BTCC Brands Hatch – Tom Ingram secures second title with magnificent win

Tom Ingram secured his second BTCC championship with a win in round 29 at Brands Hatch. The Hyundai man powered into the lead and never looked back. Title rival Ash Sutton followed him home in second, but couldn’t stop Ingram adding to his 2022 title win.

in a race affected by two safety car periods, Ingram kept his cool and secured his 40th career win.

Cammish was bogged down at the start, with Chilton taking the lead and Rainford squeezing past too. His rear wheel drive BMW starting well. Adam Morgan spun at Druids sending him down the order while Ingram made his way to third.

At the start of lap two Ingram slid down the inside of Rainford at Paddock Hill while Sutton, seeing his title chances slipping away, passed team mate Cammish for fourth. By lap three Ingram was in the lead, passing team mate Chilton at Surtees who didn’t make it difficult for the championship leader.

Sutton knew that he had to finish ahead of Ingram to keep his championship hopes alive, and passed Rainford on lap four at Westfield for third place before the race was neutralised by a Safety Car. Heading into Paddock Hill at the start of lap five, Rainford was tapped into the gravel and wall by Aron Taylor-Smith’s Toyota – BMW’s miserable day continued.

After a three lap delay the race was restarted, but only momentarily as heading into Druids, Josh Cook tapped his Toyota team mate Taylor-Smith off and into the wall. While under safety car conditions Chilton’s Hyundai ground to a halt at Druids. He fell down the order and more importantly, Ingram lost his rear gunner, giving Sutton the chance to attack Ingram.

Lap 14 saw the restart with just five laps left for Ingram to hold on. On the faster soft tyres, he pulled away from Sutton, who both literally and metaphorically saw his title hopes sail off into the distance.

Senna Proctor pushed from 13th on the grid to the podium with a fantastic switch back pass down the inside of Cammish at Surtees for third and best of the rest behind the title chasing duo.

Tom Ingram took the chequered flag to seal his second title, his seventh win of the season and the 40th of his career. A magnificent campaign from Ingram, who has been first or second in at least half of the races this season with seven wins and eight second placed finishes.

Sutton finished second, doing all he could but just not enough. Proctor finished third to aid Team VERTU’s manufacturer title bid. Gordon Shedden was fourth with Cammish and Dan Rowbottom fifth and sixth. Jake Hill surged from the back of the grid to seventh in his penultimate race before leaving the sport.

Josh Cook, Aiden Moffat and Adam Morgan rounded off the top ten. Chris Smiley finished ahead of Sam Osborne with Daryl DeLeon putting his race one woe behind him for 13th. Mikey Doble and Dan Lloyd were 14th and 15th, Lloyd in prime position to take the Independent title.

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