BTCC Donington Park – Chilton leads Ingram for Vertu one-two

Tom Chilton cruised to victory in race one of the day at Donington Park. With team mate and championship leader Tom Ingram in tow, the veteran capitalised on his first pole position in 14 years, with the win.

While initially slow off the line, Chilton held on to the lead, with Ingram close behind. His championship rival Ash Sutton started tenth, giving Ingram breathing space as the lead pair built up a gap at the front.

Behind the Hyundai trio of Chilton, Ingram and Restart’s Chris Smiley, were the NAPA Ford’s. Dan Rowbottom and Dan Cammish held the fort while Sutton caught up, passing Jake Hill and Senna Proctor into sixth place.

On lap four Rowbottom took Smiley for third, while at the front, perhaps weary of Sutton’s surge, Chilton relinquished the lead to Ingram coming out of the Melbourne hairpin – maximising his points haul.

Sutton managed to get past Cammish for fifth and was on the tail of Smiley for fourth.  Sportingly, at the front, Ingram gave the lead back to Chilton, who’d earned the right to win the race. Ingram got the point for leading a lap and was happy to settle for second.

Sutton made it up to fourth, but with the quandary of the top three starting on the slower hard compound tyre for race two; Sutton was happy to stay where he is and have a front row seat for a race two win.

Chilton secured the win, his 18th of his illustrious career, with Ingram second. The NAPA trio of Rowbottom, Sutton and Cammish followed with reigning champion Jake Hill sixth. The other Team Vertu drivers Adam Morgan and Senna Proctor were close behind while Smiley dropped to ninth and Aron Taylor-Smith rounded out the top ten.

Daryl DeLeon finished 11th ahead of Gordon Shedden on the hard compound tyre. Charles Rainford, Dan Lloyd and Aiden Moffat were the final points scorers.

With Sutton on the soft tyre and Ingram on the hard, race two could have huge implications for the championship.

Related posts:

BTCC Oulton Park – Ingram takes dominant lights to flag win BTCC Oulton Park – Sutton’s tactical gamble pays off with race two win BTCC Croft – Ingram takes title lead with win after Sutton suffering puncture BTCC Croft – Rowbottom takes third win of season with Sutton cutting Ingram’s championship lead