BTCC: Sutton vs Ingram- The Up’s and Down’s of Brands Hatch

The second event of the BTCC Season took place at Brands Hatch where championship rivals Tom Ingram and Ash Sutton would have mixed fortunes across the weekend, but both would find themselves in top positions and keeping their points lead.

Saturday’s qualifying session saw very different fortunes for both Sutton and Ingram at Brands Hatch’s Indy circuit. Both would start in the first of the two Qualifying groups. Ingram initially looked to be in trouble after all his times got deleted due to failing to stop for the weigh bridge when the red flag was called leaving him with only a few minutes to do a time. However, the Hyundai driver would not be stopped and would go fastest in the group just clear of Daryl DeLeon and Dan Cammish.

Meanwhile, fortunes for Sutton would not be in his favour as he would just be dropped out of the top 6 in the group meaning he would not advance to the next stage, despite being only a quarter of a second off of Ingram who went fastest. Ingram would continue to look quick across the remainder of qualifying reaching the final stage where he would end up losing out to the reigning champion Jake Hill and BMW teammate Charles Rainford who secured a front row lockout ahead of Adam Morgan and Ingram in 4^th.

The first race of the weekend would start with Ingram making a move on Morgan into turn 1 and make his way into the podium places immediately. Further back, Sutton would be trying to find his way through the pack early to offset his minimum amount of Turbo boost due to being the championship leader as well as starting on the hard compound of tyres. Sutton would make up three places in the opening lap passing, Smiley, Pearson and Jelley swiftly.

Ingram would remain in the hunt for the win, but it quickly became an uphill battle against the two BMWs with them having more boost as well due to an underwhelming Donighton Park weekend. Sutton would fall away from the top 9 drivers who were all on soft tyres but would keep a nice gap to Pearson behind. Ingram would eventually drop away from the BMW pairing but would keep hold of the final podium spot by the end of the race, making it 4 podiums in the first 4 races. Sutton would finish the race in 10^th place and the best of the hard tyre runners meaning he would be in a better position across the rest of the weekend.

Race 2 would see Ingram now having to start on the hard compound of tyres after finishing in the top 3 in race 1 whereas Sutton has a choice of the two remaining softer sets. Ingram would struggle to get way initially but a similarly difficult start for Morgan would box Dan Cammish in initially into turn 1. But coming out of the second turn, Cammish would get an excellent run to make the move down the inside into turn 3. Sutton would make 3 places on the opening two laps boosting him to 7^th and only a couple of places off of Ingram who had dropped another place to DeLeon. Ingram would continue to lose ground as Morgan would pass his Team Vertu teammate leaving Ingram to fend off Sutton.

The NAPA racing driver would grab the slipstream on Ingram down the main straight to pass Ingram heading into turn 1. Ingram would continue to struggle to keep up pace with the soft runners as he would drop to 10^th before contact ahead forced him partially on the grass but managing to catch it unlike Dan Lloyd who has to completely cut the circuit and pull off to behind a barrier. A Safety Car would be deployed for an incident between Max Hall and Dexter Patterson meaning everyone would be brought back together. The restart would be thrown into chaos after Cammish slowed causing a number of cars to take avoiding action and a few to pile into the back of one another extending the Safety Car period.

A restart would see 7 laps of racing remaining and frantic racing ensues on the short circuit. Sutton would try to quickly get by the hard running BMW of Hill to try to not lose ground to Morgan and Rainford who was beginning to pull away. Sutton would make his way by Hill and then a few laps later he would get by Rainford. Sutton would come home to finish in 3^rd place while Ingram further back would just fall out of the top 10 after trying to survive on those hard tyres to finish 11^th on the road.

Race 3 would see the top 9 reversed leaving Sutton to start in 7^th while Ingram would start in 11^th. Both would manage to maintain position off the line before Ingram would find his way by a few drivers to put himself right behind Sutton who had also gained a place himself. Sutton would continue to make places in the opening three laps passing Moffat while Ingram battled Cook for 7^th place.

Aiden Moffat and Sutton would get very feisty on lap 4 with contact on multiple occasions allowing Ingram to make a send on Moffat at the final corner and complete the move to be back right up behind the Ford driver. The championship rivals would continue to fight over the next few laps as Ingram was trying to find a way by before making it stick on lap 7.

Ingram would go on a charge after the top 4 across the rest of the race making a move on Chris Smiley on lap 11 before making a move on Rowbottom only a couple of laps later into the final corner to jump into the final podium spot. Sutton would also try to make moves on Rowbottom and Smiley surpassing Rowbottom on lap 20 before sending Smiley into turn 1 not long after jumping into 4^th place.

The Hyundai would try and take the opportunity to get by rival Hill in the final couple of laps after he was held up by a slow Hall who had a puncture, but the BMW would defend hard with the pair making contact while side by side on multiple occasions across those final crucial laps. Hill would not allow Ingram to get by meaning he would have to settle for third place while Sutton would come home in fourth.

After a second race weekend, the top 5 in the championship would be as follows:

1^st Sutton: 92

2^nd Ingram: 87 (-5)

3^rd Hill: 80 (-12)

4^th Chilton: 55 (-37)

5^th Morgan: 52 (-40)