Tom Ingram assumes championship lead with lights-to-flag race one win

Team Vertu’s Tom Ingram moved into the lead of the British Touring Car Championship standings with a lights-to-flag win in the opening race at Croft, as rival Ash Sutton suffered from a puncture.

After claiming pole position on Saturday, Ingram continued his strong form in the opening encounter in North Yorkshire, withstanding pressure from NAPA Racing UK’s Dan Cammish to commandingly claim his third win of the season.

By the end of the opening lap, Ingram had opened up a lead of over half a second, and the gap was up to almost three seconds before a mid-race safety car intervention was required.

Ingram pulled clear again at the restart, going on to win his 36^th BTCC race by just over a second from the Ford of Cammish.

Crucially for Ingram, title rival Sutton dropped out with a front-right puncture just before the restart from the safety car period, dropping the erstwhile points leader from sixth to the back of the field.

Cammish took his sixth podium result of the season, never really bothering Ingram, whilst the podium was completed by Team Vertu’s Senna Proctor, who earned his first rostrum visit in five years.

Proctor had earlier moved up several places when Tom Chilton and Charles Rainford cut the first chicane, and he then dived inside NAPA’s Daniel Rowbottom at Tower bend for fourth.

That became third a few corners later when he muscled past Power Maxed Racing’s Mikey Doble, who also lost out to Rowbottom and Chilton.

Rowbottom stayed close to Proctor but couldn’t repass, taking the chequered flag in fourth, ahead of Chilton in fifth.

Doble fell out of contention on lap three when he made a mistake exiting the chicane and spun off, dropping the Vauxhall driver to the back of the pack.

WSR’s Daryl DeLeon thus assumed sixth, where he finished the race, despite pressure from initially Rainford and latterly Toyota’s Árón Taylor-Smith.

Taylor-Smith got past Rainford on the lap after the restart to take seventh, leaving Rainford to settle for eighth.

The top ten was completed by Restart Racing’s Daniel Lloyd, who was concerned about a recurrence of engine issues which cropped up in qualifying, and Team Vertu’s Adam Morgan.

Toyota’s Gordon Shedden was 11^th, the Scot being involved in an incident with Restart Racing’s Chris Smiley on lap ten which was the cause of the safety car period.

As Smiley defended from Shedden into Clervaux corner, he appeared to touch the inside kerb and thus unsettled his car, with Shedden connecting with the back of the Hyundai and turning Smiley into the gravel and out of the race.

Un-Limited Motorsport’s Dexter Patterson was the top CUPRA driver in 12^th.

Sutton finished down in 20^th, a lap down after pitting for new rubber and a minor power steering issue, meaning he has gone from leading the standings to being 13 points behind Ingram.

Race two is scheduled to get underway at 14:30 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	17	24:56.873	1:22.176	1
2	27	M		Dan CAMMISH	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	17	1.112	1:22.323	2
3	18	M		Senna PROCTOR	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	17	2.692	1:22.702	8
4	32	M		Daniel ROWBOTTOM	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	17	3.060	1:22.531	5
5	3	M		Tom CHILTON	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	17	3.523	1:22.582	4
6	2	M		Daryl DELEON	WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	17	4.120	1:22.585	10
7	40	M		Árón TAYLOR-SMITH	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	17	5.394	1:22.686	7
8	99	M		Charles RAINFORD	LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	17	6.985	1:23.035	9
9	123	I		Daniel LLOYD	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	17	8.415	1:23.303	6
10	33	M		Adam MORGAN	Team Vertu	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	17	9.625	1:23.369	12
11	52	M		Gordon SHEDDEN	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	17	11.754	1:23.597	17
12	17	I		Dexter PATTERSON	ROKiT Racing with Un-Limited Motorsport	CUPRA Leon	17	13.077	1:23.726	13
13	16	M		Aiden MOFFAT	LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR	BMW 330i M Sport	17	13.467	1:23.739	16
14	77	M		Sam OSBORNE	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	17	16.283	1:24.165	18
15	88	I		Mikey DOBLE	Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	17	21.903	1:24.297	3
16	12	I		Stephen JELLEY	ROKiT Racing with Un-Limited Motorsport	CUPRA Leon	17	24.911	1:25.840	19
17	50	I		Nick HALSTEAD	Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing	Vauxhall Astra	17	25.667	1:25.989	22
18	132	M		James DORLIN	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	17	33.635	1:24.718	15
19	19	M		Max BUXTON	TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK with IAA	Toyota Corolla GR Sport	17	51.061	1:25.863	21
20	116	M		Ashley SUTTON	NAPA Racing UK	Ford Focus ST	16	+ 1 LAP	1:23.194	11
R	22	I		Chris SMILEY	Restart Racing	Hyundai i30 N Fastback	9	DNF	1:24.077	14
R	28	I		Nicolas HAMILTON	Powder Monkey Brewing Co with Esidock	CUPRA Leon	2	DNF	1:45.081	20
WD	1	M		Jake HILL	Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport	BMW 330i M Sport	–	DNS	N/A	–