Tom Ingram won a shortened race one from second on the grid after the race was red flagged for a high speed shunt at the hairpin.
Before that Ingram had led for most of the race in his Speedworks Toyota separated by less than a second for most of the race from pole sitter Goff’s Eurotech Honda.
Ingram described his race;
“It was a bit of a strange one with that late incident. We had that safety car and you’re just focusing on where you need to drop the hammer and on keeping temperatures up. I got the jump on the restart and all of a sudden, I got the call that there would be a red flag. I really didn’t expect to start as well as I did as the right side of the grid was wet. I thought I’d be down in fourth or fifth but when they matter I seem to be able to pull them out of the bag. When the rain came down, it was the hardest thing. I had a huge moment at Copse. As soon as I hit the brakes, I slid on and the worst place to be is the lead in that situation as everyone uses you as a judge of the conditions and inevitably it’s the leader that falls off. To take another overall win as well as the Independents’ win is fantastic to get us back on track after that mid-season dip.”
Goff spoke about where it went wrong for him after starting from pole;
“It all happened at the start really. We knew it was damp and we just picked up too much wheel-spin. I saw Tom [Ingram] was past and I had to give up that position. It wasn’t too bad to start with but it was a little bit greasy into turn one. Then the rain started to come down. Adam [Morgan] seemed strong into turn two on the brakes and he was hunting us down but we were able to keep the car on track. We started to catch Tom [Ingram] just as the safety car came out and it was starting to dry but the red flag obviously put an end to it.”
Adam Morgan was third in his Cicely Mercedes quite a distance back from the leading duo for most of the race. He was pleased with the result after the race but felt he could have gone better;
“That’s a mega start to the day for us. I got a bad start and had a coming-together with Jake Hill. I just got my head down then and chased down Jack [Goff] and Tom [Ingram]. It was a bit of ‘suck it and see’ when the rain came down. I was gauging it from the guys around me. I had a bit of a look into Brooklands. We were strong there and Jack [Goff] was running a bit wide. Maybe another couple of laps and we’d have got second.”
Behind that was the fight of the race as Matt Neal, Matt Jackson and Ant Whorton-Eales fought for fourth. The battle had looked set to include Team Hard’s Jake Hill but power steering failure but him out of the race early on. Colin Turkington had also been involved in the battle until a slide caused by a brief shower of rain sent him down the order. However he was to fight back later on.
Neal and Mat Jackson then collided coming out of Woodcote giving Whorton-Eales the place but behind Turkington was fighting back and Ash Sutton in the Subaru wasn’t far behind.
Turkington then fought past Whorton-Eales followed by Sutton. The AMD Tuning Audi driver was able to halt the slide there and finished the shortened race in his best ever placing of sixth.
The big crash came on lap fourteen. Smiley’s Norlin Chevrolet collided with Aron Taylor-Smith’s MG. The two bounced off each other sending the MG into Rob Collard’s BMW. Collard fought to regain control but the impact had damaged his steering. He went spinning across the grass towards the hairpin re-joining the track backwards and collecting Will Burns and team mate Andrew Jordan. Jordan’s car suffered front suspension damage but Burn’s Team Hard VW got the worst of the impact sending him spinning into the barriers with big damage. Collard’s BMW was also very badly damaged with the entire rear end pushed in.
Burns was later airlifted to hospital with broken ribs but is believed to not be in any danger. Collard was also sent to hospital as a precaution but tests showed he had suffered only bruising.
Dave Newsham took a strong seventh in his BTC Norlin Racing Chevrolet ahead of Aiden Moffat in the Laser Tools Mercedes a great result after starting twenty third. Rob Austin was ninth on the harder option tyre with Mike Epps completing the top ten for Team Hard
2017 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship – Round 25 – Silverstone
1 Tom INGRAM (GBR) Speedworks Motorsport 18 laps
2 Jack GOFF (GBR) Eurotech Racing +0.728s
3 Adam MORGAN (GBR) Ciceley Motorsport +1.754s
4 Colin TURKINGTON (GBR) Team BMW +2.973s
5 Ashley SUTTON (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +3.775s
6 Ant WHORTON-EALES (GBR) AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts +5.107s
7 Dave NEWSHAM (GBR) BTC Norlin Racing +6.525s
8 Aiden MOFFAT (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +7.339s
9 Rob AUSTIN (GBR) Handy Motorsport +8.704s
10 Michael EPPS (GBR) TAG Racing +9.588s
11 Gordon SHEDDEN (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +11.240s
12 Ollie JACKSON (GBR) AmDtuning.com with Cobra Exhausts +11.489s
13 Matt NEAL (GBR) Halfords Yuasa Racing +12.661s
14 Brett SMITH (GBR) Eurotech Racing +13.292s
15 Senna PROCTOR (GBR) Power Maxed Racing +14.165s
16 Rob HUFF (GBR) Power Maxed Racing +14.740s
17 James COLE (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +15.572s
18 Chris SMILEY (GBR) BTC Norlin Racing +16.094s
19 Aron TAYLOR-SMITH (IRL) MG Racing RCIB Insurance +18.105s
20 Rory BUTCHER (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo +19.495s
21 Josh PRICE (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +20.276s
22 Martin DEPPER (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo +20.830s
23 Jason PLATO (GBR) Adrian Flux Subaru Racing +22.239s
24 Mat JACKSON (GBR) Team Shredded Wheat Racing with Duo +1 lap
25 Matt SIMPSON (GBR) Simpson Racing +2 laps
DNF Andrew JORDAN (GBR) BMW Pirtek Racing +4 laps
DNF Stephen JELLEY (GBR) Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport +4 laps
DNF Rob COLLARD (GBR) Team BMW +5 laps
DNF Will BURNS (GBR) Autoaid/RCIB Insurance Racing +5 laps
DNF Stewart LINES (GBR) Team Parker with Maximum Motorsport +6 laps
DNF Jake HILL (GBR) TAG Racing +16 laps
By Marc Waller
