Tom Ingram claimed his first victory of the 2023 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship in the final race of the day at Snetterton this afternoon (Sunday). The reigning champion crossed the line first in his Hyundai i30N after resisting a late charge from Dan Cammish.
There was drama before the lights went out when George Gamble's Toyota came to a halt on the green flag lap. This resulted in a brief delay to the start and the race was reduced from 12 to 11 laps as the remaining runners went for a secondary warm up tour of the 2.97 mile 300 circuit whilst the stricken Japanese machine was retrieved.
Pole-sitter Stephen Jelley assumed the initial lead in his Team BMW machine with teammate Adam Morgan slotting into second with Daniel Rowbottom, Jake Hill and Ingram all in close proximity. Behind that Rory Butcher in one of the remaining works Toyotas held championship leader Ash Sutton behind.
The leading order shuffled several times throughout the race, and the first of these changes came when Ingram muscled past Hill when the field streamed on to the Bentley Straight for the first time. Elsewhere, Rowbottom passed Morgan for second, whilst Colin Turkington's factory BMW 330e M Sport was all the way down in ninth after plummeting from fourth on the grid.
Rowbottom was the next to sample life in the lead after passing Jelley at Williams on the second lap with Ingram immediately following him through. Butcher passed Jelley later round the lap at Murrays too as the podium order continued to chop and change.
At this stage the BMWs all began to sink down the order with Sutton and Cammish in their NAPA Racing UK Fords making relatively short work of Morgan and Jelley.
As the race reached its halfway point, Ingram made his decisive move for the front with a clean move on Rowbottom at Riches. Rowbottom held the Hyundai off for several laps but he was simply unable to retain a high enough pace and he was passed by Butcher just a few corners later. Behind that, Cammish overtook Sutton to move into fourth and set about chasing those further up the road.
A sequence of quick laps towards the close of the race allowed Cammish to pass Rowbottom and Butcher, but Ingram still had a margin of over a second to defend. Cammish continued to press on however and he was right on Ingram's tail as the race entered its final corners, but there just wasn't enough time for him to find an opening as last year's title winner crossed the line first.
Butcher held on to his podium placing in third with Rowbottom in fourth and Sutton fifth completing a strong showing for the Ford Focus STs.
Behind that, Josh Cook emerged as the best of the rest after a charging drive through from the rear of the field. Cook spent several laps behind train of WSR prepared BMWs but eventually cut through to finish sixth.
Early race leader Jelley emerged as the best of the BMW drivers in seventh, whilst Turkington made the most of contact between Morgan and Hill to rise to eighth despite running at the back of the group for much of the race. Aiden Moffat's Honda wound up ninth ahead of Morgan whilst Hill eventually passed the flag 11th.
More to follow.
- Tom Ingram, Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8, Hyundai i30N
- Dan Cammish, NAPA Racing UK, Ford Focus ST
- Rory Butcher, Toyota Gazoo Racing UK, Toyota Corolla GR Sport
- Daniel Rowbottom, NAPA Racing UK, Ford Focus ST
- Ash Sutton, NAPA Racing UK, Ford Focus ST
- Josh Cook, One Motorsport with Starline Racing, Honda Civic Type R
- Stephen Jelley, Team BMW, BMW 330e M Sport
- Colin Turkington, Team BMW, BMW 330e M Sport
- Aiden Moffat, One Motorsport with Starline Racing, Honda Civic Type R
- Adam Morgan, Team BMW, BMW 330e M Sport