Ingram sails to dominant victory in opener

Tom Ingram demolished his opposition to take a dominant victory in the first British Touring Car Championship race of the fifth round at Oulton Park.

The 2022 champion was a little worried that there was a damp patch, following morning rain, just in front of his pole position grid slot, but the Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback made a peach of a start to get away in front.

Ingram’s front-row partner Chris Smiley could not prevent third-starting Dan Cammish getting past him for second at Old Hall Corner, and then also conceded third to pre-weekend championship leader Ash Sutton, who swept around his outside at Cascades.

Ingram was 1.484 seconds in front of Cammish’s Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus ST by the end of the first lap, but the safety car appeared on lap two.

Sam Osborne had moved his Alliance Ford onto the line of Stephen Jelley’s One Motorsport Honda on the exit of the hairpin, leading to a collision. Both cars spun and, although they each continued, a quick barrier repair was required.

Once again Ingram was hot at the restart, extending a 1.177s margin in one lap. Cammish got onto his TOCA Turbo Boost the next time around to erode that to under a second, before Ingram used one of his two available blasts of TTB. Not only did the Hyundai streak away to the tune of 2.096s, but it also, remarkably, lapped Oulton quicker than anyone bar Ingram himself had managed in qualifying.

“So far a perfect weekend,” summed up Ingram, who has moved into a one-point championship lead over Sutton.

“The first race went absolutely fantastically and just to plan. This car is unbelievable to drive – it’s just an absolute pleasure. It does everything you want, when you want it to. And we hardly had any tyre drop-off.”

While Ingram sailed away in front, attentions turned to which of the Alliance Fords of Cammish and Sutton would emerge in second place.

That question was answered on the final lap when Sutton dropped back and conceded the final podium position to the Restart Racing Hyundai of Smiley.

With the top three finishers in race one compelled to use the hard Goodyear tyre in race two, this act by Sutton comes after Cammish warned following the third round at Snetterton – the previous round where the soft and hard tyres were mandated for the weekend – that such a scenario looked to be on the cards.

Sutton actually had to judge this to perfection, because Smiley had been caught by a train of similar Hyundais – Excelr8 trio Tom Chilton, Adam Morgan and Senna Proctor, with Jake Hill’s West Surrey Racing BMW in among them.

Smiley was moved to remark: “Ash was playing the game there and dumped me onto the hard for race two, but there were too many cars behind. It could easily have dumped me to sixth [had Smiley also slowed].”

Chilton therefore had to be satisfied with fifth, after pulling off a neat outside move mid-race on Morgan into the Hislop’s chicane. Hill got past Proctor at Lodge with two laps remaining, and the charging reigning champion almost pipped Morgan to sixth at the chequered flag, the two cars overlapping as they crossed the finish line.

Chris Smiley, Restart Racing Hyundai i30N

Photo by: JEP

Ninth place was the subject of a feisty dispute between rookie James Dorlin and the experienced Josh Cook.

Early in the race, the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport of Dorlin had moved over on Cook’s One Motorsport Honda at Deer Leap, the contact almost sending the West Countryman into the pitlane.

Later, Cook flew down the inside of Dorlin at Hislop’s, only for the Toyota to cut across the grass to remain in front. Cook finally made the move stick at Old Hall.

BTCC Oulton Park – Race 1 results