Sutton defeats Ingram in crash-strewn finale

Ash Sutton took the honours in a pulsating, crash-strewn final British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Croft.

The four-time title winner led home Tom Ingram by 2.201 seconds at the wheel of his Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus ST thanks to some scintillating racecraft from fifth on the grid.

It means that Sutton further narrows the points deficit down to eight to Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback driver Ingram, who moved into the championship lead thanks to his victory in the first race of the day, and Sutton’s non-score in that race.

Reversed-grid poleman Aiden Moffat got away in front with his West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sport, but front-row partner Ingram threw his Hyundai around the outside at the first corner at Clervaux.

Ingram was slightly in front as they threaded through the left-hand kink that follows, but Moffat was not giving way and contact prompted the 2022 champion to miraculously hold a huge slide and drop only to third, behind Moffat and another WSR BMW, that of Charles Rainford.

Ingram attempted to fight back on Rainford, who was bottling up the pack on hard tyres, at the Jim Clark Esses, only for Sutton to chisel his way down the inside at Sunny In via minor contact and emerge in second place.

Moffat now had an advantage of 1.7 seconds, only for a big pile-up at the complex to bring out the safety car.

Adam Morgan had worked his way down the inside of Rainford at Sunny, and Dan Cammish then got a run on the BMW on the exit. But as Cammish turned into the complex, he was nudged by Rainford – whose wing mirror had been folded in by earlier contact – onto the grass.

The Alliance Ford was out of control and, as Cammish rejoined the circuit, he harpooned the WSR BMW of Daryl DeLeon, with the unfortunate Chris Smiley collected as collateral damage.

Rainford was also turned around in the incident, while Dan Rowbottom and Mikey Doble were forced to the pits for quick repairs.

On the restart, Ingram went down the inside of Sutton at Hawthorn’s, and the Ford skipped the chicane before the Hyundai’s momentum carried it past for second place at Tower.

Immediately Ingram went after Moffat, but the Scot held the inside line at the hairpin – and Sutton dived down the inside of both of them to snatch the lead. That was despite contact on Sutton from the rear from Gordon Shedden, who in turn had been nudged by Morgan.

Ingram’s repeated attempts to pass Moffat allowed the sister Excelr8 Hyundai of Senna Proctor through, and now the Yorkshireman hunted down the BMW for second.

Proctor got a run going into the complex, Moffat moved across to defend, and he was edged onto the grass – as Cammish had been earlier – and down to sixth place.

Tom Ingram, Team Vertu Hyundai i30N

With five laps remaining, Ingram got down the inside of Proctor, playing a polite Excelr8 team game, at the hairpin for second place, but by now Sutton was 2.5 seconds to the good.

Ingram trimmed the gap, but Sutton re-extended to take the flag with an advantage of 2.201s.

“Absolutely mega to come away with that result,” said Sutton. “That was a proper touring car race three, wasn’t it? It was absolute chaos. Aiden was looking fiery, so I thought I’d let Tom deal with that one. And then the move was a proper opportunistic one.

“I saw what was going on with Aiden and Tom and made a dart for the inside, but I think Shedden had the same idea at the same time.

“A bit of contact there led to actually doing a lot of damage in the left-rear. She was a big handful round the back of the circuit – a good 40 degrees left steering in a straight line.”

Proctor was third, while Shedden finished fourth in his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport.

Morgan carried his Excelr8 Hyundai to fifth ahead of Moffat, Sam Osborne (Alliance Ford), the Excelr8 Hyundai of Tom Chilton (the leading driver on hard tyres) and Aron Taylor-Smith’s Speedworks Toyota.

After his pitstop, Doble caught the pack in his Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra and barged his way past Dexter Patterson’s Un-Limited Cupra Leon for 10th at the final corner.

BTCC Croft – Race 3 results