Ingram powers to Knockhill reverse grid race victory

Excelr8 Motorsport's Tom Ingram strengthens his BTCC title aspirations after winning the final reverse grid race of the day at Knockhill.
iTom Ingram (GBR) - Excelr8 Trade Price Cars Hyundai i30 Fastback N Performance
iTom Ingram (GBR) - Excelr8 Trade Price Cars Hyundai i30 Fastback N…
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Excelr8 Motorsport's Tom Ingram maintains his footing in this season's British Touring Car Championship title race after winning the final reverse grid race of the day at Knockhill. 

The Hyundai i30N driver started race three from fourth on the grid, but forced his way through to a third win of the season with a pair of crucial moves on two-time champion Jason Plato and pole-man Stephen Jelley.

Ingram had already jumped ahead of Senna Proctor at the start of the race and while Plato was applying the pressure on race leader Jelley, the Excelr8 Motorsport driver moved past the Vauxhall Astra driver and into second at the final hairpin.

A small lock up from Plato was enough to allow Ingram the gap needed to jump up into second, where he set about applying yet more pressure on Team BMW's Jelley.

Despite Ingram's apparent pace, it took some time for the Hyundai driver to crack Jelley's line of defence. The BMW runner left just enough of a gap on the inside of the final hairpin to allow Ingram to dive down the inside with a brave move on lap 17 of the race.

From that moment on, Ingram managed to assemble a race-winning lead, while BTC Racing's Proctor demoted Jelley down to third at the same corner.

Jelley managed to hold onto the final position in third ahead of home hero Gordon Shedden in fourth, while Ash Sutton bolstered his championship lead with a strong fifth place finish.

Chris Smiley, Aiden Moffat and Colin Turkington finished in sixth, seventh and eighth, while Power Maxed Racing's Plato tumbled down the order to a ninth place finish.

Ingram's move on Plato saw the former two-time champion immediately drop down to sixth, before falling further down the order as the race progressed.

Dan Rowbottom completed the remainder of the top-ten order in tenth.

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