Tom Ingram swept to victory in the final British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Thruxton to put a small dent into Ash Sutton’s points advantage.
Sutton’s second place completed a great day for the four-time champion, especially since it came from sixth on the reversed grid, and his series lead stands at a considerable 59 points.
Ingram, like Sutton in race two, had his start placed under investigation. Unlike Sutton, he was given a five-second penalty, so his winning margin of 5.663s was enough to overcome this and still claim victory. He had pulled out the 5s with one lap remaining of the race.
James Dorlin was on pole in his Restart Racing Hyundai i30 N Fastback, with Ingram’s Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai alongside. There was a slight bump between the two as they raced side by side out of Allard, before Ingram claimed the advantage into the Complex.
The race soon went under the safety car. Contact from Adam Morgan at the middle apex of the chicane sent Josh Cook onto a collision course with Speedworks Motorsport Toyota team-mate Aron Taylor-Smith.
Another Speedworks Toyota, that of Ryan Bensley, then ground to a halt on its way out of the pitlane with deranged left-front, causing an exceptionally long period of recovery.
There was time for 11 more laps of racing and, on the first of those, Sutton’s Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus Titanium got the run on Dorlin out of Church Corner to move up to second place.
Sutton was now 1.563s behind Ingram and, with just one lap of TOCA Turbo Boost to the five of his big rival, it was unlikely that the Hyundai would be beaten.
Sure enough, Ingram came home comfortably ahead of Sutton, while another Alliance Ford, that of Dan Cammish, was third.
“We’ve been quite noisy this weekend, haven’t we?” said Ingram of not only the start investigation but also his track-limits penalty in race two. “We wanted a weekend of no dramas and everyone having a lovely time, but I seem to be involved in drama in every race.
“Spence [Spencer Aldridge, his engineer] came on the radio to tell me that I was under investigation so if we could start to get a five-second gap that would be ideal. It was fairly close, but I had the advantage over Ash towards the end of the race.”
Cammish was out of TOCA Turbo Boost on the final lap and Ricky Collard, recovering all day after alternator failure nixed his Excelr8 Hyundai in the qualifying race, used his final lap of boost to finish right on the Ford’s tail.
Senna Proctor, on his one-off outing with the Alliance Ford team, was the other to get past Dorlin, who was particularly vulnerable out of Church, on his way to fifth.
Behind sixth-placed Dorlin, Dan Rowbottom fought a sketchy looking Plato Racing Mercedes and eventually conceded seventh to Gordon Shedden’s Speedworks Toyota.
Tom Chilton (Excelr8 Hyundai) and Power Maxed Racing Audi A3 Saloon pair Dexter Patterson and Mikey Doble also got past the bearded Midlander in the closing stages to complete the top 10, leaving Rowbottom 11th at the chequered flag.
BTCC Thruxton - Race 3 results
RACE3
| Cla | Driver | # | Car | Laps | Time | Interval | km/h | Retirement | Points | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  T. Ingram Team Vertu |
Hyundai i30N | 19 | 27'49.942 |
96.50 | 20 | |||||||
| 2 | A. Sutton NAPA Racing UK |
Ford Focus Titanium | 19 | +5.663 27'55.605 |
5.663 | 96.17 | 17 | ||||||
| 3 | D. Cammish NAPA Racing UK |
Ford Focus Titanium | 19 | +9.603 27'59.545 |
3.940 | 95.94 | 15 | ||||||
| 4 | R. Collard Team Vertu |
Hyundai i30N | 19 | +10.167 28'00.109 |
0.564 | 95.91 | 13 | ||||||
| 5 | S. Proctor NAPA Racing UK |
Ford Focus Titanium | 19 | +12.261 28'02.203 |
2.094 | 95.79 | 11 | ||||||
| 6 | J. Dorlin Restart Racing | Hyundai i30N | 19 | +16.857 28'06.799 |
4.596 | 95.53 | 10 | ||||||
| 7 | G. Shedden Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport |
Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 19 | +19.473 28'09.415 |
2.616 | 95.38 | 9 | ||||||
| 8 | T. Chilton Team Vertu |
Hyundai i30N | 19 | +20.149 28'10.091 |
0.676 | 95.35 | 8 | ||||||
| 9 | D. Patterson Steel Seal with Power Maxed Racing | Audi A3 Saloon | 19 | +21.268 28'11.210 |
1.119 | 95.28 | 7 | ||||||
| 10 | M. Doble LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing | Audi A3 Saloon | 19 | +21.584 28'11.526 |
0.316 | 95.26 | 6 | ||||||
| 11 | D. Rowbottom Cataclean Plato Racing |
Mercedes A35 Saloon | 19 | +22.287 28'12.229 |
0.703 | 95.22 | 5 | ||||||
| 12 | D. De Leon West Surrey Racing | BMW 330i M Sport | 19 | +22.589 28'12.531 |
0.302 | 95.21 | 4 | ||||||
| 13 | C. Smiley Restart Racing |
Hyundai i30N | 19 | +29.791 28'19.733 |
7.202 | 94.80 | 3 | ||||||
| 14 | C. Rainford West Surrey Racing | BMW 330i M Sport | 19 | +30.517 28'20.459 |
0.726 | 94.76 | 2 | ||||||
| 15 | N. Hamilton Team Vertu | Hyundai i30N | 19 | +34.608 28'24.550 |
4.091 | 94.54 | 1 | ||||||
| 16 | L. Gilbert West Surrey Racing | BMW 330i M Sport | 19 | +35.146 28'25.088 |
0.538 | 94.51 | |||||||
| dnf | A. Moffat LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing |
Audi A3 Saloon | 13 | +6 Laps 20'18.375 |
6 Laps | 90.49 | Retirement | ||||||
| dnf | J. Cook Speedworks Corolla Racing |
Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 13 | +6 Laps 22'27.559 |
2'09.184 | 81.82 | Retirement | ||||||
| dnf | A. Morgan Cataclean Plato Racing |
Mercedes A35 Saloon | 5 | +14 Laps 10'26.718 |
8 Laps | 67.66 | Retirement | ||||||
| dnf | R. Bensley Speedworks Corolla Racing | Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 2 | +17 Laps 3'31.068 |
3 Laps | 80.36 | Retirement | ||||||
| dnf | L. Selby NAPA Racing UK | Ford Focus Titanium | 2 | +17 Laps 3'47.627 |
16.559 | 74.52 | Retirement | ||||||
| dnf |  A. Taylor-Smith Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport |
Toyota Corolla GR Sport | 1 | +18 Laps 2'12.639 |
1 Lap | 63.94 | Retirement | ||||||
| View full results | |||||||||||||
