BTCC: Sutton vs Ingram- Thruxton thriller

Thruxton would host the 4^th BTCC weekend of the season as the battle at the front would become ever more exciting and intense.

Qualifying would see an intense battle between the Ash Sutton, Tom Ingram and Dan Cammish with the trio once more fighting for pole position. Sutton and Ingram would top their respective group’s with Cammish sitting in second behind Ingram before Sutton would put in an astonishing lap in the second part of qualifying to put himself more than 3 tenths clear of the next car. Sutton would maintain a fairly sizable gap for the Quick Six session as he took pole by just under 3 tenths of a second to Ingram while Cammish only qualified a few hundredths further back in 3^rd.

Sutton would start well as he manages to remain clear of Ingram in the opening couple of corners, but Ingram would get the run down towards the final chicane, making the move around the outside heading into the chicane with some contact between the two meaning Ingram narrowly gets by. However, the Safety Car was called during their battle meaning Ingram would have to give the place back, so the pair was back as they well.

The race would get back underway as Ingram would sit right behind Sutton all throughout the lap before trying to make a repeat move at the chicane before contact between the pair after Sutton got out of shape, forcing them both to cut the chicane. Ingram would maintain the lead from Sutton while Cammish was sat behind them in 3^rd and lost out any opportunity to make the move. Sutton would be sat right behind Ingram, trying to reclaim the lead he lost but Sutton would start to lose ground to Ingram as Cammish suddenly closed back in due to car troubles for the championship leader. Cammish would take second place and start hunting after Ingram as Sutton continued to fall back due to the issues, eventually losing out on the podium to Josh Cook in the next few laps. Ingram would come home to take his first victory of the season ahead of Cammish and Cook while Sutton had to settle for 4^th place.

Race 2 would see Sutton get a lightning start to go from 4^th to 1^st off the line jumping all his rivals before the first braking point. Sutton would then pull a margin to the cars scrapping behind straight away to earn himself a 2 second gap by the end of the second lap. Ingram would have pressure from Cook in the battle for second as Sutton starts to manage the gap to Ingram, as the Hyundai was just unable to catch the Ford by any significant amount. Despite being unable to catch Sutton, Ingram manages to continue to slowly pull a gap to Cook over the course of the rest of the race. This would leave Sutton to win from Ingram making it the third time this season Ingram has finished second to Sutton and the 6^th time in eleven races the two have finished the race next to each other on the results.

The final race of the Thruxton weekend would see the top 7 drivers reversed meaning Ingram would start 6^th and Sutton 7^th. Ingram would immediately cover the inside to stop Sutton coming through before making a move down the inside of the returning Senna Proctor to claim 5^th. Sutton quickly made his way by on exit to get right back behind his rival. Sutton would put Ingram under pressure as the Hyundai tried to make a move on both James Dorlin and Cammish but would have to wait just a little longer. Dorlin would eventually be passed by both drivers as the championship leaders set their sights on the podium runners.

Ingram would force Cammish into a defence into the chicane dropping them slightly further back from Daniel Rowbottom and Jake Hill before Sutton would make a move into the chicane to go around the outside at the left to take the inside on the exit of the chicane. The pair would come together forcing Ingram to go slightly onto the grass meaning he would have to lift off to come back on the circuit and yield the position.

Soon a Safety Car would be deployed to recover Adam Morgan who had ended up in the barrier after catching the grass. The restart would see the top 5 continue to scrap as Cammish would get past Hill leaving Sutton to try and take the final podium spot away from the BMW before contact between the pair at Noble sent Sutton spinning and Hill onto the grass. Sutton would manage to catch it only losing a handful of places but it crucially gave Ingram some clean air and the opportunity to go after the two leading Ford’s with an extra lap of Turbo Boost in comparison to them.

Sutton would not be deterred as he would get straight back on it, jumping Lloyd to get back up into 6^th place. The NAPA driver would make one more place before the race ends with him passing the other Restart Racing car of Chris Smiley to get up to 5^th place once more. Ahead of him, Ingram would make the move on Cammish to get into second place but was too far behind to do anything about Rowbottom who takes victory. With Ingram finishing in second he completes the weekend never finishing lower than second while Sutton managed to come back to take 5^th place at the end.

After the Thruxton race weekend, the top 5 in the championship stood below:

1^st Sutton: 181

2^nd Ingram: 172 (-9)

3^rd Rowbottom: 132 (-49)

4^th Cammish: 128 (-53)

5^th Hill: 114 (-67)