BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8's Tom Ingram fought his way from seventh on the grid to win Round 9 of the 2023 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship at Snetterton.
An all Team BMW front row of Stephen Jelley and Adam Morgan held sway at the start of the race, but with all the Bavarian machines running the Goodyear harder tyres they were soon subject to attack from behind.
NAPA Racing UK's Dan Rowbottom carved his way into the lead on lap two and looked to have victory in his sights, but the Hyundai of Ingram, Toyota of Rory Butcher and Ford Focus of Dan Cammish were gradually making similar progress.
Ingram disposed of TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK's Butcher early on and then made a move stick for the lead by Rowbottom at Riches on lap five. Butcher got past Rowbottom on the same lap and the leading pair began pulling away.
NAPA Racing UK's Cammish – starting 11th on the grid – had got by team-mate Ash Sutton and was then let through by Rowbottom, as he set about attacking for victory in the closing stages.
Butcher had to relinquish second to Cammish with just two laps to go and the latter immediately carved into Ingram's advantage.
Ingram fended off Cammish until the finish by just 0.587s, but there was drama post-race when the latter’s car failed ride height checks and he was subsequently disqualified from the result.
"At the end of the day what will be will be, we all abide by the same rules, whether it's track limits, whether it's car discretions," said Cammish. "I'm just a man in the seat and I can go away with my head held high that I did my bit.
"At the end of the day it is a team sport, I gave one away yesterday and no one looked at me for blame. We race as a team, win as a team and lose as a team. Proud of the guys today."
Butcher inherited second, bringing some reward for his TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK squad, whilst the NAPA-backed duo of Rowbottom and Sutton completed the top four.
Josh Cook produced one of the drives of the day to carve his way from 26th on the grid to fifth at the finish, as he blasted by a quartet of BMWs late on.
The four BMWs of Jelley, Colin Turkington, Morgan and Jake Hill ended up inside the top ten, as did the One Motorsport with Starline Racing Honda of Aiden Moffat.
Tom Ingram said: "That was hard work – the whole day has been fairly hard work! I'm glad to have got that one done and got today done. Definitely very, very pleased to finish it off with a win. It's really good.
"This place [Snetterton] has always been really good to us as a team over the years. We got out first win back in 2021, the first win for EXCELR8, and it's a circuit I've always just really enjoyed and done well at. Really, really pleased. Good way to top it off, that's for sure!"
Rory Butcher said: "We kind-of planned this all-day, we knew race 3 is what we were going for! Felt the pain of race 1 with the hards and then it was a bit better with the mediums, but those softs just switched on. The amount of people that were on hards around us, we were able to make hay while the sun shined!
"I think we are missing a little bit at the moment. We have a bit to find, but that podium is really nice for everyone as we have worked so hard these last three rounds."
2023 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship – Race 3 – Snetterton (300)
1. Tom Ingram, BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8 11 Laps
2.Rory Butcher, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK +5.594s
3. Daniel Rowbottom, NAPA Racing UK +6.869s
4. Ashley Sutton, NAPA Racing UK +9.428s
5. Josh Cook, One Motorsport with Starline Racing +15.122s
6. Stephen Jelley, Team BMW +16.241s
7. Colin Turkington, Team BMW +16.349s
8. Aiden Moffat, One Motorsport with Starline Racing +16.993s
9. Adam Morgan, Team BMW +17.832s
10. Jake Hill, Laser Tools Racing with MB Motorsport +18.096s
11. Tom Chilton, BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8 +18.976s
12. Bobby Thompson, Autobrite Direct with Millers Oils +19.364s
13. Dexter Patterson, Re.Beverages and Bartercard with Team HARD +19.665s
14. Ricky Collard, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK +26.688s
15. Mikey Doble, CarStore Power Maxed Racing +29.578s
16. Jack Butel, Go-Fix with Autoaid Breakdown +30.287s
17. Daniel Lloyd, Autobrite Direct with Millers Oils +30.601s
18. Andrew Watson, CarStore Power Maxed Racing +32.242s
19. Will Powell, One Motorsport with Starline Racing +33.785s
20. Sam Osborne, NAPA Racing UK +44.431s
21. Nick Halstead, BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8 +1:05.177s
22. Nic Hamilton, Go-Fix with Autoaid Breakdown +3 Laps
23. Ronan Pearson, BRISTOL STREET MOTORS with EXCELR8 +8 Laps
24. Árón Taylor-Smith, CarStore Power Maxed Racing +9 Laps
25. George Gamble, TOYOTA GAZOO Racing UK DNF
26. Dan Cammish, NAPA Racing UK DSQ
