British Touring Car Championship leader Tom Ingram was invincible in the second race of the penultimate round at Silverstone.
The 2022 champion started his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback from seventh on the grid, the only driver in the top 10 on the soft option Goodyear tyres, and also had a surfeit of TOCA Turbo Boost over the half-dozen in front of him on the grid.
Ingram was already fourth by Becketts on the opening lap, and then passed the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport of Gordon Shedden on the Wellington Straight to move up to third.
Next time around, Ingram passed the Restart Racing Hyundai of first-race winner Dan Lloyd at the same place to move into the runner-up spot, and now only Jake Hill’s West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sport was ahead of him.
Two laps later, Hill was dispatched – again on Wellington Straight – and the following time around Ingram set fastest lap as he pulled out a significant gap on the BMW.
Ingram’s title rival Ash Sutton was also on the move at the wheel of his Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus ST and, on the medium tyres, he climbed from eighth on the grid to be third by lap five.
The contest was interrupted by a mid-race safety car, after Tom Chilton made contact with Charles Rainford at Luffield during a multi-car midfield war and, with broken suspension, fired into the barrier.
Once the race restarted, Sutton passed Hill with nine laps remaining at Brooklands. Hill did, however, keep Sutton under pressure, while in turn finding himself pursued by another Alliance Ford in the hands of Dan Rowbottom.
That was until an engine failure sidelined Rowbottom two laps from the finish, just as he was demoted from fourth by the soft-tyred Speedworks Toyota of Aron Taylor-Smith.
Up front, Sutton chiselled the gap slightly to Ingram, who was 2.875 seconds in front at the chequered flag.
“We knew that with the soft tyre, that was going to be our shot for maximum points,” said Ingram, who has stretched his advantage over Sutton to 38 points. “You might have thought we would be better on the medium tyre, but at the same time it’s belt-and-braces – we need the points when we can get them.”
Sutton revealed that “I went completely against the team there. I said, ‘Look, give me a chance, let me see what I can do on the medium. We’ll probably finish second anyway on the soft because of the raw speed the Hyundai’s got.’”
While Taylor-Smith nearly caught Hill for third at the finish, fellow soft-tyred runner Rainford clambered his WSR BMW nicely up to fifth ahead of Lloyd and Shedden, with Aiden Moffat (WSR BMW), Josh Cook (Speedworks Toyota) and Daryl DeLeon (WSR BMW) completing the top 10.
Special ‘reversed-grid-draw’ guest John Watson pulled the number 12 out, which means that Sam Osborne will start his Alliance Ford from pole for the finale, with Mikey Doble’s Power Maxed Racing Cupra alongside.
BTCC Silverstone - Race 2 results
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| Cla | Driver | # | Car | Laps | Time | Interval | km/h | Retirement | Points | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1 |  T. Ingram Team Vertu |
Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance | 25 |
25'44.248 |
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| 2 | A. Sutton NAPA Racing UK |
Ford Focus ST | 25 |
2.875 |
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| 3 | J. Hill Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport |
BMW 330i M Sport | 25 |
4.654 |
1.779 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4 |  A. Taylor-Smith Toyota Gazoo Racing UK with IAA |
Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 25 |
4.829 |
0.175 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5 |
C. Rainford LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR
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BMW 330i M Sport | 25 |
6.280 |
1.451 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 6 | D. Lloyd Restart Racing |
Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance | 25 |
8.721 |
2.441 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 7 | G. Shedden Toyota Gazoo Racing UK with IAA |
Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 25 |
8.864 |
0.143 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 8 | A. Moffat LKQ Euro Car Parts Racing with WSR |
BMW 330i M Sport | 25 |
9.448 |
0.584 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 9 | J. Cook Toyota Gazoo Racing UK with IAA |
Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 25 |
11.569 |
2.121 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10 |
D. De Leon West Surrey Racing
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BMW 330i M Sport | 25 |
12.364 |
0.795 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 11 |
M. Doble Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing
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Vauxhall Astra | 25 |
13.121 |
0.757 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 12 | S. Osborne NAPA Racing UK |
Ford Focus ST | 25 |
14.256 |
1.135 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 13 |
M. Buxton Toyota Gazoo Racing UK with IAA
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Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 25 |
16.511 |
2.255 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 14 |
N. Halstead Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing
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Vauxhall Astra | 25 |
23.425 |
6.914 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 15 | C. Smiley Restart Racing |
Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance | 25 |
24.602 |
1.177 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 16 | S. Proctor Team Vertu |
Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance | 25 |
25.507 |
0.905 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 17 |
D. Patterson ROKiT Racing with Un-Limited Motorsport
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Cupra León | 25 |
26.181 |
0.674 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| dnf | D. Rowbottom NAPA Racing UK |
Ford Focus ST | 23 |
2 laps |
Retirement | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| dnf | A. Morgan Team Vertu |
Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance | 14 |
11 laps |
Retirement | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| dnf | T. Chilton Team Vertu |
Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance | 7 |
18 laps |
Retirement | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| dnf | D. Cammish NAPA Racing UK |
Ford Focus ST | 4 |
21 laps |
Retirement | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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