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The BTCC is well and truly back in full swing after its summer break as the championship heads to Scotland for its annual visit to Knockhill. An incredibly unique circuit with all of its elevation and fast corners. With a lap of Knockhill being just 50 seconds, expect close margins and even closer racing throught the field.
On the subject of close margins, we get to qualifying. A tightly contested session with track limits at the forefront of the drivers minds. However, with the short nature of the track, the drivers do get plenty of attempts per session.
For the first time in his motorsport career, Charles Rainford set the fastest time in qualifying and secured pole position in his BMW which looked to be the car of choice in qualifying. The BMW’s locked out the top three places on the grid. Daryl Deleon qualified in second position and the returning Jake Hill in third. Tom Ingram had a great qualifying, lining his Hyundai up in fourth position, six places ahead of his championship rival Ash Sutton. He benefitted from Dan Rowbottom’s demise as he was disqualified from fourth position in qualifying after his car was two kilograms underweight.
Race One: The battle of the BMW’s
The first race of the BTCC weekend at a sun soaked Knockhill got underway with the BMW trio holding their positions initially. As expected, the BMW’s got a great launch off the line with the soft tyres on and they held their qualifying positions initially. However, Rainford had his mirrors filled with Jack Sears Trophy leader Daryl Deleon’s car.
On the start of lap nine, the lead changed and Deleon had managed to pass Rainford. But, the large collection of grass in the front grill of his BMW indicated that maybe he hadn’t done it cleanly. The replays showed Deleon flying across the grass after a move at Duffers Dip had gone wrong. He promptly was re-overtaken by Rainford at the Hairpin. This opened the door for Hill and Senna Proctor to slide through. Deleon ended up finishing his race in eighth place, clearly hampered by an overheating engine.
Hill then took the lead off Rainford on lap 14. He made Rainford defend into the Taylor’s hairpin and then got the better exit on the outside line. The reigning champion was now leading the race with 10 laps to go and plenty of turbo boost to use.
A safety car was called on lap 21 as Hill made contact whilst trying to lap Nick Halstead. The Power Maxed Racing driver seemed to lose drive and the car would need to be recovered. The safety car came in meaning we had a three lap sprint to decide the finishing order for race one. Hill sprinted away at the restart and opened up a one second gap to Rainford by the chequered flag. Proctor was looking like he was going to take third but he lifted at the line. This allowed his teammate Tom Ingram take the podium place. With Ingram already getting his medium tyres out of the way, this was the perfect strategic move for Hyundai. Dan Cammish rounded out the top five as Ash Sutton managed to recover up to seventh position.
Race Two: Hyundai’s clever tactics help Ingram to the top step
Race one was plain sailing for the BMW duo at the front but with the harder tyres on and a feisty Tom Ingram behind, this was definitely going to be an uphill battle for the pair to hold onto their podium places. Ingram was on a charge immediately. He launched his soft tyre shod Hyundai around the outside of Rainford at the hairpin and made the move stick. He now just had Hill ahead of him for the race lead and 22 laps to overtake him. But the Hyundai driver would only need one to overtake the reigning champion. Setting up a similar move to the one he did on Rainford and taking the lead on lap three. With no pressure from behind, Ingram pulled away from the rest and won the race with a seven second buffer.
Hill managed to have a great result despite his tyre deficit to most of the drivers around him. He fought hard to finish in fifth position on the medium and keep himself in contention for the reverse grid. In comparison, Rainford was forced onto the medium compound for race two and he fell all the way to 16th. Ingram would have been elated with his win but he would have been less happy to see the familiar blue Napa Ford of Ash Sutton pull up to the second place board.
Sutton climbed five places after a bit of a slow start, matching the recovering Daryl Deleon for pace initially. He benefited from Dan Cammish lifting just before the line to give Sutton second. A mirror image of what Proctor and Ingram did in race one. Cammish did still finish on the podium in third with Senna Proctor getting another top four finish. Tom Chilton had a great second race he climbed 14 places from 22nd on the grid all the way up to eighth place.
For the reverse grid draw Ingram pulled out the number six ball, putting Daryl Deleon onto pole position for race three. Jake Hill will join him on the front row but all eyes will be on row three where Ash Sutton will line up next to Tom Ingram in what could be a crucial race for the title.
Race 3: Teammate Chess as Ingram and Sutton duel
Despite the grid only being reversed six places, the excitement for race three was palpable with the prospect of Sutton and Ingram battling it out directly on track. Sutton had a great opportunity in race three to claw back some points as Ingram had been pulling away in race one and two. Daryl Deleon had the honour of starting on pole for race three. But was yet to use the medium tyre, meaning it was going to be tricky to hold onto a podium. Hill was easily the best placed to win the race in second with the soft tyre on. Especially in the BMW which has looked so strong over the whole weekend.
Off the start, Deleon held off Hill whilst Sutton kept his NAPA Racing Ford ahead of Ingram’s Hyundai. Dan Cammish managed to get past Senna Proctor as both started on the second row but Proctor had the medium tyres on. Proctor was seemingly the cork in the bottle with Sutton and Ingram behind him. At the end of lap two, Hill launched his BMW up the inside of Deleon and took the lead with Cammish now behind him too.
On lap three, the games began between the two title rivals as Ingram tried a move on Sutton at Clark’s but it didn’t pay off. Meanwhile, Tom Chilton was continuing his rise through the field as he now places himself behind Ingram. This meant Sutton now had a Hyundai ahead and two behind him leaving him very vulnerable. The pair went side by side again on lap six. Ingram tried to go around the outside of the hairpin but Sutton defended him perfectly. Another attempt on lap 11 saw Ingram sneak his nose down the inside of Sutton at the hairpin but still not being able to complete the move.
Bad news for Ingram on lap 15 as his rear gunner Tom Chilton lost his position to one of Ash Sutton’s teammates Dan Rowbottom. Rowbottom immediately got to work unsettling Ingram. Using his extra hybrid, he really pressurised Ingram into the hairpin and forced him to defend into Duffer’s Dip. This gave Sutton some breathing room to try and overtake the medium tyre runners ahead.
Sutton found a way past Deleon at Clark’s and now just had Proctor ahead of him. Sutton passed Proctor moments later through Butcher’s. Ingram fought his way through both of them too and was back behind Sutton battling for third with six laps to go.
The gap stabilised between the pair at one second until the end of the race. With Sutton in third and Cammish in second, the team ordered the drivers to swap around to help Sutton score more points than Ingram. The drivers completed the swap up to the line but the pass was made under a yellow flag for the stationary Daryl Deleon. The stewards swapped the places back meaning Sutton finished third and Cammish reclaimed second place.
But no one was stopping Jake Hill as he returned to the BTCC brilliantly, claiming his second win of the day and his seventh at Knockhill. Tom Chilton beat Dan Rowbottom to fifth place as Charles Rainford finishes eighth and claims a Jack Seas Trophy win. Chris Smiley was the winner in the independent class in race three with teammate Dan Lloyd just behind him. Restart Racing bank a great haul of points over the recovering Power Maxed Racing.
The BTCC will return to Donington Park at the end of the month for the GP configuration of the track. Tom Ingram currently leads four time champion Ash Sutton by 17 points in the championship but Sutton won two of the three races at the opening round at Donington Park. Coming into the final three meetings of the season, it is all to play for with nine races left to decide our champions.