Photo: BTCC.net

Tom Ingram wins dramatic second race at Donington Park

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Tom Ingram took his second win of the 2017 British Touring Car Championship season at Donington Park, and in doing so assumed an eight point lead of the drivers’ standings over Honda’s Gordon Shedden.

Mercedes driver Aiden Moffat started the race from pole position courtesy of his Race 1 victory, but was unfancied for a repeat, carrying 75kg of success ballast and with the Dunlop option hard tyre. Although Moffat was able to defend against the Handy Toyota of Rob Austin and the BMW of Colin Turkington at the start, it was Collard who emerged as his chief rival, with the BMW driver moving into second ahead of Austin and Turkington on the opening lap.

Ingram, who had got his hard tyre run out of the way in Race 1, grabbed second from Collard at the end of the second lap, and then took the lead from Moffat at the Craner Curves on lap four.

The driver to watch was Subaru Team BMR’s Ash Sutton, who’d worked his way from 31st to 13th in Race 1 after losing his pole position yesterday due to a technical infringement, and in Race 2 was scything his way up the order in the Levorg GT.

On the fifth lap, he grabbed sixth from BMW’s Colin Turkington, while Collard and the Honda of Gordon Shedden moved up to second and third ahead of Moffat’s Mercedes.

Sutton passed Moffat a lap later for fourth, and then on lap nine Sutton overtook Shedden for third and started to close on Collard.

Shedden made a rare mistake at Coppice two laps later and dropped behind Team Parker Racing’s Josh Cook, with Shedden losing a further spot to the BMW of Colin Turkington before the end of the race.

Ingram went on to take the win almost four seconds clear of the battling rear-wheel drive pair, with Collard just holding off Sutton for second.

Cook finished fourth, the best result for Team Parker Racing in the BTCC, with Turkington completing the top five for West Surrey Racing.

Shedden and team-mate Matt Neal followed, with Dave Newsham eighth for BTC Racing in the Chevrolet Cruze. Eurotech’s Jack Goff and Power Maxed’s Tom Chilton completed the top ten.

The top eight will be reversed for Race 3, which puts the Chevrolet of Dave Newsham on pole position ahead of the two Team Dynamics Hondas. The race is scheduled for 17:22 BST.