Tom Ingram broke his 2026 jinx by winning the final race of the British Touring Car Championship’s visit to Brands Hatch from fifth on the grid.
The reigning champion sailed around the outside of reversed-grid poleman James Dorlin at Paddock Hill Bend at the beginning of the second of 24 laps, and from there on was never headed.
The irony was that Ingram and his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback had not made the best getaway from the grid. Instead, that accolade belonged to Ashley Sutton, who burst his Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus Titanium from seventh in the starting line-up to audaciously attempt a move around the outside of Dorlin’s Restart Racing Hyundai at the first corner.
Sutton then tried a move around the outside of Grahan Hill Bend, but could not resist a cheeky move from Ingram down the inside of Clearways. Dorlin, the only one of the top 11 on the grid to have to use the medium Goodyear tyres – among a sea of soft-shod runners – clung on impressively to second for the first eight laps.
It wasn’t Sutton who was next to pass him; instead, that was Mikey Doble, who had pulled off the outside-at-Paddock move on Sutton at the beginning of the sixth lap. Sutton quickly passed Dorlin too, and set about putting the pressure on Doble, setting the fastest lap as he closed in.
The move finally came on lap 20, where Sutton pulled off the classic ‘high, wide and handsome’ move at Paddock to then cut back on the run up to Druids. By this time Ingram was four seconds to the good. The race was in his pocket and he finally took victory by 3.848s.
Close behind Sutton and Doble, Daryl De Leon came through from 10th to finally get some reward after incident-packed earlier races for fourth in his West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sport, while Josh Cook was also not far adrift, fifth in his Speedworks Motorsport Toyota Corolla GR Sport.
Adam Morgan gave the Plato Racing Mercedes A35 Saloon team some consolation for its weekend travails with sixth, while Dorlin, whose steering was damaged in contact with De Leon, lost seventh to Gordon Shedden (Speedworks Toyota) on the final lap.
Completing the top 10 were Aron Taylor-Smith (Speedworks Toyota) and Aiden Moffat (PMR Audi).
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– The Autosport.com Team
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