Team BRISTOL STREET MOTORS made a fine start to the 2024 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship season with two wins from three during the opening weekend of the season.
The EXCELR8 Motorsport-run outfit went into the meeting hoping to reap the rewards of a busy winter of development work on the Hyundai i30 Fastback N, with Tom Ingram, Tom Chilton, Ronan Pearson and Nick Halstead all in confident mood for the season opener.
The pace of the Hyundai was evident in free practice as Ingram topped both sessions, although not without issues as Chilton was unable to post a timed lap as the team worked to resolve some problems on his car.
The all-new qualifying format in place for the new season saw the grid split in half for Q1, with Ingram and Pearson both successfully making it through their group despite tricky changeable conditions, but Halstead dropping out when he was unable to post a timed lap due to a drive-train issue.
Chilton would be placed in group two after his practice dramas and was able to turn his first timed laps of the weekend, earning him 13th on the grid for race one despite failing to make it into Q2.
Both Ingram and Pearson would progress to the final part of qualifying and the ‘Quick Six’ session, with Ingram beating title rival Ash Sutton to pole by just 0.051s and Pearson securing fifth spot and this best qualifying result to date.
Heavy rain overnight and into the morning would play havoc with the Sunday schedule, with no racing being possible until after lunch due to the conditions, with standing water and rivers running across the track rendering conditions too dangerous for racing to begin.
When the action did finally get underway with race one, Ingram held the lead off the line before an incident further down the pack led to a lengthy safety car period – with racing only resuming on the 16th lap.
Unchallenged at the front, Ingram opening his campaign with a relatively comfortable win, whilst Pearson ran strongly in fifth throughout to score victory amongst the Jack Sears Trophy entrants.
Although he lost ground on lap one and dropped down outside the points, Chilton battled his way through the pack to take the flag in P12 before a penalty elsewhere moved him up into eleventh, with Halstead running strongly in the conditions to cross the line just outside the points in 16th.
Conditions had improved enough by race two for the field to swap onto slick tyres, although Ingram was unable to hold his lead at the start for a second time as the fast-starting BMW of Jake Hill instead grabbed the advantage going into turn one. Despite having the least amount to hybrid available, Ingram shadowed the BMW ahead before making his move into turn one on 14 to retake the lead and secure a second win of the weekend.
Pearson was again running strongly in the top six before he was forced to pit following a power-steering issue that saw him run off track at Coppice. He would return to action a lap down and showed his pace by scoring the fastest lap, although he was outside the points in 17th place.
Chilton was dicing for tenth place before a fuel pump issue put him into retirement, with Halstead again finishing one place shy of the points in 16th having dropped off the back of the pack following an off-track excursion on lap three when he was hit by a rival.
The final race of the grid kicked off with the top nine drivers reversed, and a strong start from Ingram saw him battle his way into the top seven within three laps before the race went under caution to recover a car from the gravel at the Old Hairpin. A fine move on Jake Hill’s BMW moved Ingram into the top six shortly after the restart before he cleared Adam Morgan and Rob Huff in one lap to take fourth – a position he would hold to the flag despite his best efforts to nab a podium spot on the final lap.
