Team VERTU’s Tom Ingram fought hard with Power Maxed Racing’s Aiden Moffat to claim victory in the opening British Touring Car Championship race at Brands Hatch.

At the start, pole-sitter Moffat was slow away from the line, allowing Ingram to assume a comfortable lead prior to Paddock Hill Bend, whilst Toyota’s Josh Cook held station in third.

At Druids, Laser Tools Racing’s Gordon Shedden locked the brakes in his Toyota and tapped Tom Chilton in 14th ahead into a slide, which in turn forced NAPA Racing UK’s Lewis Selby to have to go wide in avoidance.

Shedden sustained notable damage to the front of his car, whilst his bonnet also flipped up, forcing the Scot to limp back to the pits.

Further around the lap, the other Laser Tools Racing car of Árón Taylor-Smith made contact with WSR’s Charles Rainford on the run up to Westfield Bend, spinning the BMW into the barriers and out of the race, whilst also ending Taylor-Smith’s race as he too limped to retire in the pits.

Rainford managed to get going again to return to the pits for his car to be inspected, preventing the need for an interruption to the race.

At the front, Ingram held off Moffat for two laps before the Audi driver pulled off a bold move on the Derek Minter Straight and into Westfield bend to take the lead.

The leading duo were the only drivers on the soft tyre, and the pair managed to maintain a buffer over third-placed Cook.

Ingram kept close to Moffat, despite having eight laps less boost than his rival, and on lap 11 the two-time champion began a move around the outside at Clearways to take the lead, completing into Paddock Hill bend at the start of the next lap.

Ingram’s task was then made easier two laps later when Moffat, by this stage half a second back, was given a five-second time penalty for exceeding track limits – the Scot having been the first driver in the field to receive his final warning.

That allowed Ingram to claim his fourth win of the season by over three seconds from Cook, whilst the podium was completed yb Team VERTU’s Ricky Collard.

Moffat missed out on a podium result by just a tenth of a second to be classified in fourth, ahead of new five-time champion Ash Sutton in fifth, the NAPA Racing UK driver having gained four of those places with a strong getaway from the line.

Power Maxed Racing’s Mikey Doble was sixth and third in the Independents, after passing WSR’s Daryl De Leon on lap ten. That result, along with the nightmare for Laser Tools Racing, effectively seals the Independents’ title for Doble – only team-mate Moffat can now beat him, and with the gap standing at 40 points it would require Moffat to win the class in both of the next two races with Doble retiring from both.

De Leon claimed seventh, ahead of NAPA’s Dan Cammish in eighth, CPRL’s Adam Morgan in ninth and Power Maxed’s Dexter Patterson in tenth.

Late in the race both Team VERTU’s Tom Chilton and NAPA’s Sam Osborne also received five second penalties for exceeding track limits, dropping them to 14th and 15th respectively.