Tom Ingram boosted his title credentials with a win in round 21 of the British Touring Car Championship at Croft. He held off Honda’s Dan Cammish as title contender Colin Turkington had another nightmare race.
Dubbed the ‘King of Croft’, Turkington’s retirement in race two was compounded with a driveshaft issue on lap one. He pitted and rejoined five laps down on the leaders. Scoring no points and falling to third in the title race.
Ingram rocketed from third on the grid past Cammish at turn one, and past Tom Chilton by the end of lap one. Stephen Jelley had a spin in his BMW 125i at turn two.
On lap three the safety car was out as Bobby Thompson’s impressive weekend ended in a horror smash as he got put onto the grass and his car dug in and rolled over multiple times. Thankfully he was unhurt.
On the restart Cammish was fighting Chilton, with both Honda Civic FK8’s struggling with brake temperature issues. The discs were glowing as they were pushing hard. Cammish finally got past him on lap 13 and set about hounding down Ingram.
Ash Sutton, who started 20th after suffering a puncture in race two, was up to sixth, with Tom Oliphant in his way. He got past him and was fighting Matt Neal for fourth.
Cammish was on the tail of Ingram coming into the final lap. Ingram did all he could to keep the Honda behind and held on to take the win. Cammish finished three tenths behind. Chilton rounded off the podium with Neal and Sutton having a drag race over the line. Neal took fourth by 17 thousandths of a second.
Ash Sutton has the championship lead by seven points from Cammish with Turkington in third as the title race hots up going into the final six races of the season at Snetterton and Brands Hatch.
Pos | Driver | Car | Interval |
1 | Tom Ingram | Toyota Corolla | |
2 | Dan Cammish | Honda Civic Type R FK8 | +0.278 |
3 | Tom Chilton | Honda Civic Type R FK8 | +5.001 |
4 | Matt Neal | Honda Civic Type R FK8 | +6.453 |
5 | Ash Sutton | Infiniti Q50 | +6.472 |
6 | Tom Oliphant | BMW 330i M Sport | +7.129 |
7 | Jake Hill | Honda Civic Type R FK2 | +8.099 |
8 | Josh Cook | Honda Civic Type R FK8 | +8.548 |
9 | Senna Proctor | Hyundai i30N | +10.235 |
10 | Aiden Moffat | Infiniti Q50 | +10.435 |
11 | Rory Butcher | Ford Focus ST | +10.894 |
12 | Ollie Jackson | Ford Focus ST | +11.438 |
13 | Adam Morgan | Mercedes Benz A Class | +13.535 |
14 | Stephen Jelley | BMW 125i M Sport | +16.681 |
15 | Sam Osborne | Honda Civic Type R FK2 | +16.825 |
16 | Andy Neate | Ford Focus ST | +17.677 |
17 | Mike Bushell | VW CC | +18.639 |
18 | Jack Goff | VW CC | +18.975 |
19 | Chris Smiley | Hyundai i30N | +25.669 |
20 | Jack Butel | Mercedes Benz A Class | +29.487 |
21 | Nicolas Hamilton | VW CC | +31.497 |
22 | Carl Boardley | BMW 125i M Sport | +1:22.945 |
23 | Colin Turkington | BMW 330i M Sport | +4 Laps |
Retirements | |||
DNF | Bobby Thompson | Audi S3 Saloon | Crash |
DNF | Michael Crees | Honda Civic Type R FK8 | Mechanical |
Image Credit: BTCC Media