PODIUM SILVERWARE FOR TEAM VERTU AT OULTON PARK

Team VERTU enjoyed a successful end to the first phase of the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship season with a total of four podium finishes from the latest rounds of the campaign at Oulton Park.

The EXCELR8-run team headed into the final event before the summer break keen to try and add to an impressive record at the Cheshire venue, and with all four drivers full of confidence after trips to the podium two weeks earlier at Snetterton.

Free practice on a drying circuit provided the opportunity for the four Team VERTU drivers to prepare for qualifying, with Tom Chilton the best placed of the quartet with the second quickest time.

Defending champion Tom Ingram also lapped inside the top ten, with Ricky Collard close behind in eleventh and Nicolas Hamilton setting the 20th quickest lap.

Ingram and Collard went out in the first qualifying session before Chilton and Hamilton headed out in Q2.

The fact that Group 2 has the quickest lap overall meant Chilton was best placed Team VERTU driver on the grid for the qualifying race in seventh, with Ingram directly alongside on the grid.

Hamilton and Collard would line up 19th and 20th positions, with both aiming to make up ground when the qualifying race kicked off.

Ingram made a solid start when the race kicked off to climb to sixth on the opening lap, although there was disappointment for Chilton who was run off track on the run down to the hairpin and dropped to the rear of the field.

An off for Hamilton at the same place a lap later saw the safety car deployed and after the restart, Ingram went on the attack, going wheel-to-wheel with title rival Ash Sutton before having to settle for fifth place – which then became fourth due to a penalty for one of the drivers ahead.

The safety car had helped Chilton to catch up with the field and he used the pace of his Hyundai to recover to eleventh, one spot head of Collard who gained eight spots – more than anyone else – to finish in twelfth.

Gaining a spot on the opening lap of race one, Ingram ran in the top three throughout to grab a podium finish, taking points out of Sutton who was back in seventh after a moment on the opening lap.

Chilton continued his fight back from the qualifying race dramas as he climbed up into eighth, with Collard and Hamilton in 14th and 19th having both elected to run the slower hard tyre at the first possible opportunity.

Ingram’s podium finish meant he was forced onto the hard tyre for race two, with a solid start seeing him grab second spot on the run through turn one. Shuffled back to third spot as Sutton charged forwards on the soft tyre, Ingram produced an astonishing run on the slower tyre to retain a podium position, and grabbed second spot on lap twelve when he dived down the inside of Dan Cammish at Lodge.

Chilton also made a solid start to the race having stuck with the soft tyre, climbing up into fifth spot by the end of lap two. Heading into Cascades on lap four however, Chilton was forced onto the grass and suffered a spin that dropped him to the back of the field and left him outside the points in 17th.

It meant Collard would end the race as the second-best of the Team VERTU cars as he raced his way through to a strong seventh place, with Hamilton taking the flag in 20th spot.

With the top eleven reversed on the grid for race three – and three of the Team VERTU cars on the soft tyre – hopes were high of a positive end to the weekend, with Collard the best placed of the four drivers in fifth spot.

Gaining a spot on lap one, Collard then went on the attack after an early caution period, overhauling Sam Osborne and Chris Smiley to move into spot. Behind, Ingram was also on a charge in the early stages and by the end of lap six, had worked his way from tenth into third behind Collard – with the pair going on to bag a double podium finish.

A tough weekend for Chilton ended in disappointment when a clash with Lewis Selby at Cascades saw him go off into the barriers, but Hamilton’s decision to run the hard tyre early on paid dividends as raced his way through to finish inside the points in twelfth place.

That came despite more than one scare during the race whilst fighting in the pack, most notably when part of a three-way battle for position going up Clay Hill just after a caution period to recover Chilton’s car.

The weekend also saw Hamilton awarded the Goodyear Wingfoot Award for the previous round at Snetterton, where fans voted him as the Driver of the Weekend for his winning Jack Sears Trophy performance.

Going into the early summer break, Ingram is best placed of the Team VERTU drivers in second overall, with the Hyundai squad second in the Manufacturers’/Constructors’ championship and third in the Teams’ standings.