Tom Chilton made no mistake from his gift of reversed-grid pole position by dominating the final race of the British Touring Car Championship round at Knockhill.
Chilton was always the favourite, bearing in mind his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback was one of just seven of the 23 cars able to use soft-compound Goodyear tyres in this race – and the next-highest starter doing the same was Gordon Shedden from sixth on the grid.
Shedden’s hopes evaporated within half a lap, when his Speedworks Motorsport-run Toyota Corolla GR Sport slewed sideways at the chicane with a puncture. The Scottish veteran continued after a visit to the pits to finish a lap down.
Behind Chilton, a trio of Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus Titanium machinery ran in close formation early on, with rookie Lewis Selby ahead of Sam Osborne and Dan Cammish.
Cammish got past Osborne on the third lap, but a commendable effort from Selby resulted in him staying in second place until the ninth lap, when Adam Morgan and Cammish forced their way past.
Morgan had started his Plato Racing Mercedes A35 Saloon from eighth on the grid and was another on the soft tyres. But he had a six-lap deficit to Chilton on TOCA Turbo Boost. There was therefore little chance of catching the Hyundai, which took the chequered flag 3.054 seconds to the good.
“Seeing Adam on the soft tyre coming through, Barry [Plowman] my engineer was on the radio every lap giving me the gap,” said Chilton.
Adam Morgan, Cataclean Plato Racing
Photo by: JEP
“I’ve had a bit of rotten luck on my car this season, so I’m happy for my team as well as for myself.”
While Selby fell down the order, and Osborne went off at McIntyre’s after contact with Dexter Patterson, Cammish upheld Alliance honour with a comfortable third place – the best of the medium-tyred runners.
Patterson had a good race in his Power Maxed Racing Audi A3 Saloon, holding off the West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sport of Charles Rainford for fourth, both on medium tyres. In their wake, Daryl De Leon did a terrific job from 17th on the grid to carve his WSR BMW through to sixth – also on mediums.
Next came a couple of soft-shod runners. Dan Rowbottom ran out of TTB early on in his Plato Mercedes but just held off the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota of Josh Cook for seventh.
Next came Ricky Collard, who had Excelr8 Hyundai team-mate Tom Ingram attempting to get past mid-race on his charge from the back of the grid. Then they happened upon the freefalling Selby who, quite within his rights, did not make life easy for Ingram at the chicane. The reigning champion’s subsequent loss of momentum allowed Mikey Doble past, although Ingram subsequently regained the pace from the PMR Audi man to finish 10th.
Runaway championship leader Ash Sutton also got mixed up in the midfield shenanigans, losing several places just before half-distance. His Alliance Ford recovered to 12th, meaning the loss of just two points to Ingram, with the gap between them still a hefty 81.
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– The Autosport.com Team
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