Ingram scorches to BTCC pole at Oulton Park

Tom Ingram secured pole position for the first British Touring Car race of the weekend at Oulton Park with a blistering lap time that was quicker than any ever previously set by a touring car round the Cheshire circuit's Island layout.

The Team Vertu driver lapped the 2.26-mile course in 1m23.856s in the six-car pole position shootout, 0.473s quicker than Chris Smiley in his Restart Racing-entered Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance, despite only having three second of Toca Turbo Boost (TTB) available per lap due to his championship position as opposed to Smiley’s full 15-second allocation. The gap was impressive on its own, but made all the more impressive by the fact the rest of the top six were covered by just 0.224s.

Dan Cammish – who was quickest in the second Q1 group – was third, 0.016s back from Smiley, with his NAPA Racing UK teammate Ash Sutton fourth. James Dorlin was fifth for Toyota Gazoo Racing UK, with Adam Morgan sixth, failing to trouble the top after a spin at Old Hall early on in the 10-minute Q3 session.

Before the final part of qualifying, Smiley topped the first Q1 group from Ingram, then went quickest in Q2, with Ingram only managing fourth behind Sutton and teammate Morgan.

That second session knocked out Tom Chilton in another Team Vertu Hyundai and the One Motorsport Honda Civic Type-R of Josh Cook, who took a gamble that didn't pay off, pushing early on as light rain fell – anticipating it to get heavier – which it didn't, and skipping the customary tire cross for front-wheel-drive cars done to maximize tire temperatures.

Charles Rainford in his West Surrey Racing BMW and the fourth Team Vertu Hyundai of Senna Proctor – who had all but one Q2 lap time deleted for track limits violations – also fell, along with Mikey Doble, and Aron Taylor-Smith.

Reigning champion Jake Hill was the biggest name to fall early on, finishing Group 1 of Q1 seventh, with Daniel Rowbotton, Gordon Shedden – another one of many to fall foul of track limits violations – Dexter Patterson, Stephen Jelley, Finn Leslie – who is taking the place of Ronan Pearson who has been sidelined by commercial issues – and Nicolas Hamilton were the others to exit from the first group.

In the second, Daniel Lloyd initially went second quickest, but was disqualified after failing a ride height check. That bumped Proctor into a transfer spot, but Sam Osborne, Darryl DeLeon, Aiden Moffat, Max Hall, and Nick Halstead all failed to advance on pace.

The pole was the 11th of Ingram’s career and his third straight top-two qualifying result this season. Second was Smiley’s best qualifying result of the season, and matches his career-best qualifying result from Donington in 2018 and Croft in 2019.

Behind the rest of the top six of Cammish, Sutton, Dorlin, and Morgan, Chilton will start Sunday's first race from sixth, with Chilton seventh, Cooke eighth, Rainford ninth, and Proctor rounding out the top 10.

Doble will start 11th, ahead of Taylor-Smith, Hill, Osborne, Rowbottom, DeLeon, and Patterson, with Moffat 18th, Jelley 19th, Hall 20th, Leslie 21st, Halstead 22nd, and Hamilton 23rd. The back row of the grid will be filled by the disqualified Lloyd and Shedden.

RESULTS

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