Photo by: JEP
Rob Huff soaked up the pressure from Tom Ingram to win the final race of the British Touring Car Championship round at Knockhill.
While former World Touring Car champion Huff notched up the second victory of his BTCC comeback season, Ingram’s second place was sufficient to edge him back into a narrow championship lead after losing it earlier in the day to Jake Hill.
Huff’s Speedworks Motorsport-run Toyota Gazoo Racing GB Corolla GR Sport was kindly drawn on reversed-grid pole by Hill, and he converted it into an early lead.
Ingram, third on the grid, got past Aron Taylor-Smith for second into Clark on lap two and immediately slashed the gap to leader Huff.
It looked a matter of time before the Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback of Ingram took the lead, and crucially he earned a lap-leader point when he nosed in front as he and Huff crossed the timing line side by side at the end of lap five.
But Huff claimed the inside line for Duffus Dip and, despite Ingram’s numerous feints and bids, the Toyota held on.
The safety car emerged in the middle of the race following some rustic driving bordering on the unseemly, which resulted in the decision being taken to reinstall the chicane barrier.
BTCC action from Knockhill
Photo by: JEP
Huff got a good restart and, after more attempts from Ingram, he suddenly found himself under pressure from Excelr8 Hyundai team-mate Tom Chilton.
With five laps remaining, Chilton appeared to have a stab down the inside of his title-contending stablemate at the hairpin, only for the Surrey veteran to claim afterwards that it was an accidental move, and that his brakes had deserted him.
Suddenly Huff had an advantage of over a second, and he pulled off a superb victory by 1.395 seconds from Ingram, with Chilton third.
“That was tough – a proper touring car race,” said Huff. “I enjoyed it a lot.
“‘Tingers’ and ‘Chili’ had a bit more pace than we did, but I just had to hold off Ingram for a few laps, and I have to thank ‘Chili’ for putting Tom under pressure!
“My engineer did a mega job keeping me informed of the hybrid situation – I knew we had the same amount left.”
Chilton held off Ash Sutton for fourth, with the reigning champion’s Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus ST emerging largely unscathed from the scrum that had resulted in the safety car.
Josh Cook’s bid to pass Sutton around the outside of the hairpin ended with his Speedworks Toyota being nerfed sideways. Cook then entered Duffus Dip side by side with Adam Morgan, only for contact with the WSR BMW to send the Toyota flying off the track and across the grass.
The furious Cook, who blamed Sutton for instigating the entire saga, rejoined the circuit just before Butcher’s, but slewed straight into the path of Jake Hill, who was unable to avoid contact, forcing WSR BMW team-mate Colin Turkington to check up dramatically.
Morgan pulled off the circuit at the restart, while Hill quickly passed Aiden Moffat’s Speedworks Toyota to move up to fifth.
Now Hill began carving chunks out of the leading quartet but fell just short of prising fourth place away from Sutton, meaning he now drops three points behind Ingram in the championship – a good outcome from 12th on the grid.
Dan Rowbottom also worked his Alliance Ford past Moffat for sixth, while team-mate Dan Cammish recovered from an early excursion onto the grass at Clark while battling Cook to claim eighth from Turkington.
Daryl DeLeon, doing a fantastic job in the Unlimited Motorsport Cupra Leon, reached as high as eighth before finishing 10th, but his penalty for a false start promoted local man Ronan Pearson (Excelr8 Hyundai) into the top 10.
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Source: Autosport