Tom Ingram has converted yesterday’s pole position into a win, the first for the young star and his Speedworks Motorsport team.
Ingram’s win of course means he is also the current championship leader!
He was ever headed throughout the race although Shedden and Neal were never far behind throughout the race.
Behind the top three though, there was all sorts of action. Colin Turkington in his first race for the new Subaru Levorg had contact early on, spoiling any chance he had of a strong debut for the car. Sam Tordoff also made rather unfortunate contact with his team mate Rob Collard early in the race. The Motorbase team mates also had a battle that was a bit too close. They narrowly missed each other as they crossed the line on lap three. Jackson also had a moment in the edge of the gravel on paddock hill bend.
There was then a big crash as Hunter Abbott lost control going into Surtees. Abbott himself managed to avoid too much damage but Alex Martin who was following behind in the Dextra Focus spun in avoidance and went heavily into the barriers, badly damaging his car and bringing out the safety car.
This could have been an issue for Ingram but he handled it perfectly to retain his lead.
When the racing resumed, the cars were now in one big pack once more leaving some drivers to lose out badly. Adam Morgan was the first when a failed attempt to pass Ashley Sutton for fifth left him sliding down to ninth. Jack Goff then made an attempt to pass Sutton and made the same mistake dropping him eventually to tenth.
Ingram’s win was very popular with the watching crowds at Brands Hatch with loud applause and cheers heard all around the Kent circuit.
Behind the top three were the two new works MG drivers, Sutton ahead of Cook as he has been all weekend, the two seem evenly matched and both look set to take their first wins before the end of the season.
Collard was sixth despite his earlier run in with his team mate ahead of Aron Smith taking a strong seventh for new team BKR.
Mat Jackson recovered from his off to take eighth ahead of Morgan and Goff.
Jackson’s team mate Andrew Jordan was eleventh, the Pirtek sponsored Focus so far not giving him the results he wants. Aidan Moffatt was twelfth in the Laser Tools Racing Mercedes ahead of local driver Jake Hill, the first of the three Team Hard Toyota Avensis.
Jeff Smith was fourteenth but was left wondering what might have been as he had fought his way to just outside the top ten before a trip through the gravel on the far side of the circuit saw him falling down the order. It wasn’t Jeff’s fault as he explained afterwards;
“It was going really, really well until we got to Clearways and I had no brakes!”
Daniel Welch was fifteenth, scoring points after a disasterous couple of seasons before this, it looks like the popular Hampshire based Welch team is finally on the up.
Sam Tordoff completed the top sixteen finishers with twenty five cars taking the flag.
Kelvin Fletcher was having a relatively successful debut racing ahead of several cars but he retired after seventeen laps.
James Cole and Jason Plato were the only two Subaru finishers in twenty first and twenty fifth respectively. But Cole had a visit to the pits during the race so was two laps down. Turkington was a retirement as a result of the damage from his contact and poor Warren Scott failed to start after his Subaru developed engine issues before the start.
Full times are available as always from TSL timing;
The race two grid this season is decided from the finishing order of the first. By Marc Waller
