British tour car championship leader Tom Ingram has admitted his relief for appearing from an incident-packed reverse grid race “pretty unharmed” after finishing behind title rival Ash Sutton at Croft.
Starting the final race of the day from the second on the grid, Ingram quickly fell into action thickness after boldly moving around the outside of West Surry Racing’s Aidenmofat during the opening sequence of the corners.
Ingram’s early bid for the race lead brought slight contact between himself and Moffat, with the Hyundai driver falling third for the final race winner Sutton.
After a long safety car period, Ingram was able to easily re-pass Sutton in his second position at the time, but proved short-lived as the Hyundai driver returned to the back of Ford following a sensational double mauve from the title rival.
Ingram later returned to fourth position after Senna Proctor, but took advantage of contact between Moffat and his team Vertu Stablemate, but the pair challenged the second position.
The 2022 BTCC champions eventually sent Proctor for the second time on their second lap, but were too far behind Sutton to challenge for the victory.
“It was packed with a lot of action from the first lap to the end, and it was nice to see it actually came out unharmed,” Ingram said.
“It was obviously disappointing that Ash (Sutton) was able to get the points for us, but we managed to get a fast lap and get through pretty unharmed, so it was fine.
“Ash took some damage. We all picked up some form of damage in the race.
Ingram carries an eight-point lead before Sutton as the series visited Knock Hill every year.