Tom Ingram took a rip-roaring victory in the final race of the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship weekend sponsored by Lokring UK in association with Cataclean. The event supported by EventScotland came to a dramatic climax with the closest race of the day to round out proceedings here at Knockhill for 2021.
At times, 8 to 10 cars were racing nose-to-tail before Ingram and Proctor pulled a slight advantage towards the end of the race. Before that however, there was action aplenty. Stephen Jelley did a great job at the head of the field to maintain his lead – with a number of his counterparts on the quicker softer tyre option testing his defensive driving skills to the maximum.
Fellow front-row starter Jason Plato had a race to forget as he lost ground on the race leader following muggings on several laps by other drivers – losing four places in a few corners on one lap alone – culminating with both himself and Shedden almost coming to grief at Butchers and the Chicane. Plato eventually rounded out the race in P9, despite mechanical issues hampering his progress all weekend and will look ahead to resetting at Thruxton in a few weeks time.
Elsewhere, there were improvements for Butcher (who finished P20 after starting the final race in P28) and Shedden, with the latter settling in to fourth place on the road and beginning to reel in the front trio. A podium seemed like a genuine option for the 3-time BTCC champion, but with Ash Sutton waiting in the wings in P5, any move would have to have been perfect or he could have lost one, maybe two or even more depending on the circumstances of all.
In the end, it was s clinical manoeuvre by Tom Ingram that settled this affair. With Jelley looking to defend the central line through the hairpin, Ingram played possum heading into the turning
point, before driving for the inside at the last possible moment. It was a clean move and with Jelley slightly startled by the audacity of it, he immediately came under fire from Proctor who nipped ahead of the BMW as well.
In the end, it was Ingram’s race, with Proctor coming home for another Knockhill podium, his second of the weekend. Jelley held firm, despite pressure from Shedden to secure that third-place podium finish for team BMW and Sutton managed to bag himself a P5 finish – just 0.062s behind Shedden to further boost his Championship credentials.
Overall, it’s been a fantastic weekend of racing. We’ll learn some lessons from this year and look forward to implementing further improvements for the return of the BTCC in 2022 over the weekend of 30/31 July.