Points leader Ingram pleased to emerge from race three 'fairly unscathed'

British Touring Car Championship leader Tom Ingram admitted his relief in emerging from an incident packed reverse grid race 'fairly unscathed' after finishing in second behind title rival Ash Sutton at Croft.

Having started the final race of the day from second on the grid, Ingram immediately found himself in the thick of the action after attempting a daring move around the outside of West Surrey Racing's Aiden Moffat during the opening sequence of corners.

Ingram's early bid for the race lead resulted in a small amount of contact between himself and Moffat, which saw the Hyundai driver drop down to third behind eventual race winner Sutton.

Following a lengthy safety car period, Ingram managed to repass Sutton briefly for what was then second position, but it proved short-lived as the Hyundai driver fell back behind the Ford following a sensational double-move from his title rival.

Ingram later dropped a further position back to fourth behind Senna Proctor, but capitalised on contact between Moffat and his Team Vertu stablemate, while the pair disputed second position.

The 2022 BTCC champion eventually dispatched Proctor for second with a handful of laps to go, but found himself too far behind Sutton to mount a challenge for the win.

"It was fairly action packed right from the first lap until the end. It was good to come out of that actually unscathed," said Ingram.

"Obviously disappointing that Ash [Sutton] managed to get a point on us, but we managed to get fastest lap and get through fairly unscathed, so it was alright.

"Ash picked up some damage. We all picked up some form of damage over the race. It was good to get through because it could’ve very easily ended up with a no-point-score there."

Ingram will carry an 8-point lead ahead of Sutton as the series makes its annual visit to Knockhill.