Photo: PSP Images

Tom Ingram steals race two on the final lap

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Tom Ingram waited until the final lap to steal his second win of the BTCC season in the second race of the weekend at Brands Hatch.

The race itself has proved to be a largely processional affair that was mainly decided at the start, with little in the way of overtaking towards the sharp end of the field, at least until the final 1.2 miles…

At the start, it was race one winner Tom Oliphant who made the best start in his BMW despite the additional ballast onboard, with Gordon Shedden slow away from alongside on the front row. The Scot then dropped further down the order when he had a slide at turn one after a tag from Jake Hill, with team-mate Dan Rowbottom instead moving up into second ahead of a fast-starting Ingram, Hill’s Focus and points leader Ash Sutton.

After an early caution to remove Stephen Jelley’s car from the gravel at Paddock Hill after he clashed with Shedden at the start of lap two, Oliphant was able to maintain the lead despite pressure from Rowbottom behind, with the Honda driver shadowing his every move until he tried to go around the outside at Druids on lap 18.

A loss of momentum then allowed Ingram to nip through instead, and he then started to try and find a way ahead of Oliphant into the lead. On the final lap, Ingram saw his chance going into turn one and launched his Hyundai up the inside, nipping through into the lead with slight contact between the pair.

Ingram duly wrapped up the win, but behind it was Sutton – who had already cleared Rowbottom – who managed to take second spot as he out-dragged Oliphant to the line.

Rowbottom had to settle for fourth spot ahead of Josh Cook, who held off the challenge of Dan Lloyd and Chris Smiley, with Jason Plato rounding out the top eight having fought his way ahead of Aiden Moffat’s Infiniti.

Hill dropped out of the leading battle as a result of a puncture that forced him into the pits, whilst Shedden failed to score as a result of his trip through the gravel early on. There were also no points for the second successive race for Colin Turkington, who would end up finishing the race down in 17th spot.