Tom Ingram charges to flawless lights-to-flag victory

Tom Ingram moved to the summit of the British Touring Car Championship standings after claiming a dominant lights-to-flag victory in the opening race of the day at Oulton Park.

Starting from pole position, the EXCELR8 Motorsport driver was flawless throughout as he controlled proceedings out front, never really coming under pressure from the chasing pack behind.

In addition to claiming a bonus point for leading a lap and snaring another for setting a brand-new lap record, the 2022 champion now sits atop the standings with a one-point lead.

Behind Ingram was Dan Cammish who secured his second place finish at the start after jumping front-row starter Chris Smiley off the line. Once the race settled down, Cammish was unchallenged and tallied his fifth podium of the season.

Four-time champion Ash Sutton was another to jump Smiley as the field streamed down Cascades on the first lap however despite running comfortably, the Alliance Racing driver dropped back to fourth on the final tour – meaning he won’t run the hard tyre in race two.

That promoted Smiley up to third while Sutton fended off the charging Tom Chilton, Adam Morgan and reigning champion Jake Hill.

Rounding out the top ten was Senna Proctor, One Motorsport’s Josh Cook and Speedworks Motorsport’s James Dorlin. Cook and Dorlin in particular had several bouts of contact around the lap while further down the order Stephen Jelley and Sam Osborne clashed early on.

Others to encounter trouble included Aron Taylor-Smith and Aiden Moffat who both came to blows at the Island hairpin after the Toyota recieved contact from the BMW of Daryl Deleon.

Race two at Oulton Park is scheduled to begin at 14:40.