BTCC: Ingram takes his first win of the season in fight against Sutton at Thruxton

Tom Ingram finally claimed his long overdue first win of the season after a spectacular display fighting off title rival Ash Sutton.

The race started with the two title rivals on the front row with Dan Cammish just behind. At the start Sutton would hold the lead into turn 1 while Charles Rainford would go off the road and Tom Chilton spun sideways causing both to drop multiple positions. The lap 1 chaos would continue as Max Hall got onto the grass and starts spinning across the road, Sam Osborne tried to avoid but ended up being collected by the Cupra and both of them would be in the gravel and out of the race causing the Safety Car to be deployed.

At the end of lap 1 Sutton would be initially overtaken by Ingram just as the Safety Car appeared. The Hyundai elected to allow Sutton back through to void any need for penalties. Meanwhile, Mikey Doble would also make up a place passing Cammish on the opening lap putting him into the final podium spot.

At the restart, Ingram and Sutton would fight hard while Cammish would regain third place. Sutton and Ingram would collide after the NAPA driver lost partial control of the car meaning both of them would skip the final chicane needing to give up the gained time Cammish behind. Further back, the returning Senna Proctor would have an incident with Gordon Shedden as the Toyota manages to just keep it together and avoid the spin.

Dan Rowbottom would make a move into the top five passing James Dorlin at the complex in an excellent move. Cook would also pass the Toyota and then go after Rowbottom for 5th place. Cook would make the move on lap 14 as the Honda showed some excellent pace having started from 14th on the grid.

An unfortunate end to the race for Doble as the Astra pulls off to the side of the track with an issue ending what would have been a solid points haul in 4th. As Sutton started to drop back, he would let his teammate Cammish through in an attempt to keep the win for the NAPA squad. The charging Cook would make significant inroads on Sutton claiming the final podium spot on the penultimate lap. Unfortunately for Cammish, he ran out of laps meaning Ingram would take his first win of the season making it nine different race winners in the first ten races. With Cammish settling for second and Cook in third while Sutton would finish fourth. Behind them, Rowbottom would round out the top five ahead of Jake Hill, Dorlin, and Adam Morgan. Senna Proctor would finish ahead of Daryl DeLeon who rounds out the top 10.