. Sutton, by this stage up to sixth having picked off several rivals in the laps prior to the safety car, wasted no time in overtaking Plato Racing’s Adam Morgan round the outside at Schwantz Curve to take fifth.

Further ahead Power Maxed Racing’s Mikey Doble was having a storming race and passed WSR’s Rainford for third into Coppice.

Sutton followed past into fourth going over the start-finish line a few corners later, but towards the end of the race the four-time champion came under renewed pressure from Rainford.

At the front, Ingram won the first race of the season for the fifth time in his career with an advantage of just under a second and a half from the Audi of Doble.

Pole-sitter Rowbottom crossed the line in third, but he was hit with a late-race ten-second penalty for exceeding track limits, depriving the team of a podium result in its maiden race.

Sutton thus completed the podium, whilst Rowbottom dropped to 12^th in the final classification.

Morgan ended up as Plato’s top driver in fourth, having passed Rainford three laps from the finish through the Craner Curves.

Rainford was fifth, ahead of NAPA Racing UK’s Dan Cammish in sixth.

Gordon Shedden was the leading Laser Tools Racing driver in seventh, and thus the top Toyota, ahead of Power Maxed’s Aiden Moffat in eighth, the latter having lost out to his fellow Scot on the final lap.

Dexter Patterson put all three new Power Maxed Audis in the top ten on their first race, whilst Árón Taylor-Smith completed the top ten in his Laser Tools Toyota.

Aside from Cook, the only other retirement from the race was EXCELR8 Motorsport’s Ricky Collard, who picked up a front-left puncture after 13 laps, having been circulating in 17^th at the time.

Race two is scheduled to get underway at 14:40 BST.

Original race result (subsequently revised)

POS	NO	CL	NAT	DRIVER	ENTRANT	CAR	LAPS	TIME	BEST	GD
1	80	M		Tom INGRAM	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	21	26:00.184	1:08.158	2
2	88	I		Mikey DOBLE	LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing	Audi A3 Saloon	21	1.468	1:08.351	4
3	116	M		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	21	3.217	1:07.944	21
4	33	M		Adam MORGAN	Cataclean Plato Racing	Mercedes A35 Saloon	21	5.243	1:08.835	7
5	99	I		Charles RAINFORD	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	21	6.860	1:08.246	5
6	27	M		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	21	7.744	1:08.755	13
7	52	I		Gordon SHEDDEN	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	21	8.869	1:08.928	9
8	16	I		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing	Audi A3 Saloon	21	9.161	1:08.654	8
9	17	I		Dexter PATTERSON	Steel Seal with Power Maxed Racing	Audi A3 Saloon	21	9.570	1:09.026	10
10	50	I		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	21	9.648	1:09.054	11
11	3	M		Tom CHILTON	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	21	9.885	1:08.748	6
12	32	M		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	Cataclean Plato Racing	Mercedes A35 Saloon	21	13.135	1:08.291	1
13	2	I		Daryl DE LEON	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	21	13.623	1:08.966	17
14	132	I		James DORLIN	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	21	14.844	1:09.457	15
15	77	M		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	21	15.084	1:09.442	18
16	15	M		Lewis SELBY	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus Titanium	21	15.500	1:09.249	16
17	22	I		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	21	15.628	1:09.149	14
18	28	M		Nicolas HAMILTON	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	21	22.599	1:09.646	19
19	19	M		Max BUXTON	Speedworks Corolla Racing	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	21	22.817	1:09.693	20
R	11	M		Ricky COLLARD	Team VERTU	Hyundai i30 Fastback N	14	DNF	1:09.167	12
R	66	M		Josh COOK	Speedworks Corolla Racing	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	6	DNF	1:08.347	3