For the fourth successive season, Team VERTU was able to celebrate a trip to the top step of the podium as the new Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship headed for Donington Park for the opening meeting of the season.
The EXCELR8-run team made the short trip from its base in Droitwich to the East Midlands circuit hoping to make the most of a productive winter of testing with its Hyundai i30 Fastback N – all geared towards maximising the performance of the car following a raft of regulation changes across the winter.
From the moment practice kicked off, it was clear that that winter work has paid dividends as Tom Ingram and Tom Chilton scored a 1-2 in the opening session of the weekend, with team newcomer Adam Morgan slotting into P4.
Fellow newcomer Michael Crees was sampling his car for the first time but got much needed mileage under his belt, before then improving his best lap by more than a second in FP2.
That was once again headed by Ingram, with Morgan and Chilton in third and fourth to leave confidence high going into qualifying on Saturday afternoon.
A difficult start to the session saw Morgan and Crees both knocked out at the first hurdle, with Morgan in particular left frustrated by track limits penalties that meant he failed to set a representative time.
Ingram and Chilton would both make their way through to the Quick Six battle for pole and whilst Ingram earned third on the grid with a lap just 0.031s away from the quickest time, Chilton would be left in P6 as a result of a crank sensor issue that saw him stop on track.
All four cars ran the medium compound tyre in Sunday’s opening race, where Ingram led the charge with a strong second place having dived ahead of Dan Cammish for second early on before spending the remainder of the race fixed onto the rear of leader Ash Sutton.
Chilton had crossed the line in fifth place before a post-race penalty for a clash with Josh Cook dropped him back to seventh, whilst Crees finished a lap down in 18th having been forced to make an unscheduled pitstop.
Morgan had been on a charge and was pushing towards the top ten when a puncture forced him to park his car and retire, leaving him at the back of the grid once again in race two.
That race provided a similar result at the front as Ingram repeated his second place finish from earlier in the day, hounding Sutton throughout to pick up another podium finish, with Chilton battling his way to a hard-fought sixth.
Morgan would be one of the stars of the race as he showed the pace in his car by storming through the pack to finish tenth – a gain of 14 places – whilst Crees displayed improved race pace to finish 17th.
With the top six reversed on the grid for the finale, Chilton lined up on pole and made the most of his grid position to scamper away at the start, and duly held on out front throughout to take a win that maintains Team VERTU’s success at the circuit
Behind, Ingram fought his way through into second spot and then produced a defensive masterclass to keep Sutton at bay to once again finish as runner-up in a 1-2 finish that left Team VERTU as highest scoring team for the weekend.
Morgan’s strong race pace was again reflected by the way he battled his way to fifth place, with Crees taking 19th having been embroiled in a titanic midfield tussle throughout.
Ingram and Chilton sit second and third in the standings after the opening weekend, with Morgan tenth despite his race one DNF.
