Tom Ingram takes first win of the hybrid era at Donington
Tom Ingram secured a place in the history books as the first winner of the BTCC’s new hybrid era after a dramatic opening race of the weekend at Donington Park.
Ingram started from fourth on the grid behind the BMWs of Jake Hill and Colin Turkington and Ash Sutton’s Ford Focus, but managed to nip ahead of Sutton on the opening lap to move into third.
At the front, Turkington had managed to get ahead of Hill on the run to Redgate for the first time but as the pair started lap two, Hill made a move to reclaim the lead with the pair going side-by-side down the Craner Curves.
Hill nipped ahead only for Turkington to come back at him on the run to Coppice, where Ingram saw the opportunity to nip through ahead of the squabbling BMWs to grab the lead, with Hill forced wide and dropping back down to fifth behind Sutton and George Gamble.
The race then went under caution after Ricky Collard’s Toyota ground to a halt on the run to Redgate, with the action resuming on lap six.
At the front, Ingram would be able to control proceedings in the EXCELR8 Hyundai to the win from Turkington, but there was plenty of action in the fight behind for third.
Sutton held the place from Gamble and Hill after the restart, with Hill clearing Gamble to move into fifth at the final chicane on lap eight.
The BMW then nipped ahead of Sutton on the exit of the Old Hairpin on lap eleven and set about chasing down Turkington ahead, setting the fastest lap as he closed on his BMW team-mate.
Clipping the tyre stack at the final chicane damaged the front right bodywork and saw Hill slip slight back and left him to settle for third spot to kick off life at WSR on the podium.
Fourth went the way of Gordon Shedden after the Honda driver charged his way up the order to get ahead of Sutton late on, with the defending champion taking the flag in fifth and Adam Morgan grabbing sixth spot.
Gamble was a solid seventh on his series debut after holding off Stephen Jelleym with Josh Cook and Dan Rowbottom rounding out the top ten.
The latter benefitted from late heartache for Jason Plato, who was running in tenth when he suffered a last lap puncture and dropped down to 22nd.
Dan Cammish raced his way forwards to 17th in his repaired Ford Focus following his dramatic fire on Saturday whilst Rory Butcher – the other man to hit trouble in qualifying – was an early retirement after picking up damage.
The second race of the weekend starts at 14:40 local time/15:40 CEST.
