Tom Ingram has become king of the British Touring Car Championship for the second time after driving to victory in the second race of the Brands Hatch finale.
Ingram, from fifth on the grid, had the soft tyres fitted to his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback – the only driver in the top six to be using the option rubber.
When Ingram was given plenty of room by team-mate Tom Chilton to pass for the lead at Surtees on the third lap, that should have been the last anyone saw of the Hyundai.
But two safety car periods brought the pack back onto his tail, and during the second of these the sister Hyundai of Chilton conked out with alternator failure – and that brought the Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus ST of title rival Ash Sutton onto Ingram’s bumper.
Sutton had stormed through from ninth on the grid, and he was on medium rubber – that was to be no match for a soft-shod Hyundai over the final five laps of green-flag racing to the chequered flag.
Ingram was 2.4 seconds in front with a lap remaining and then, to rub salt into the wounds of the opposition, he set fastest lap on the final tour – pressing the TOCA Turbo Boost for the only time in the race, despite having five laps of TTB available.
“The car was, as it has been at every single round this year, on another planet of perfect,” said an emotional Ingram.
Tom Ingram, Team Vertu Hyundai i30N
“What we’ve put together has been nothing short of unreal. I’ve had the best year’s racing of my life – I’ve had a laugh, I’ve had a smile all the way through. To get it done in race two with one to go, I’m proper chuffed.”
Of the title-clinching drive, he added: “It was heavy going. Ash got a rocket start, and when he was there it was, ‘What are you doing here, man!’ They really kept us on our toes.”
Senna Proctor provided further joy for Excelr8 by storming from 13th on the grid on the soft tyres, grabbing third place from Dan Cammish into Surtees on the 16th lap of 18.
Poleman and first-race winner Cammish lost out at the start to Chilton, and made life easy for Alliance Ford team-mate Sutton to pass him. On the penultimate lap, Cammish lost fourth position to the soft-tyred Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport of Gordon Shedden.
Cammish led home Dan Rowbottom in an Alliance Ford 5-6, and this pair had the West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sport of Jake Hill and Speedworks Toyota of Josh Cook hot on their heels at the chequered flag.
Hill, from the back of the grid, just pipped Cook to seventh place, while ninth for Aiden Moffat’s WSR BMW gave the Scot pole position for the reversed-grid race.
Rounding out the top 10 was Adam Morgan’s Excelr8 Hyundai, which was tipped into a spin by Rowbottom at Druids on the opening lap.
Dan Cammish, NAPA Racing UK Ford Focus ST leads at the start
Photo by: JEP
The first of the two safety-car-triggering incidents had heavy implications on one of the minor title fights.
Charles Rainford was running third on lap three when he got into a slide at Hawthorn’s, and lost several places over the next few corners. He then attempted to close the door on Aron Taylor-Smith into Paddock Hill Bend, but the Irishman wasn’t backing out and the Speedworks Toyota helped the WSR BMW into the barriers.
That has therefore lifted Rainford’s team-mate Daryl DeLeon, who had his own disaster in race one, back into the Jack Sears Trophy leadership.
Taylor-Smith was also involved in the second safety car period. He moved over on team-mate Cook as they went uphill to Druids, and the contact fired Taylor-Smith out of the race.
The Independents title fight is between three going into the finale; points leader Dan Lloyd losing ground to Restart Racing Hyundai team-mate Chris Smiley and Power Maxed Racing Cupra ace Mikey Doble also in this race.
BTCC Brands Hatch – Race 2 results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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