Ingram takes pole from Cammish, Hill out with ear infection

Tom Ingram swept to pole position for the British Touring Car Championship round at Croft after topping all three phases of qualifying.

As at Oulton Park, the last round before the summer break, the 2022 champion was on invincible form in his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback, despite being allowed just three seconds per lap of TOCA Turbo Boost due to his runner-up position in the 2025 standings.

But unlike at Oulton, there was actually another driver who did go quicker: Ingram’s team-mate Tom Chilton, the pre-weekend qualifying lap record holder, stamped in a time 0.021 seconds quicker than Ingram’s in the Firestone Fast Six shootout, only to be one of a host of victims of track-limits time deletions.

A last-gasp effort at the chequered flag lifted Chilton to fourth place – an excellent effort from the veteran and the Excelr8 team after his heavy crash in free practice.

The other front-row position went in the end to Dan Cammish, the Leeds native the fastest of the quartet of Yorkshire BTCC battlers at their local circuit to end up 0.267s adrift of Ingram at the wheel of his Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus ST.

Cammish himself was limited to just five seconds per lap of TTB, so not too much of a surplus over polewinner Ingram.

“I’m really, really pleased with that,” said Ingram. “But we know the big points are on offer tomorrow. It feels as it does every weekend – the car is brilliant and the team has done a fantastic job.

“The summer break’s been really good for us – we’ve been able to get on top of everything and refine what we’ve already had.”

Third was a fine effort for high-performing Independent Mikey Doble, who continued his excellent form in the Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra.

The Surrey racer had a quicker time deleted for track limits, but it wouldn’t have been good enough for the front row.

Behind fourth-placed Chilton, Dan Rowbottom will line his Alliance Ford up in fifth, although the bearded Midlander had a time good enough for third deleted due to track limits.

Dan Lloyd was another victim of this, and the Restart Racing Hyundai battler ultimately rounded out those who made the top six shootout.

The big story of Q2 was the elimination of championship leader Ash Sutton. The four-time title winner recorded a time just 0.003s off Ingram’s segment-topping best, despite being on a mere one second of TTB, but this and other laps were deleted for track limits.

Sutton’s quickest ‘legal’ lap in his Alliance Ford was just 0.331s slower than Ingram’s, but such was the closeness of the field that he ended up down in 11th.

Seventh, and missing out on Q3 by 0.022s, was the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport of Aron Taylor-Smith, with Senna Proctor eighth in his Excelr8 Hyundai and West Surrey Racing BMW pair Charles Rainford and Daryl DeLeon rounding out the top 10.

WSR is down to three cars for the rest of the weekend, with reigning champion Jake Hill ruled out of competition on medical grounds due to a disorientating ear infection, and a team decision that his FP2 substitute driver Colin Turkington should not be placed under the pressure of taking part for the rest of the weekend, five months since he last drove a car much changed since the Brands Hatch test he completed in March.

Colin Turkington, Team BMW WSR BMW 330e M Sport

Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images

The biggest track-limits scalp from Q1 was three-time champion Gordon Shedden, whose Speedworks Toyota would have gone comfortably through.

BTCC Croft – Race 1 starting grid