Race three at Croft was absolutely filled with incidents and door banging, but it was Ash Sutton that got through the chaos and took the flag first. Crashes, a reverse grid, a mix of tyres and hard racing is the complete definition of a touring car race and we got it all in race three.
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Franetic first few laps
The opening laps provided us with plenty of action as the drivers really got their elbows out. Polesitter Aiden Moffat was side by side with Tom Ingram into turn one where the pair came together through Hawthorns. Ingram was sent sliding across the track but he managed to get his Hyundai pointing in the right direction, just dropping one place to Charles Rainford.
Rainford, who was on the hard tyre, was the cork in the bottle for the rest of the pack in second place. This saw the rest of the field queued up to pass the BMW which Ingram attempted into Sunny In. The move didnt work for the championship leader and Ash Sutton managed to weave his way into second place.
Lap 2 pile up
Rainford would remain in the wars into lap two as he wasnt looking to yeild any places despite his tyre disadvantage. He would maybe go a step too far into the start of the complex as he had contact with Dan Cammish which sent the latter onto the grass. Cammish couldnt slow down before returning to the track and collected the BMW of Daryl Deleon and Chris Smiley. The safety car was called out with multiple damaged cars on the circuit.
The restart
Racing got back underway on lap seven with Moffat leading Sutton and Ingram. Sutton came under attack from Ingram straight away and the championship leader made the pass into tower bend with some great straight line speed. Later in the lap Ingram’s race would take yet another twist. Ingram was shaping up for a move on Moffat at the hairpin. Both got tangled up with eachother on the outside of the track which allowed Sutton to sweep back through and take the lead.
Moffat wasn’t keen on giving up the position to Ingram as he defended second position for multiple laps. All of the battling was allowing Sutton to run away from the group. Senna Proctor, who was up 14 places so far, was tucked in behind his teammate Ingram in fourth place. But Proctor made a move on Ingram at Tower, leaving him to attack Moffat’s BMW.
Proctor was looking for a late pass on Moffat at the complex. But Proctor collided with Moffat and sent him onto the grass in similar fashion to Dan Cammish. Luckily, Moffat didnt collect any other cars and was able to continue and finish in sixth place.
Lap 13 saw Ingram finally get back past Proctor at the hairpin but Ingram couldnt catch Sutton’s wounded Ford Focus before the chequered flag.
A textbook touring car race to end the sixth BTCC race meeting of the season. Knockhill will be next up in two weeks time which will definitely be one to watch as Tom Ingram leads the championship by eight points over Ash Sutton.
The top 15
*Results are provisional*
1. Ash Sutton 2. Tom Ingram 3. Senna Proctor 4. Gordon Shedden 5. Adam Morgan 6. Aiden Moffat 7. Sam Osbourne (JST Winner) 8. Tom Chilton 9. Aron Taylor-Smith 10. Mikey Doble (Independant Winner) 11. Dexter Patterson 12. Max Buxton 13. Charles Rainford 14. Nick Halstead 15. Dan Rowbottom
Main Image credit: BTCC