Ashley Sutton claimed his 50th British Touring Car Championship race victory by taking the honours in the first race at Brands Hatch.
But it was far from a straightforward contest, with unforecasted rain just before the start and during the early laps turning the Indy Circuit into an ice rink.
In such conditions, however, the four-time champion shines. Sutton enjoyed a good launch in his Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus Titanium to take the early advantage, while front-row partner Daryl De Leon’s West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sport slithered around and went nowhere.
Ricky Collard burst through from fourth to briefly grab second, only for Dan Cammish to assert himself for the position behind team-mate Sutton. Then Collard went for the inside at Graham Hill Bend – Cammish ran wide, and dropped down to fifth.
Cammish was on the tail of Adam Morgan’s fourth-placed Plato Racing Mercedes A35 Saloon as they entered the second lap, before contact caused Morgan to spear off the road at the top of Paddock Hill Bend and into the barrier.
During the ensuing lengthy safety car period the rain eased off, and the circuit quickly dried out. Collard was clearly thrusting for his maiden BTCC win and, one lap after the restart, he tried to squeeze down the inside of Sutton at Clearways. There wasn’t quite enough room for an Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback, Collard losing time on the inside kerb and very nearly losing second place to Ingram.
Two laps later Collard used his TOCA Turbo Boost to surge past Sutton on the start-finish straight, but the lead only lasted half a lap, with Sutton getting a better exit from Graham Hill Bend to repass the Hyundai into Surtees.
Collard tried the same move for the next two laps, before Sutton began to edge away again, setting the fastest lap of the race. With a few laps to go the gap was up to two seconds, but Collard kept using TTB - he had the maximum 14 laps available; Sutton used just one of the four to which he was entitled - to finish 0.974s adrift.
“That was a proper scrap, wasn’t it?” said Sutton. “I played it probably overcautious, but I love racing Ricky – he’s fair and he’s hard, just like his old man [ex-BTCC veteran Rob]. Ricky gave me a little nudge so I gave him one back. It’s just how it should be – this is touring car racing.”
Ingram’s brief almost-demotion of Collard had resulted in him being hung out to dry on the outside at Paddock, and losing third spot to Cammish. But the reigning champion came back, and lanced down the inside of the Ford into Paddock with four laps remaining with a beautiful move.
The significant thing about Ingram’s third place is that he was by far the highest-placed of those who used the medium-compound Goodyear option tyre in this race. He will therefore be on softs for the rest of the day, whereas Sutton and Collard will be compelled by the sporting regulations to use the medium in race two.
Tom Chilton used the softs to storm through from 14th to fifth in his Excelr8 Hyundai, right on the tails of Ingram and Cammish. Sam Osborne, also on soft tyres, put in one of his best BTCC performances to grab sixth in his Alliance Ford.
Cammish and Chilton were each given a 5s penalty after the race, but such was their advantage over the rest of the field that it didn’t affect their positions of fourth and fifth respectively. Cammish’s was for the contact with Morgan that caused the Mercedes’ trip to the barriers; Chilton’s for reversing on the grid.
Next up was a close bunch disputing seventh, with Mikey Doble getting the verdict in his Power Maxed Racing Audi A3 Saloon ahead of Chris Smiley’s Restart Racing Hyundai and the West Surrey Racing BMWs of Charles Rainford and De Leon – both Doble and Rainford were on the medium tyres, while De Leon was in catch-up mode after dropping way down the field thanks to contact from Gordon Shedden following the safety car period.
De Leon was demoted to 11th by a five-second penalty for gaining a position through contact, elevating the medium-tyred Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport of Josh Cook to the top 10 from the back of the grid.
