Colin Turkington achieved his 70th career victory in the British Touring Car Championship with a commanding lights-to-flag performance at Croft.
The four-time champion launched his West Surrey Racing-prepared BMW 330e M Sport from pole position and made a strong start.
Tom Ingram quickly overtook front-row starter Dan Cammish on the first lap and posed a potential threat to Turkington in the early stages.
However, once the rear-wheel-drive BMW’s tyres warmed up, Turkington was able to pull away, setting the fastest lap and maintaining a steady lead over Ingram’s Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback, who finished 1.746 seconds behind.
“We certainly had the pace this weekend, as demonstrated yesterday,” Turkington commented, marking his 15th BTCC win at Croft.
“Having a few extra laps of hybrid [power over Ingram] certainly made things easier. The car performed well. Tom was quick at the start, but I felt confident I had control.”
“Once I got the front tyres up to temperature, I knew I was in a solid position.”
“Colin wasn’t going to make any mistakes,” Ingram remarked. “He’s the master of Croft and truly exceptional.”
Tom Ingram, Bristol Street Motors Hyundai i30 N Fastback
Ingram managed to dive past Cammish into the second corner at Hawthorns during the first lap. Cammish’s Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus ST then went wide at the chicane, allowing Ingram to gain the position on the way to Tower.
The other Alliance Ford driven by Ash Sutton overtook Aron Taylor-Smith’s Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra for fourth place on the second lap.
Sutton then caught up with Cammish and they approached the final laps closely together. However, the Berkshire-based Yorkshire driver was able to hold onto the final podium spot at his local circuit.
Taylor-Smith maintained a steady fifth throughout the race, while Jake Hill surged from 11th on the grid to finish sixth in his WSR BMW.
Like the other top competitors, Hill was utilizing the soft-compound Goodyear tyres for this race, and his performance means that Ingram has now taken the lead in the championship.
Rob Huff surprised many by opting to run the hard tyre in his Speedworks Motorsport-operated Toyota Corolla GR Sport, starting from fifth position.
He continued to impress by holding onto sixth place ahead of Hill until the fifth lap’s hairpin, maintaining a faster pace than those behind him using hard tyres.
Huff will switch to soft tyres for race two, while the top six from race one are required to use hard rubber.
In what was largely a straightforward race, there was some excitement in the pack behind, with the Speedworks-run LKQ Toyota of Josh Cook securing eighth, keeping ahead of Tom Chilton’s Excelr8 Hyundai and Dan Rowbottom’s Alliance Ford. All three utilized hard tyres and will switch to soft for race two.
Chris Smiley was part of this group until the Restart Racing Cupra Leon veered off the track at Sunny before rejoining the race.
