Tom Ingram produced a superb performance to take victory in the first full-distance British Touring Car Championship race of the season at Donington Park.
Reigning champion Ingram was the only driver from the top five on the grid not to choose the soft-compound Goodyear tyres for the race, but led throughout in his medium-shod Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback.
Dan Rowbottom started his Plato Racing Mercedes A35 Saloon from pole after his victory in the qualifying race, but bogged down terribly when the lights went out, and emerged from the first corner in fourth place behind Josh Cook’s Speedworks Motorsport-run Toyota Corolla GR Sport and the West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sport of Charles Rainford.
Ingram had built a lead of over 1.5 seconds by the end of the first lap, but then the soft-tyred brigade began to home in on the Hyundai, led by Cook from Rowbottom, who had passed Rainford around the outside into the chicane.
It looked close, but Ingram was keeping his 10 laps of TOCA Turbo Boost in his pocket, while those behind were using theirs. Ingram had just deployed the TTB for the first time when the safety car emerged.
Cook’s strong run had come to an end when a left-rear puncture pitched the Toyota into a spin and into the barriers at the chicane.
The race went green with 10 laps remaining, and Ingram had nine laps of TTB to the four of second-placed Rowbottom. Predictably, the Hyundai soon extended a comfortable margin, and the race was instead for second place.
Mikey Doble, also on the soft tyres, passed Rainford after the safety car to move his Power Maxed Racing Audi A3 Saloon up to third. Then, on the 18th lap, Doble dispatched Rowbottom at the chicane to move up to second.
Doble, showing excellent race pace on the Audi’s debut, actually inched closer to Ingram in the laps remaining to the finish, the margin 1.468 seconds at the chequered flag.
“It was perfect,” said Ingram. “It was exactly what we wanted to do, to run away and try to get a bit of a gap.
“The soft tyre here is better over a handful of laps, but over a race distance the medium is better. We executed it just as we wanted – a great start to the season. And massive congratulations to Mikey and Power Maxed.”
Things got worse for Rowbottom, whose track-limits abuse resulted in a 10-second penalty, of which notification came on the final lap.
That meant third place went to Ash Sutton, who had hauled his Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus Titanium saloon through from 21st and last on the grid.
Sutton even tried to pass Rowbottom on the final lap – he failed, but it didn’t matter.
The four-time champion had passed Rainford at Redgate with nine laps remaining to move into fourth on the road, but thereafter kept some TTB in his pocket. This left him vulnerable, Rainford briefly repassing him on the Craner Curves, but Sutton, who had set fastest lap earlier in the race, soon sprinted away again.
Adam Morgan also got his Plato Mercedes past Rainford to earn fourth, with the BMW man fifth ahead of Dan Cammish in his Alliance Ford.
Gordon Shedden worked his Speedworks-run Laser Tools Toyota past Aiden Moffat’s PMR Audi on the final lap for seventh, with Dexter Patterson (PMR Audi) completing a Scottish 7-8-9 ahead of Shedden’s team-mate Aron Taylor-Smith. Rowbottom’s penalty dumped him to 12th behind Tom Chilton’s Excelr8 Hyundai.
BTCC Race 1 results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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