BTCC: Sutton maintains championship lead; Ingram closes the gap

Ash Sutton successfully maintained his championship lead at Oulton Park, but Tom Ingram closed the gap slightly in trying to mount a challenge against his rival.

Sutton entered the weekend with a fifty-seven-point advantage over Ingram and was almost guaranteed to leave the weekend with the lead unless something catastrophic went wrong and Ingram maximised his points tally. While neither of those situations occurred, Ingram managed to close the margin slightly ahead of the summer break, managing to consistently remain up front while Sutton’s weekend was vastly different to what he was so far used to this season.

Saturday’s qualifying race saw the pair cross paths early in the weekend, with the pair fighting over third position in the ‘Race To Pole’. However, Ingram would brake too late into the final corner punting Sutton slightly off-line. Ingram amended this allowing Sutton to reclaim the position while also systematically defending from other cars behind. This would not be the first time the drivers have had an incident this season, with an incident in the inaugural Qualifying Race earlier this season with Ingram defending hard against Sutton at Donington Park. The pair would finish fourth and fifth on the road but would gain a place each due to a penalty for Árón Taylor-Smith for a Safety Car restart infringement with Sutton gaining an extra point gap in the championship.

The first race on Sunday would see the pairs opportunity to battle for position to an abrupt end by turn two as Sutton would end up clashing with Josh Cook sending him wide and down to the second half of the top ten. Ingram would continue to push on following Cook and Dan Cammish for the lead, looking for a way passed, but with a deficit in boost it was very difficult for Ingram to find a way passed the Toyota and even have an opportunity to take the race lead.

Sutton meanwhile would be caught in a difficult squabble all race, fighting with less boost than the cars around him and being caught out fighting to move up and then dropping down when the other drivers were on the boost. Ingram would maintain third place while Sutton would settle for seventh but would have a massive advantage in race two over Ingram. He would have more boost and having the chance to use the soft tyres, while Ingram had to use the hard tyres for finishing inside the top three in race one.

Sutton would make full use of his boost and tyres, jumping to fifth off the start passing both Power Maxed Racing Audi’s in front of him. Sutton would continue his push towards the front, passing Cook for fourth out of Druids into the final corner before setting after the top three. Sutton would manage to pass Taylor-Smith for third place after Ingram forced the Toyota wide at the hairpin.

On lap three, the championship leader would find Ingram his most difficult challenge yet as he would be unable to complete a dive up the inside into the final corner, with Ingram getting a great drive off the exit to stop any attack from Sutton into the first turn. However, it was the run out that corner down to Cascades which was crucial. Sutton with the better run on the softer compound of tyres, would manage to pull alongside and passed before even reaching the braking point for the next turn.

Not long after, Sutton would charge passed Cammish after allowing his teammate by as there was no need to fight considering the circumstances. From here on out, Sutton would build a nearly twenty second lead over the rest of the field, claiming victory in race two of the day extending his championship lead. Behind him though, it was far from over.

Cammish and Ingram would catch a break as Taylor-Smith would be forced to defend hard against the pack behind for the rest of the race, giving Cammish and Ingram a clear run on the hard tyres, minimising damage it would have normally caused. Ingram would consistently remain a problem for Cammish all race, with the NAPA driver having to defend more and more as the race went on. However, it would be on lap twelve where Ingram would finally get the opportunity to pass, using the boost on the run into the final corner, diving up the inside and taking second place from Cammish.

Race three would see Sutton and Ingram start down in tenth and eleventh after the reverse grid drawer but with Sutton only having one lap of boost and on the hard tyres, he would have a lot of work to do to make any progress. Ingram would get a great start, moving up two places before a Safety Car would be deployed for an incident further behind between Taylor-Smith and Adam Morgan.

The race would get back under way with Ingram immediately making progress, passing Daryl De Leon and then Dexter Patterson to move to sixth, Sutton would also make progress on the first lap after Safety Car, passing Cook and De Leon to move into ninth. Ingram continued his charge, passing both Sam Osborne and Cammish on lap five and six before chasing after Chris Smiley, who on the hard tyres was unable to defend into the final corner against Ingram who moved up into the podium places. Ingram would be unable to make further progress from this point, with Charles Rainford leading and Ricky Collard in second, the pair would be too quick to be able to take any opportunity to overtake.

Meanwhile, Sutton’s race would be difficult as he expected with the boost and tyres, stuck down in tenth place after being re-overtaken by Cook. Sutton would manage to get back to ninth place after passing teammate Osborne after the second Safety Car restart, but he would be unable to make progress.

At the end of the weekend, Ingram has now closed the gap to 48 points to Sutton heading into the summer break, with the BTCC returning at the end of July at Thruxton.

However, the biggest gainer this weekend and emerging threat to both drivers would be Cammish, who pulls himself to a sixty points gap to Sutton and twelve off Ingram, gaining fifteen points on Sutton over the weekend, can he continue his momentum for the rest of the season?