Record breaking Tom Ingram rockets to pole

Tom Ingram produced a record-breaking lap at the best possible time to secure the final pole of the 2022 BTCC season at Brands Hatch.

Ingram was in a class of his own in the session as he set a new lap record on his first flying lap and although the next lap wasn’t quite as quick, it was still faster than any one else had managed to that point.

The EXCELR8 man would improve again to move more than four-tenths of a second clear of the pack behind and looked secure in the position as the clock ticked down before team-mate Tom Chilton ground to halt on the back straight – leading to a red flag that reset the clock to five minutes.

Such was his advantage at the front that Ingram was able to remain in the pits for the closing moments as he earned pole ahead of the Toyota of Rory Butcher.

That was despite the fact that Ingram had only limited hybrid in place due to his championship position.

Points leader Ash Sutton managed to get his Ford Focus up onto the second row of the grid despite not having any hybrid power with a lap time that was just 0.001s slower than Butcher, and crucially, will have team-mate Dan Cammish sitting alongside him on the grid – with the pair now set to work together on race day as Sutton aims to become a four-time champion.

Jake Hill took fifth as the best placed of the rear-wheel drive cars and shares row three with one of the stars of the session in the shape of Bobby Thompson – who was able to take his Cupra to sixth place.

Hill ends the season top of the Goodyear Wingfoot Award for the driver scoring most ‘points’ through their qualifying position.

Dexter Patterson was another driver to shine in his Infiniti Q50 as he took a personal best of seventh place ahead of Adam Morgan and Josh Cook – the latter improving into ninth on his final flying lap to demote Colin Turkington to tenth.

That leaves the Northern Irishman with an even bigger up hill battle going into race day as he bids to try and overturn a 27 point deficit at the top.