Tom Chilton takes lights-to-flag victory in Donington Park finale
Tom Chilton capped off the opening British Touring Car Championship weekend of the season with a commanding lights-to-flag victory ahead of team-mate Tom Ingram and four-time champion Ash Sutton.
Starting from pole position on the soft tyre, Chilton controlled proceedings out front from the get-go and was ultimately never challenged.
Behind, Ingram and Sutton renewed their on-track battle from the earlier two races as they both fought past Dan Rowbottom and Jake Hill, before then dicing in the closing stages.
Ingram would manage to hold off the Alliance Racing driver to net second, while fellow Ford Focus ST racer Dan Cammish capped off the day with a fourth place finish behind Sutton. Completing the top five was the charging Adam Morgan, who had fought his way up from tenth on the grid.
Despite starting on the front row of the grid, Rowbottom ultimately dropped to sixth whilst Mikey Doble produced a bold move on the final lap to snatch Independent honours away from Chris Smiley.
Rounding out the top ten was the West Surrey Racing duo of Aiden Moffat and Jake Hill. The reigning champion had been in podium contention early on however a lack of pace soon shined through as he tumbled down the order.
Outside the top ten, One Motorsport’s Josh Cook carved his way up to 11th from the back of the grid while the Speedworks Motorsport Toyota’s of Aron Taylor-Smith, Gordon Shedden and Ronan Pearson all finished lien astern.
Sutton heads the standings on 58 points, with Ingram second on 51 points and Chilton third on 42 points.
The next BTCC round takes place at Brands Hatch on May 10-11.
