Brands BTCC: Ingram boosts title chances with pole for finale
Toyota ace Tom Ingram boosted his long-shot British Touring Car Championship title prospects by claiming pole position in a wet qualifying session for the final round at Brands Hatch.

While Ingram and fellow championship contenders Rory Butcher, Ash Sutton and Dan Cammish filled the top four spots, points leader Colin Turkington laboured to eighth position, meaning it’s all to play for on Sunday.
It was Sutton leading the way when the second of three red-flag interruptions occurred, with the field allowed 10 more minutes to fight for pole position. It wasn’t long before Butcher lowered the pole time, and then Ingram almost immediately pipped him to give the Speedworks Motorsport-run Toyota Corolla its first pole position of the year, by 0.024 seconds.
“It was super-slippy,” said Ingram, “and that was a difficult session. It took a while to get into the rhythm – the circuit felt very difficult to free practice, and we were actually chasing set-up.
“’Spenny’ [race engineer Spencer Aldridge] came over the radio with some set-up changes, and they were inspired.”
Butcher, who has only the slimmest of title chances, was happy with his lap in his Motorbase Performance Ford Focus, “but Tom just pipped us”.
Sutton was frustrated to end up third in the Laser Tools Racing Infiniti Q50, having held the top spot for some time, but claimed to be leaving some performance on the table because he was mindful of his qualifying mistake at Croft last month, when he caused a red flag and had his best time deleted.
Cammish had a very adventurous session in his Team Dynamics-run Honda Civic Type R. He had already set what turned out to be his best lap when he spun at Clearways and nerfed the tyre barrier with the left front, but continued without pitting before spinning again at the same corner.
The Dynamics crew attempted to patch up the Honda during the second red-flag stoppage but, like Sutton, Cammish could not improve. Ollie Jackson continued his strong form to take fifth in the second of the Motorbase Fords, and he will share the third row with the AmD-run MB Motorsport Honda of Jake Hill.
Hill, who yet again topped free practice, once more could not replicate that in qualifying, and he caused the second red flag when he went off at Paddock Hill Bend, the Honda coming to rest against the tyre barrier. Hill’s best lap would have been good enough for fifth, but that was deleted for causing the red flag.
Turkington’s fourth-row spot came after he claimed that he was “having to wring the neck” of his West Surrey Racing-run BMW 330i M Sport. Some set-up changes during the second red-flag break played their part in lifting Turkington from 12th to eighth, before he made a late gamble to take an extra set of tyres.
That was foiled when a third red flag – which caused the session to be prematurely concluded – was caused by Carl Boardley spinning his ex-WSR Team Hard BMW 125i into the gravel at Paddock, but Turkington did clinch the Goodyear WingFoot Award, for which points are allocated for qualifying across the season, by one point from Cammish.
No doubt to Turkington’s chagrin, he will line up on the fourth row alongside his nemesis from 2019 BTCC finals day: Matt Neal in the second Honda. Like team-mate Cammish, Neal was in the wars – he spun at Clearways and hit the barriers with the back end of his Civic, and had a further excursion through the gravel at Paddock.
Paul Rivett, on only his second BTCC outing, did a cracking job to put the Trade Price Cars Audi S3 ninth, with Josh Cook completing the top 10 in his BTC Racing Honda.
The first red flag was caused after just four minutes, when Senna Proctor shunted his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai at Druids.

Non-elite UK racing cancelled, BTCC & British GT finales go ahead
Brands BTCC: Cammish wins Race 1 as Sutton takes points lead

Latest news
Ranking the top 10 BTCC drivers of 2021
A refresh in equipment and some returning faces helped contribute to a supremely competitive 2021 British Touring Car Championship campaign. Ash Sutton was crowned a three-time champion, successfully defending his 2020 title, but faced stiff competition in the final year before the switch to hybrid. Motorsport.com picks out the best performers.
Why the BTCC's ballast increase couldn't stop champion Sutton
Ballast will be gone from the BTCC next year as hybrid power enters the scene, but for its final season the maximum was increased from 60kg to 75kg. Despite having to carry that nearly all season, Ash Sutton was always the favourite to pocket a third title - the 27-year-old getting his reward for a season of speed tempered by savvy to nail his opportunities
The much-loved tin-top superstar bowing out at 59
OPINION: It's not often that a driver achieves widespread affection for their personality, as well as their on-track performances. One such individual is Gabriele Tarquini, who will soon bring the curtain down on a remarkable career that has yielded touring car titles on the European and global stage - and, famously, in Britain too
The making of the BTCC's newest superstar
Ash Sutton is on the verge of being crowned a three-time British Touring Car Champion; he seems to have it all. But life hasn't always been straightforward for this superstar of touring cars, as Marcus Simmons has been finding out
Five key plotlines to follow in the 2021 BTCC
It’s been a busy silly season in the BTCC since the chequered flag fell to end the 2020 campaign last November. While last year’s top two have stayed put, there’s been a lot of fat to chew elsewhere, which should result in another fascinating year of tin-top action.
Why a BTCC legend remains defiant at '97 not out'
After a year of enforced absence from the British Touring Car Championship grid, Jason Plato is back and hungrier than ever. Despite stellar opposition and some familiar challenges, the two-time champion still has his eyes focused on the biggest prizes.
The Top 10 BTCC drivers of 2020
The 2020 British Touring Car Championship will go down as a classic in which new winners graced the top step of the podium and an unloved chassis was resurrected into a champion. But who were the year's top performers?
The Villeneuve-esque 'engineer's dream' who lit up BTCC 2020
The Infiniti Q50 was completely redesigned, redeveloped and revamped by BMR and Laser Tools Racing for 2020. And the flamboyant brilliance of the driver behind the wheel was enough to snatch the title at the last gasp…