Tom Ingram has taken his first ever Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship victory at Oulton Park, having dominated the opener from start to finish.
At the 25th time of asking at the picturesque Cheshire circuit, the Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com man defended aggressively off the line and through turn one – as both he and the Toyota of Butcher touched – before Ingram pulled clear to win from the chasing pack.
NAPA Racing UK's Ash Sutton squeezed past Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport's Adam Morgan on the opening tour to take fourth, and worse was to follow for the latter when he was sent spinning out of the race on lap four in an incident involving the Honda Civic of Gordon Shedden.
A safety car period commenced in order for recovery crews to attend to Morgan's striken BMW, but it was more of the same after the restart.
Again, Ingram pulled clear whilst those behind scrapped fiercely for the remaining podium positions.
It was Daniel Lloyd's turn to face heartache while running in third as Sutton made a clever pass, which then allowed Halfords Racing with Cataclean's Shedden to also nip by.
A mistake by Lloyd on lap 11 – going straight across the grass at Knickerbrook – allowed a few others through, whilst Butcher's second place came under threat from Sutton and Shedden.
The title-winning duo of Sutton and Shedden ganged up on Toyota GAZOO Racing UK's Butcher, as they both blasted past the #6 Toyota Corolla on lap 15, although Shedden was demoted post-race due to his earlier incident with Morgan.
Ingram won from Sutton and Butcher, with Team BMW's Colin Turkington driving impressively to take fourth.
On a circuit where it is notoriously difficult to overtake, Turkington made a number of calculated moves as he progressed from ninth on the grid.
Dan Cammish took a top five for NAPA Racing UK, followed by Shedden, Lloyd and championship leader Josh Cook.
Halfords Racing with Cataclean's Dan Rowbottom and Toyota GAZOO Racing UK's Ricky Collard completed the top ten.
Tom Ingram said: “Finally after however many years of coming here and having struggles! Every year I used to turn up here with something going wrong, I was talking to Ash and Gordon, I said I’ve got the same car that we rolled off the truck yesterday morning as I did in the race, it’s felt phenomenal all weekend. It’s been an absolute pleasure to drive it. Right from the word go it’s done exactly what I’ve wanted it to do. It’s just feeling brilliant.
“We’ve all been around this long enough, you can never count your chickens too soon. You want to wait, you’ve always got to hold something back and make sure you’re not quite abusing the kerbs because we don’t want to pinch a tyre and end up with a puncture. So, although it looked under control you’ve got to do all the preventative things and the housekeeping just in case you need to use it later on. There’s a big change to us all this year with the hybrid power, so we’re having to be quite clever in using it. We’ve got a lot going on and a lot to think about. But to get that first one out of the way – my first podium at Oulton – is a really good start to the day."
2022 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship – Race 1– Oulton Park
1. Tom INGRAM (GBR) Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com 18 laps
2. Ash SUTTON (GBR) NAPA Racing UK +3.370s
3. Rory BUTCHER (GBR) Toyota GAZOO Racing UK +7.207s
4. Colin TURKINGTON (GBR) Team BMW +7.307s
5. Dan CAMMISH (GBR) NAPA Racing UK +8.248s
6. Gordon SHEDDEN (GBR) Halfords Racing with Cataclean
7. Daniel LLOYD (GBR) Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com +8.499s
8. Josh COOK (GBR) Rich Energy BTC Racing +8.767s
9. Daniel ROWBOTTOM (GBR) Halfords Racing with Cataclean +9.261s
10. Ricky COLLARD (GBR) Toyota GAZOO Racing UK +9.836s
11. Stephen JELLEY (GBR) Team BMW +10.020s
12. Aiden MOFFAT (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +10.633s
13. Jake HILL (GBR) ROKiT MB Motorsport +11.434s
14. Michael CREES (GBR) CarStore Power Maxed Racing +16.644s
15. Bobby THOMPSON (GBR) Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero +17.644s
16. Árón TAYLOR-SMITH (IRL) Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing +17.870s
17. Jason PLATO (GBR) Rich Energy BTC Racing +19.419s
18. George GAMBLE (GBR) Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport +19.676s
19. Sam OSBORNE (GBR) Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan +21.109s
20. Ollie JACKSON (GBR) Apec Racing with Beavis Morgan +23.795s
21. Jade EDWARDS (GBR) Rich Energy BTC Racing +24.627s
22. Nic HAMILTON (GBR) Yazoo with Safuu.com Racing +29.832s
23. Dexter PATTERSON (GBR) Laser Tools Racing +29.954s
24. Jack BUTEL (GBR) Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com +33.409s
25. Rick PARFITT (GBR) Uptonsteel with Euro Car Parts Racing +1:22.844s
26. Will POWELL (GBR) Autobrite Direct with JourneyHero +3 laps
27. Ash HAND (GBR) CarStore Power Maxed Racing +8 laps
28. Tom CHILTON (GBR) Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com +14 laps
29. Adam MORGAN (GBR) Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport + 15 laps
