Tom Ingram headed to Donington Park with a seventeen point gap to closest rival Ash Sutton, after performing slightly better than him on the annual trip to Scotland last time out. With three meetings to go, every point would be hard earned and vital in the championship battle, but would Ingram extend his lead or would Sutton claw back the gap?

Qualifying

The conditions in qualifying became worse with each segment of the session, but it made no difference to an ecstatic Tom Chilton, who secured his first pole position since Knockhill in 2011. Ingram joined his teammate on the front row, but Mikey Doble didn’t hold third place after failing the ride height. Chris Smiley benefitted from Doble’s misfortune, with Daryl DeLeon, Senna Proctor and Dan Cammish completing the top six. 

Race One, 4/10 – Tom Chilton, Tom Ingram, Dan Rowbottom

• Ingram made the better start, but despite trying to overtake Chilton on the outside line, he was unable to. Sutton, who’d qualified tenth, quickly made up a couple of places along with his NAPA teammates, but DeLeon had a nightmare start losing six places on the opening lap. 
• At the end of lap 3, Dan Rowbottom overtook fellow NAPA Dan, Cammish, and closed on Smiley. It only took him a lap to dispose of Smiley to move up to third, while Sutton had now overtaken Cammish too. At the front, Chilton moved over to allow Ingram into the lead. 
• Ingram held the lead until lap 7, but in an unexpected turn of events, he allowed Chilton back through who went on to secure his second victory of the season. 
• Smiley, meanwhile, lost places to Sutton, Cammish, Jake Hill and Adam Morgan in the final laps, but NAPA chose not to swap Rowbottom and Cammish, meaning Sutton would start race two on the more favoured medium tyre. 

Race Two,  7/10 – Dan Cammish, Adam Morgan, Gordon Shedden

• Sutton moved up to third off the line, but while Ingram seemed slow, Chilton was already making a lead for himself. However, it didn’t last long as the safety car was needed after Proctor went wide and spun, catching Aidan Moffat in the process and Sam Osborne went off in avoidance. Hill lost out badly as a result of the incident. 
• As racing restarted on lap 5, Ingram took the lead, Sutton was hit by Rowbottom in the rear, but saved the spin, although he lost a number of positions, as did Chilton. At the end of the lap, Cammish was up to second and Morgan, fourth.
• Cammish was soon into the lead on the next lap and Morgan was ahead of Ingram a lap later too. While Sutton made a few places over the next few laps, the race settled down for a while, but Cammish never made a big getaway from the pack, with the top four close.
• Lap 15 brought chaos! All of a sudden, heavy rain arrived and seven cars, mainly the leaders, went scooting off the track, but all survived to carry on in some order. 
• The safety car was brought out and the race ended behind it, but after the chaos, the top three were Cammish, Morgan and the big beneficiary, Gordon Shedden. In the championship battle, Ingram finished fifth and Sutton ninth, but a disqualification for Smiley meant they both moved up the order.

Race Three, 7/10 – Tom Ingram, Ash Sutton, Dan Rowbottom

• Smiley’s disqualification had an impact on the championship battle too, as it meant that his reverse grid pole was revoked and Sutton inherited the honour. Sutton got away well with Josh Cook moving up a place to second on Árón Taylor-Smith, while Ingram was up to third by the end of the lap.
• Ingram made a further position on the next lap by passing Cook, who then slipped down, but Ingram had his eyes set on Sutton. After closing up, the pair had a great battle over what turned out to be two laps, with Ingram eventually prevailing. 
• On lap 5, Rowbottom started his charge forward and had made seven places to fifth, before his next series of overtakes brought him up to the podium positions. However, the racing was soon halted due to a smoking Nick Halstead Cupra. 
• The safety car returned to the pits after four laps, leaving a couple of racing laps to go. While the top three made their getaway, there was a good battle for fourth between Taylor-Smith, Chilton and Hill, with Taylor-Smith winning out. 
• At the front, Ingram secured victory from Sutton, despite a couple of half attempts from Sutton. 

It was yet another better day for Ingram compared to Sutton as he was able to stretch his championship lead to 32 points following the conclusion of the races. Of course, it’s ridiculous to rule out Sutton at this point, given that one DNF for Ingram would bring Sutton right back into it, but there is definitely a clear favourite now. 

It was quite a surprise in race one that Chilton was allowed to keep his deservedly earned win, but if Ingram was to miss out on the title by three points, that could be looked at as the opportunity that was missed. While it could be argued similarly for Sutton not switching with Rowbottom, he had the advantage of the better tyre choice and should have made hay in the sunshine, or not, as several fourth placed finishers have done recently. 

In race two, it was clearly a misjudgement by Rowbottom to ram Sutton and cause him trouble and potentially a race win, but for that to happen between teammates will have no doubt led to an ‘interesting’ conversation in the trucks afterwards. However, without that, Sutton could have still been struggling due to the sudden down pouring of rain.

Several drivers afterwards said that nothing like that had ever happened to them before and it’s easy to see why; it came out of nowhere with no warning. The drivers exited one dry corner and arrived at the next that was soaked. How all of the seven drivers didn’t beach it in the gravel, goodness knows, but it certainly provided some entertainment. 

The battle between the top championship duo in the final race was also gripping. The respect between the pair is clear to see on track as they are fighting strongly, but fairly. Who knows if that will last! However, at Donington, it was clear that Ingram had the faster car and he had to really use his brain to out-fox Sutton, who was defending for his life. We can only hope for more of this in the final two rounds of the season. 

Silverstone has some long straights, so it will be a good battle of straight line speed between the pair, with it hard to call, although the Fords have looked pretty handy in a straight line recently. Either way, the help of teammates will surely continue to be used, with Sutton hoping that one of Ingram’s stablemates give him the same treatment as Rowbottom did to him. 

As it stands, Ingram is in the box seat, but will that still be the case after Silverstone? 

2025 BRITISH TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP AFTER 24 OF 30 ROUNDS

1.	Tom Ingram	377 points
2.	Ashley Sutton	345
3.	Dan Cammish	264
4.	Dan Rowbottom	248
5.	Jake Hill	225
6.	Tom Chilton	204