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Tom Chilton held on with soft tyres to take a comfortable win in the final British Touring Car Championship race of the opening round at Donington Park.
The extrovert Surrey veteran started his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N Fastback from reversed-grid pole position, but there were concerns that the soft rubber may not last the distance.
Chilton led early on from Dan Rowbottom, also on the soft Goodyears in his Alliance Racing-run NAPA Ford Focus ST, before the medium-shod Excelr8 Hyundai of Tom Ingram dived down the inside at Redgate to take second place.
Ingram was on what has generally been the preferable tyre over this opening day of racing, but try as he might he could not trim the gap to Chilton to below a second.
Instead, he soon had to turn his attentions to the looming presence of Ash Sutton, winner of the first two races and also on medium tyres in his Alliance Ford.
With two laps remaining Sutton was with Ingram. He made a great move down the inside of Coppice, but Ingram used the TOCA Turbo Boost to retain the position on the run to the chicane.
On the final lap, Sutton made another ambitious move at McLeans, but conceded the position once more to Ingram on the run to Coppice.
This battle allowed Chilton to win by 3.485 seconds, with Ingram completing an Excelr8 Hyundai 1-2 and Sutton in third.
Tom Ingram, Team Vertu Hyundai i30
Photo by: JEP / Motorsport Images
Dan Cammish completed a strong day after his setback in the first race to take fourth in his Alliance Ford, while Rowbottom faded on his soft rubber and conceded fifth to the Excelr8 Hyundai of Adam Morgan, who recovered well from his qualifying disaster and first-race non-finish.
Reigning champion Jake Hill ran third early on in his West Surrey Racing BMW 330i M Sport on medium tyres, but slipped to fifth on lap two. On the fourth lap, he lost a host of places and was then forced off track at the chicane by an internecine battle between the Speedworks Motorsport Toyotas of James Dorlin and Gordon Shedden.
Hill finished 10th behind WSR BMW team-mate Aiden Moffat, while ahead of them both was a great battle for Independent honours. This, and seventh overall, went to Mikey Doble, whose Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra got past Chris Smiley’s Restart Racing Hyundai on the final lap.