Ingram takes two at Brands Hatch BTCC finale

Tom Ingram won twice while a penalty prevented it being a Team VERTU clean sweep as Ricky Collard lost his maiden British Touring Car Championship win in the final weekend of the season at Brands Hatch.

LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing driver Aiden Moffat started the first race of the day on pole after winning Saturday's qualifying race, but it was Ingram who got the better start to lead into Paddock Hill bend.

The lead didn't last long though as Moffat, using his greater allocation of TOCA Turbo Boost (TTB) got back past at Westfield on the second lap. Still, despite having more boost available compared to Ingram due to the Team VERTU driver's higher championship position, he wasn't able to pull away too much.

Ingram then saw his chance on lap 11. As the pair went through Clearways he swept round the outside to retake the lead. Moffat fought back but Ingram, on the boost, consolidated the move then set about defending from the Audi driver. Moffat, however, had a track limits penalty meaning any push for victory would be pretty much moot. 

“The call came in to let me know of Aiden's penalty,” Ingram told RACER. “Aiden was never going to give up on it, I was kind of expecting the racer in him to keep pushing, which is exactly what he did. So I almost didn't want to lose it, even though I knew obviously Aiden had a five-second penalty. I kind of still wanted to keep pushing and almost not let him try to take it the glory of finishing ahead on the road. 

“Aiden's a racer, and he drove fantastically, just drove really, really well. Didn't really give me too many opportunities. I had to be fairly tactful with how I played the race. I had to try to force Aiden into using his [boost] deployment to try to use it up, which kind of worked really, really well. 

“But the pace was good. [The] soft tire was obviously great all the way through. I think Ash [Sutton] and Josh [Cook] demonstrated that the pace on the medium tire is pretty strong as well, so that bodes well for the next race."

Before Race 1, NAPA Racing UK announced that Sutton had signed a five-year contract extension with the team, putting an end to any speculation over his future.

Ingram and Moffat had used the soft tire in that first race, and it allowed them to clear the rest, with Speedworks Corolla Racing’s Josh Cook a distant third on the road but classified second, 3.269s off Ingram, with Collard marking his return to the series with the final podium spot in his Team VERTU Hyundai.

“The next two races we're going to see a bigger separation of cars on a soft and a medium tire because the race there was pretty much two drivers on the soft,” Ingram said of the tire situation. “The next two races will be a little bit more spread out, but so far, so good.”

Behind Moffat – who dropped to fourth but still claimed the Independent class win after his penalty was applied – was NAPA Racing UK driver Ash Sutton who rocketed from 11th on the grid to fifth, making most of that ground on the first lap when the TTB was out of use and he wasn't hampered by his sole lap of the additional power as championship leader.

Mikey Doble slipped down at the start in the other LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing Audi but finished sixth and extended his independents’ championship lead after closest contender Gordon Shedden or Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport retired after a first lap shunt that left his hood open and blocking his view, and Charles Rainford crashed at Dingle Dell.

Rainford’s WSR teammate Daryl DeLeon finished seventh, with the NAPA Racing UK Ford Focus Titanium Saloon of Dan Cammish eighth. CPRL’s Adam Morgan and Steel Seal with Power Maxed Racing's Dexter Patterson completed the top 10.

RACE 1 RESULTS

Ingram's prediction of a more spaced out Race 2 came to bear fruit, although perhaps less expected was his lights-to-flag victory.

While encouraged by the pace of Cook and Sutton on the medium tire in Race 1, its forced use by the top three finishers for the next race is intended to help even the playing field. Nevertheless, with Collard and Sutton also opting to use it in Race 2, its disadvantage was largely negated.

Ingram got away well from Cook and kept him at arms length throughout. Not until the final lap when Cook used one of his two TTB laps available to him to close in. Ingram, assured of his advantage, didn't use the one he had at his disposal and was able to win by 0.6s. The win meant that he'd clinched second in the championship with a race to spare.

Sutton picked off Moffat early on then slid past Collard at Paddock Hill bend on lap 4 to secure the final podium position. Both faced pressure from DeLeon, who still had boost left, but the WSR driver succumbed to Doble on the final lap, fourth place for him giving him enough to claim the independents’ title.

It also ensured his Power Maxed Racing team locked in the independents teams' title, a season after the team was obliterated by a fire at its headquarters that destroyed the team’s old Vauxhall Astras and could have threatened its existence as a whole.

“Ecstatic,” Doble told RACER afterward. “Everyone deserves it. We came so close last year, and with everything we went through, I think we could have won it if we'd have had our car last year.

“Obviously, the fire did happen, but we're not going to dwell on that. We're here with brand-new cars, we've finished one-two in [the] independents’, independent teams’ [champions], independent drivers’ [champions], I finished P7 overall, which I think is a great achievement. So much to build on for next year.

“I've achieved two of my three goals this year. I wanted them to be realistic: a multiple race winner, independent champion. I wanted to be top six in the championship. I'm P7, but still, P7 is way better than I've ever done before, so that's really good.”

The strong independents’ performance for Power Maxed and Doble now has him with one eye on overall glory next season.

“I think we can [win the overall championship],” he said. “I'm not going to lie, I think we need to ramp things up a bit. We need to do more testing, we need to learn the car better, need to do more development. But the potential is there to definitely challenge for a title at least.”

Behind DeLeon in sixth was Cammish, with Collard, who went off the road on lap 2, dropping to seventh by the end of the race.

Moffat was eighth, with Patterson and Sam Osborne ninth and 10th.

RACE 2 RESULTS

For the final race of the day it was another Power Maxed pole after the partial reverse grid draw, with Patterson heading the field and stablemate Moffat alongside him.

Collard got an excellent start to lead out of the first corner from third on the grid, but a multi-car crash behind the leaders that claimed Ingram, Chilton, Lewis Selby and Nick Halstead quickly neutralized the race.

A lengthy safety car period followed, and when the race resumed on lap 7 it was Sutton who emerged as Collard's main challenger.

Sutton attempted to pass at Hawthorns but was squeezed onto the grass and fell as low as ninth and gave Collard breathing room. However, Cammish quickly picked up the baton for NAPA Racing UK but he couldn't find a way past. Sutton meanwhile had breezed back into the podium places and briefly passed Cammish on the final lap, only for his teammate to retake the position.

Collard finished first on the road ahead of Cammish for what would have been a maiden BTCC victory, but was later dropped to ninth after a safety car procedure infringement. Collard appealed the decision but was ultimately unsuccessful.

The clerk of the course penalized Collard for “a) not maintaining approximately the same speed as the safety car once the lights went out, b) accelerating prior to reaching the first ‘Go’ board and c) not accelerating smoothly back to racing speed,” adding that “this penalty is consistent with previous breaches of this article of the regulations.”

Polesitter Patterson finished fourth ahead of Moffat, with Morgan making a late pass on Cook to take sixth. Dan Lloyd, Shedden, and Doble completed the top 10.

As well as those involved in the first lap shunt, Dan Rowbottom was another retiree, coming to a stop with flaming brakes on lap 12 – which necessitated another safety car period – while Aron Taylor-Smith also failed to finish.

RACE 3 RESULTS