SILVERWARE ALL ROUND FOR TEAM VERTU AT SNETTERTON

Team VERTU secured a sizeable haul of silverware as the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship headed for Snetterton for the third meeting of the season.
The EXCELR8-run team secured three podium finishes through Tom Ingram, Tom Chilton and Ricky Collard whilst there was a hugely popular – and emotional – win in the Jack Sears Trophy for Nicolas Hamilton.
An extended 60 minute practice session on Saturday morning to allow the teams to bed in fresh brakes ended with Ingram and Chilton in second and third spots, with Collard and Hamilton having a little more work to do in qualifying having posted the 17th and 18th best times.
Chilton then topped the times in the first qualifying group with a time that would be good enough to secure pole for the qualifying race with Collard back on the tenth row having lost two quick laps for track limits that would have put him higher up the order.
Running in the second session, Ingram would have to settle for a place on the second row having lost his quickest lap to track limits, with Hamilton lining up alongside Collard on the grid for the eight lap qualifying encounter.
Chilton’s hope of converting his position at the start into pole for Sunday’s opening race ended on the opening lap when he was forced wide whilst dicing with Charles Rainford’s BMW and dropped down the order, with a five second penalty for being out of position at the start ultimately leaving him to finish in eighth.
It meant Ingram led the team’s challenge as he rose to third place on lap one and held station throughout, gaining ground on points leader Ash Sutton when he was forced to retire.
Collard and Hamilton both made strong progress to finish inside the points, with Collard battling his way to twelfth and Hamilton taking 15th.
Whilst Saturday had been warm, conditions were even hotter on Sunday as the drivers lined up for the opening race, where Ingram led the team’s challenge, fighting ahead of the Toyota of Josh Cook on lap one and running in second spot throughout.
Chilton elected to run the slowed medium tyre but still gained a position to take seventh place, one place clear of Collard who used the soft tyre to storm through the field to eighth having gained twelve places.
Hamilton meanwhile bounced back from a difficult start that saw him lose places to finish in 17th having battled his way ahead of race winners Aiden Moffat and Aron Taylor-Smith.
Despite being on the medium tyre in the second race, Ingram surged into the lead by the end of lap two but his hopes of victory would be ended by a power steering issue the started to cost him time before alternator failure forced him to park his car on the edge of the circuit.
That left Collard and Chilton to bring home trophies for the team as they benefitted from strong pace in the Hyundai on soft tyres to rise through the field to take second and third positions, with Collard in particular making a number of impressive moves as he minted his record of a podium at every event this season.
As in race one, Hamilton recovered from a slow start to come close to overall points in 16th place, finishing second amongst those drivers fighting for the Jack Sears Trophy.
The reverse grid finale saw Ingram star from the back of the grid as he raced his way from the back of the grid to take third place, only to be handed a ten second penalty after the chequered flag for exceeding track limits that dropped him down to eighth in the final results.
It meant seventh for Chilton on limited turbo boost was the best result of the finale, with Collard also suffering from a lack of TTB as he dropped down to outside the top ten, with a ten second penalty for a false start ultimately leaving him in 21st.
Hamilton meanwhile produced another highly competitive drive as he recovered from a slow start for the third successive race to battle back to 16th with his Jack Sears Trophy points for the weekend seeing him secure the award – marking the first silverware of his racing career.
Next stop for the team is Oulton Park in two weeks.