For the first time in this British Touring Car Championship season of paradoxes, Tom Ingram beat Ash Sutton to victory in a straight fight because he and his chariot were on a par with the long-time table-topper. Yet the series’ return to the Donington Park Grand Prix Circuit for the first time since 2002 ended with Sutton extending his advantage over Ingram by five points.
So here we are in late August. By hook or by crook, reigning champion Ingram has kept himself in the title picture during 2023, despite he and his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N falling short of the blistering pace of the much-developed Motorbase Performance Ford Focus ST in the hands of Sutton. Donington, where the duo took a win apiece, showed that the Hyundai is a match for the yellow-and-blue NAPA-liveried weapon, at least over the 2.49 miles of East Midlands asphalt. Yet it finished with Ingram facing a deficit of 42 points, with just six races to go.
“Somehow it feels a bit flat,” summed up Ingram. “Although we were mega-quick, the gap’s been extended. And in the last race we were ahead of Ash – if we’d beaten him there it would have felt very different.” Indeed, the finale of the day started with Sutton 11th on the reversed grid, and he was soon overtaken by Ingram, yet a bizarre series of incidents and circumstances contrived to guide the three-time champion past the Hyundai, plus the BMWs of Jake Hill and Colin Turkington, into a solid fifth place despite never really overtaking anyone properly.
