Ingram beats Cammish in first race and takes points lead

Tom Ingram claimed victory and the points lead in the first race of the British Touring Car Championship’s visit to Croft.

While the Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback racer made hay while the sun belatedly shone following a morning of rain at the North Yorkshire venue, Ash Sutton lost his championship lead.

After his disappointing qualifying netted him 11th on the grid, four-time champion Sutton was the highest-placed driver on the grid to fit the hard-compound Goodyear tyre, which each driver must use once on raceday.

Despite his disadvantage, Sutton put in a sensational drive up to sixth place on a still-slippery track, before a left-front puncture sent him into the pits at the end of a second-half safety car period.

The additional steering lock at the hairpin caused by the puncture had tripped the power-steering, which needed a reset and put the Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus ST a lap down before Sutton could rejoin. He is now 13 points adrift of Ingram in the standings.

But while one Alliance Ford was out of the equation, another was very much looming large in Ingram’s mirrors for much of the race.

Dan Cammish converted his front-row starting position to run second all the way. The safety car, which set up a five-lap sprint to the finish, brought the Ford back from a near-three-second deficit onto the Hyundai’s bootlid, but there was never any realistic threat and Ingram took the chequered flag 1.112 seconds in front.

“It dried really quickly,” said Ingram. “The trouble is, when you’re the first person there you’re a little bit of a lamb to the slaughter. ‘Where do I brake? What do I do?’ You’re in a bit of an abyss really. It’s tricky conditions and it certainly keeps you on your toes.

“I heard Ash had a bit of a misfortune with a puncture, and it obviously does us a favour with a big points score. Obviously we had our bad result at Snetterton with a crash in race two, and it’s up to us now not to drop the ball.”

A storming opening lap sent the Excelr8 Hyundai of Senna Proctor from eighth on the grid to third, and the Yorkshireman then pulled away from a race-long battle for fourth between Dan Rowbottom and Tom Chilton.

The safety car brought the Alliance Ford of Rowbottom and Excelr8 Hyundai of Chilton onto Proctor’s tail, but he held firm to net his first podium position since 2021, after returning to the series three rounds ago following a three-and-a-half-year absence.

Rowbottom fended off Chilton, despite picking up some trackside furniture that partially blocked his radiator following the safety car.

Tom Chilton, Team Vertu Hyundai i30N

Photo by: JEP

Chilton, for his part, was recovering from some first-lap barging in which he and the West Surrey Racing BMW of Charles Rainford both skipped the chicane and dropped a few positions.

Not that Rowbottom and Chilton had much incentive to displace Proctor who, along with Ingram and Cammish, will both be compelled to use the hard Goodyears in race two against the soft-shod hordes.

Daryl DeLeon drove his WSR BMW 330i M Sport to sixth, a position he had just lost to Sutton when the safety car was called.

Rainford had been homing in on Sutton and DeLeon when the caution began but, instead of making further progress, he lost seventh to the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport of Aron Taylor-Smith.

Dan Lloyd came through after a tough opening lap to take ninth behind Rainford in his Restart Racing Hyundai, ahead of the Excelr8 Hyundai of Adam Morgan – the highest-placed finisher on hard tyres after Sutton’s problem.

In 11th was the hard-tyred Speedworks Toyota of Gordon Shedden, whose contact with the Restart Hyundai of Chris Smiley at Clervaux sent the Northern Irishman into the barriers and triggered the safety car.

Another in the wars was Mikey Doble, whose Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra faded from third on the grid to seventh in the opening two laps, got on the slippery kerb at the chicane and hit the barrier, but rejoined to gain a point for 15th.

BTCC Croft – Race 1 results