BTCC: Sutton vs Ingram- Scraping in Snetterton

The third BTCC weekend was at Snetterton as the title fight between Ash Sutton and Tom Ingram continued with the pair once again having a solid overall weekend.

Qualifying would see both drivers advance to the ‘Quick Six’ as the pair looked set to be fighting for pole once again. Early into the session, Ingram would be the first to go into the 1:53s before being jumped by Dan Cammish as he would set the fastest time. But before anyone else could respond to the NAPA driver, Sutton’s car would stop on the Bentley straight with mechanical issues ending his session without a time. This would leave Cammish with his second pole position of the year just 3 hundredths clear of Ingram while Sutton would start in 6^th behind Dan Rowbottom, Mikey Doble and Adam Morgan.

The first race would see Cammish and Ingram fight into the first couple of turns with Cammish maintaining the lead while behind them, Sutton would charge by Rowbottom, Morgan and Doble before the first turn already setting up to try to attack the two leaders throughout the opening lap. The top three would pull away early but Cammish is constantly looking in his mirrors as Ingram continued to sit right up behind him. Sutton would soon give his teammate some relief as he was looking to make a pass on Ingram with Cammish pulling a small margin over the Hyundai.

Cammish would maintain control over the gap as Sutton would continue to hunt Ingram as the trio are in reverse order of the amount of hybrid they have. On the final three laps, Sutton would push Ingram harder then he had over the majority of the race as he pulled alongside temporarily on lap 10 before a better opportunity was shown to Sutton at the end of the lap into the penultimate tour as he tried to make his way by again in the first few turns.

The final lap would see a massive dive up the inside from Sutton resulting in a small bit of contact between the two, Ingram was able to maintain the position before Sutton would try to push his way by in the final part of the lap, but Ingram would remain unsettled. Cammish further up the road would take the victory in his quest to claw back the points lost to his two rivals while Ingram would finish second and Sutton would take the final podium spot as the gap closes ever more in the championship between the two.

Race two would see all three podium sitters start on the hard compound of tyres as the leading three would fight into turn 1 as Sutton made a move on the exit flying by. Ingram would also make his way past Cammish dropping him into the pack behind. Cammish would become stuck off-line as everyone tried to pile through. Out front, Sutton and Ingram have had an easier time of things as Cammish gave both drivers the bit of breathing space they needed temporarily.

Ingram would try and defend hard from Rowbottom as he wanted to maintain second but his race would end on lap three as he would lose the car at turn 1 and while trying to save it would hit the inside barrier with the rear of the car, causing significant damage and ending his race. Sutton would try and maximise the points for himself to extend the championship lead to Ingram. Sutton would not fight his teammate in Rowbottom letting him by to benefit the team while Sutton would try to defend from the train behind the NAPA pairing.

Dan Lloyd would make a move into turn 1 to pass Sutton quite easily before being followed by Morgan, Tom Chilton and Chris Smiley dropping Sutton to 6^th. Sutton would manage to stick with the group in front for a few laps as the top 5 fought for the lead and with the extra laps of turbo boost to use later on in the race, it could minimise damage the hard tyres would do. Sutton would eventually fall away from the top 5 and then be overtaken by Doble in the Astra on lap 8 before dropping another three places to drop him to 10^th by race end.

Race 3 would see both drivers needing to push their way through the field with both their hard tyre races now done. Sutton would get a tremendous start making up 6 positions in then opening 4 corners of the race. Contact between Sutton and Josh Cook would see Sutton just drop back a place before a Safety Car was called for Stephen Jelley whose race ended in the barrier. Further behind, Ingram would go from the back of the grid all the way into the points making up 11 places on the opening lap leaving him after an astonishing start to the race. Ingram would be caught up in Jelley’s incident with DeLeon as the Honda got turned into Ingram’s car but he would manage to continue.

The race would get back underway on lap 5 as both Sutton and Ingram would be looking to make moves quickly. Sutton would get by Morgan following Cook off the restart to get back to 4^th. Ingram further back would pass Chilton to get his way into 13^th and then making his way past Dorlin and Rainford into the top 10 before the end of lap 6. Sutton tried to make his way by Lloyd around the outside of Coram, almost losing the car in the process to make it into the podium spot.

Ingram would continue to make moves passing Rowbottom and Hill to move up to 8^th place and continuing to make a charge for positions. Ingram and Hill would soon pass the hard running Morgan and Restart Racing’s Lloyd. Ingram’s former teammate Pearson would be the next target for the Team Vertu, passing the Toyota on the run down to Brundle meaning he had made up 19 places in the first nine laps despite the Safety Car. Further up the road, Sutton would also make more progress, sliding by Cook to now only be one second off Doble.

Sutton would try going for the move on lap 12, putting more pressure on the Vauxhall going for his first race win. But with both drivers having the same amount of turbo boost available into the last few laps and a mistake from Sutton on the penultimate lap, Doble would take victory from Sutton and Cook. Ingram would make up one more place before the race is done passing Osborne for 4^th meaning he made up 21 places by race end.

At the end of the weekend, this is how the top 5 in the standings looked:

1^st Sutton: 132

2^nd Ingram: 117 (-15)

3^rd Hill: 92 (-40)

4^th Rowbottom: 85 (-47)

5^th Cammish: 83 (-49)