British Touring Car Championship rookie Charles Rainford became the West Surrey Racing BMW team’s third winner of the day with victory in the finale at Brands Hatch.
From third on the grid, Rainford worked his way past front-row-sitting team-mate Jake Hill and reversed-grid poleman Dan Rowbottom within just over a lap of the start, and held on throughout.
Rowbottom did a good job to keep his Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus ST ahead of the rear-wheel-drive BMWs off the start, and Hill’s attempts to get past him allowed Rainford to draw alongside on Cooper Straight and swoop around the outside of Surtees into second.
Rainford then sliced his way down the inside of Rowbottom at Paddock Hill Bend, and there was contact between the two that sent the Ford slewing sideways. This was investigated after the race, but there was no action taken.
Hill took until the ninth lap to get past Rowbottom and into second, and soon hacked into the gap to Rainford.
Going into the second half of the race, Hill was feinting for the lead at Clearways and then Paddock, but had a deficit of TOCA Turbo Boost compared to Rainford, and with five laps remaining had run out completely.
Then he encountered Max Hall’s Cupra, which was heading for the pits at Clark Curve, and the time avoiding contact dropped Hill into the clutches of Tom Ingram, whose Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback had gradually worked up to third and set fastest lap as the 2022 champion gained on the BMWs in front.
Over the final three laps, it appeared a formality that Ingram – with TTB on each of those laps – would get past Hill, but somehow the reigning champion held on, via contact on the final lap, to complete another WSR 1-2, 1.983 seconds adrift of the victorious Rainford.
“Words can’t describe the emotion going on,” said Rainford. “To get a podium earlier on was amazing, and now to get a win I’ve signed it off for this weekend in such great fashion.
“It was just an amazing weekend for me. Me and Dan Millard [Rainford’s WSR engineer] have been working so hard to get me up to speed on the simulator, just to get the driving style right. That’s why we’ve seen a big turn in speed.”
Ash Sutton had to survive brusque early attacks from Aiden Moffat before his Alliance Ford closed up on the Restart Racing Hyundai of Chris Smiley, who was continuing his excellent weekend.
A dive from Sutton into Paddock with four laps to go gave him fourth, with Smiley, who was focusing on success in the Independents’ division, holding off class rival Josh Cook’s One Motorsport Honda Civic Type R for fifth.
Completing the top 10 were Tom Chilton (Excelr8 Hyundai), Moffat (WSR BMW), Rowbottom (who fell away and said his Ford simply lacked pace) and Gordon Shedden (Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla), with Morgan’s Excelr8 Hyundai the best of the hard-tyred runners in 12th.
Although Sutton did not score a podium over the weekend, he retains a five-point championship lead over Ingram, with Hill a further seven points adrift and closing in fast.
