Ingram sets ominous pace in practice

Tom Ingram set an ominous marker for the third round of the British Touring Car Championship at Snetterton in topping free practice by over 0.4 seconds.

The 2022 champion has not won a race yet this season, but Ingram occupies the runner-up spot in the standings with his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback.

The second session was the only dry one, and Ingram spent most of the session on ‘housekeeping’ duties before jumping from last to first with his opening gambit at a flying lap with just over 10 minutes remaining.

No one got close to that time, except Ingram himself, who went 0.3s quicker on his following lap to finally top the times by 0.408s.

Quickest up until the point that Ingram got into gear was Mikey Doble, continuing his strong start to the season with the Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra squad.

Doble’s theoretical best lap – combining his best sectors – brings him to within 0.2s of Ingram’s table-topper, but he could not hang onto second place, with a late effort from Dan Lloyd propelling the Restart Racing Hyundai into the runner-up spot to the tune of just 0.003s.

Dan Cammish looked strong with fourth place at the wheel of the lead Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus ST, with Excelr8 driver Adam Morgan making it three Hyundais in the top five.

Sixth fastest was taken by reigning champion Jake Hill, a winner last time out at Brands Hatch, in his West Surrey Racing-run BMW 330i M Sport.

The top 10 was completed by Gordon Shedden (Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport), Chris Smiley (Restart Hyundai), and two more Speedworks Toyota drivers: Aron Taylor-Smith and rookie James Dorlin.

Current championship leader Ash Sutton ended his session on the back of a tow rope after an apparent technical glitch on his Alliance Ford. He was 13th fastest, meaning he will go into the opening qualifying group with Ingram. Hill, third in the championship, will be in the second group.

Hill was supreme in the wet conditions of FP1. He set three laps comfortably better than the best anyone else could do, before parking the BMW.

His rookie WSR team-mate Charles Rainford finished up second in FP1, 0.409s adrift of Hill, with Cammish third.

This session was interrupted by a red flag, caused by a radio glitch that meant race control could not communicate with the teams.

There is one change to the 25-strong line-up, with Michael Crees surrendering his Excelr8 Hyundai seat for the weekend to his pal, local TCR UK racer Ryan Bensley.

BTCC Snetterton – Practice results

FP2

FP1