Chilton heads Ingram in Hyundai 1-2 at Donington Park

Tom Chilton vanquished the spectre of team orders to head home points-leading stablemate Tom Ingram in the first British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Donington Park.

The Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback pair were in a class of their own over the 14 laps. Would Chilton, who led the first three tours, allow Ingram past? Yes, but only for a short while so that his team-mate could gain a lap leader point. Then Ingram slowed to repay the compliment.

There were two brief threats to the leading duo. At the start, the ‘customer’ Restart Racing Hyundai of Chris Smiley looked to have gained a cutback out of Redgate and seemed on course to split the Excelr8 machines, but it did not come off and Smiley eventually began to fall back through the order.

Up to third came a feisty Dan Rowbottom in the lead Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus ST, from seventh on the grid.

Rowbottom appeared to be moving into position to pressure Ingram over the final lap, but the 2022 champion had saved his single lap of TOCA Turbo Boost usage to the last, and held on.

Chilton then slowed as they approached the finish line, so that Ingram was just 0.599 seconds adrift at the chequered flag.

“All those years on, and it feels just as good as my first win in 2004,” said veteran Chilton.

“Obviously, this weekend we’ve got the perfect set-up on the car, and me and Tom had some nice fun and games out there. We figured it out on the radio and said, ‘Last corner, let’s swap.’

“Then Barry [Plowman, Chilton’s engineer] was getting nervous about the NAPA cars closing in, so I started using the TTB to pull it out at the end.”

But Chilton, who gained the extra point for fastest lap, added: “Oops, I was supposed to give that to Tom…”

Ingram was philosophical afterwards, pointing out: “You can’t take a win off someone; seconds and thirds we all look at slightly different.

“Ash [Sutton] was never going to go any further than fourth so he’s got the favourable tyre for the next race – they’ve guaranteed themselves a win, so you just do what you have to do.”

Sutton, indeed, never looked a threat to Alliance Ford team-mate Rowbottom, and he has the choice of using the medium-compound Goodyear tyres again in race two, whereas the top trio from the opener now all have to move onto the hards. He will start the second race with his deficit to Ingram widened to 22 points, but he should trim that back.

Dan Cammish completed an Alliance Ford 3-4-5. Despite running out of TTB a few laps from the finish, he was able to keep at bay the West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sport of a closing Jake Hill.

Two more Excelr8 Hyundais, in the hands of Adam Morgan and Senna Proctor, managed to get past Smiley to take seventh and eighth respectively, with Aron Taylor-Smith completing the top 10 in his Speedworks Motorsport-run Toyota Corolla GR Sport.

Behind 11th-placed Daryl DeLeon, whose WSR BMW got railroaded down the order in the early laps after starting on the second row, a bruising and entertaining battle for 12th – and the honour of top hard-tyred runner – was won narrowly by three-time champion Gordon Shedden (Speedworks Toyota) from rookie Charles Rainford (WSR BMW).