Championship leader dominates Silverstone round of BTCC

Isobel Shaw

On Sunday, Tom Ingram proved his worth as the current top driver in the BTCC at Silverstone.

Image showing starting formation with Tom Ingram in 7th.

The current frontrunner in the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), emerged as the winner at Silverstone during the recent race weekend. The 32-year-old started 7th in ‘Race Two’ but in the opening lap Ingram had already darted between his competitors and was up to 4th. At the time Jake Hill had moved from second to first and despite Hill’s gap from the pack, Ingram wasted no time and was soon on his tail just a few laps later.

The VERTU driver led the touring cars round the remaining laps and even gained an almost 4 second lead from the driver behind. Yellow flags were deployed for three laps, but Ingram gained an advantage from a great restart and left Sutton behind. Unable to catch the swift leader, the NAPA driver came second and Jake Hill driver for West Surrey Racing, came third.

Tom Ingram celebrated his sixth win of the season and doesn’t show signs of forfeiting his place in the driver’s standings.

An image of Ingram on Hill’s tail before taking the lead.

Other drivers had far less successful races including Tom Chilton, driver for VERTU. As he spun out and couldn’t continue.

Chis Smiley received a 10 second penalty for exceeding track limits.

Senna Proctor’s bonnet flew up to block the windscreen halfway through a lap. This meant he had to drive back to the pits with no vision because a misshapen part didn’t allow the bonnet to close and the car was retired due to the risks.

The most unfortunate incident was Dam Cammish’s. The NAPA team noticed inefficiencies with the car during formation laps and was retired. Later, he was allowed to partake in a few laps to test the car in preparation for ‘Race Three’ which was only two hours away.