Ingram holds off Cammish for race three win as title fight tightens

Tom Ingram keeps his BTCC title hopes alive after winning race three ahead of fellow championship contender Dan Cammish at Croft.

Simon Evans

11 Oct 2020

iTom Ingram (GBR) - Toyota Gazoo Racing UK with Ginsters Toyota Corolla
© Jakob Ebrey

Toyota Gazoo Racing UK's Tom Ingram has kept his British Touring Car Championship title hopes alive after winning the final race of the day ahead of fellow championship contender Dan Cammish at Croft.

In what has been a rollercoaster weekend for Ingram, the Toyota Corolla driver capped a magnificent recovery from his qualifying disaster to move within 29-points of Ash Sutton's championship lead with just two-rounds to go.

After failing the ride-height check in qualifying, Ingram was stripped of his pole position and started race day from the back of the field. But drives to 13th and 4th in races one and two moved the Toyota runner back into contention before claiming victory in an incident packed third race.

Ingram started the Croft finale from third and immediately powered ahead of Honda's Cammish into second before snatching the lead away from BTC Racing's Tom Chilton a handful of corners later with a sensationally brave move at the Jim Clark Esses.

As soon as he took the lead, Ingram bolted away from Chilton and Cammish, but a huge crash from Bobby Thompson brought out the safety car on lap three and, with that, slashed what was once a handsome three-second lead for the Toyota driver.

Nevertheless, Ingram once controlled proceedings following the restart on lap eight, but it was clear he didn't have the same pace advantage he enjoyed during the first few laps.

Despite the Honda runners looking to be sailing close to the wind with brake temperatures, Chilton and Cammish kept closer tabs on Ingram after the restart and a bold move from Cammish on Chilton at Tower corner on lap 15 put the Toyota driver's race lead in jeopardy.

Cammish chased Ingram down at a rate good enough to latch right onto the rear of Speedworks built Toyota Corolla in the dying stages of the race, but Ingram held firm by just 0.2s to record his third win of 2020.

Second place still moved Cammish ahead of defending four-time champion Colin Turkington up to second in the championship standings, just 7-points off leader Ash Sutton.

Race three proved to be another disaster for Team BMW's Turkington after opening lap contact with Ollie Jackson damaged the reigning champion's BMW 330i M Sport. Turkington limped back to the pits for repairs and re-joined the race over a lap down.

Turkington did manage to rescue a point for setting the fastest lap but two non-score finishes has left the Team BMW runner 13-points off the championship summit.

Laser Tools Racing's Sutton salvaged a fifth place finish after yet another stunning recovery drive up the order from 20th. The Infiniti Q50 driver finished behind BTC Racing's Chilton and Honda's Matt Neal, who placed third and fourth.

Tom Oliphant upheld Team BMW's points scoring honour in sixth, ahead of Jake Hill and Croft double winner Josh Cook. Senna Proctor and Aiden Moffat completed the remainder of the top-ten.