Ingram dominates Race 2 to extend points lead

Tom Ingram extended his British Touring Car Championship points lead with a consummate victory in the second race of the day at Knockhill.

Ingram was always the favourite, starting his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback from third on the grid on soft Goodyear tyres whereas the front-row-starting BMW 330i M Sports of race one winner Jake Hill and Charles Rainford were forced onto the medium compound.

Ingram darted around the outside of Rainford into the hairpin on the opening lap to take second place, and wasted no time in latching onto the back of Hill.

On the third lap, Ingram speared the Hyundai down the inside of Hill at the Clark right-hander. The West Surrey Racing man had momentum on the outside line and the two raced down to the hairpin side by side, swapping paint as they did so, before Ingram completed the move at the hairpin.

While Hill held on magnificently on his medium tyres, Rainford began a slide down the order on the same rubber – the entire remainder of the field were on softs – out of the points to finish 16th.

Hill hung on in second place for 11 laps before Dan Cammish, in the lead Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus ST, had a tentative look around the outside of the hairpin.

Hill got into a slide on the exit, and Cammish was able to slingshot into the runner-up spot, with Senna Proctor then slicing past the BMW next time around at the hairpin with his Excelr8 Hyundai.

Ash Sutton was the next – and last – driver to pass Hill, with his move coming into Duffus, and a lap later he pulled off a beautiful multi-corner move on Proctor that culminated in his shouldering past into third at the Butcher’s kink.

While Ingram moved ever further into the distance, Sutton spent the final nine laps chipping away at the gap to team-mate Cammish. Then, just as Proctor did for Ingram in race one, Cammish moved over on the run to the finish line to allow Sutton the extra points for second.

“Absolutely perfect,” summed up Ingram after taking victory by 7.196 seconds, with fastest lap into the bargain and his points lead over Sutton extended to 21.

“What a car. It’s just on another level. It’s an absolute pleasure.

“I just had to push all the way through, but at the same time hold station, and keep the tyres in check in case there was a safety car.”

It was a great comeback from Sutton, who lost a couple of places on the opening lap while battling Aiden Moffat and had dropped to eighth position.

Behind fourth-placed Proctor, Hill had the sister WSR BMW of Daryl DeLeon not far adrift at the finish. And, with Ingram continuing his perfection by pulling the number six in the reversed-grid draw – the lowest possible number – it is the Anglo-Filipino who will start on pole for the finale, although he will have to use the medium tyres.

Moffat completed a WSR BMW 5-6-7 ahead of the Excelr8 Hyundai of Tom Chilton, the veteran charging through from the back of the grid after being excluded from the opener for overboosting.

Completing the top 10 were Dan Rowbottom (Alliance Ford) and Adam Morgan (Excelr8 Hyundai).

BTCC Knockhill – Race 2 results