Team VERTU Completes The Set With Thruxton Victory
09/06/2025 12:23
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Team VERTU Completes The Set With Thruxton Victory
Team VERTU has now taken victory at every circuit on the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship calendar after securing a second win of the 2025 season at Thruxton.
The high-speed Hampshire circuit was the only venue where the EXCELR8-run team had yet to make it onto the top step, but it headed into round four of the year in confident mood with a revised driver line-up including Tom Ingram, Tom Chilton, Adam Morgan and returnee Senna Proctor.
The quartet were on the pace from the moment the weekend kicked off, with all four drivers lapping within six-tenths of a second during free practice.
The four Hyundais all ended up in the same group for the first stage of qualifying, which was held in heavy rain conditions that would only get worse as the session progressed. Ingram, Proctor and Chilton were able to make it through to Q2 – the latter on his final lap – but Morgan would have to settle for 16th on the grid for the opening race after a spin in the tricky conditions.
Chilton would then fall in Q2 to end up seventh on the grid, with Ingram going on to snare a front-row spot in the Quick Six shootout and Proctor ending up in sixth having lost his best time for causing a red flag when his car stopped on track in Q3.
Improved conditions awaited the drivers on race day and Ingram took full advantage with a fine drive to victory in the opening race. Surviving contact with title rival Ash Sutton as the pair diced for the lead at the chicane after an early safety car, Ingram emerged out front and held off his rival until the closing stages when an issue for Sutton allowed him to ease off and take the flag for a first win of the campaign.
The other trio would spend much of the race running together on track, with Morgan coming through well from his qualifying performance to take the flag in eighth spot, just ahead of Proctor after his first BTCC race since 2021 ended in ninth. Chilton would take the flag in tenth, but a track limits time penalty resulted in him being demoted back to 15th place.
Ingram would lose the lead of race two at the start, but ran in second throughout for another strong haul of points whilst Proctor also continued to impress on his return as he gained three places from his starting position to be classified in sixth.
Morgan had survived being run off track at the chicane to cross the line in eighth, but he would this time be hit with a track limits penalty to drop to twelfth, with disappointment for Chilton after two separate spins at some of the quickest parts of the circuit led to him coming in to retire.
With the top seven reversed for the final race of the weekend, Proctor started on the front row of the grid but a sluggish start dropped him down the order and left Ingram to lead the Team VERTU challenge. Sitting fifth after a mid-race caution, Ingram was lucky to avoid getting caught up in contact between Sutton and Jake Hill ahead to nip through into third, and used his additional turbo boost late on to get ahead of Dan Cammish and repeat his race two result in second spot.
The mid-race caution had unfortunately been caused by an off for Morgan at turn one that saw him go into the tyres whilst running inside the top ten, putting him into retirement.
Proctor and Chilton ended the weekend on a high however with the former scoring fourth spot to cap a solid return to competition and Chilton showing what might have been as he climbed 14 spots from the back of the field to finish up in eighth place.
Tom Chilton, #3 Team VERTU Hyundai i30 Fastback N, said:
“It was nice to end the weekend with a strong run through the field from the back of the grid, but fundamentally for me, it’s been a bad day at the office. When you have those in a normal job, you can sometimes get away with it but here, it’s in front of a huge crowd of people!
“The penalty in race one was frustrating because it cost us a lot of ground, and then in race two, we’d made some changes to the car and unfortunately, changing circuit conditions meant it just didn’t work in our favour and I had a couple of spins. We pushed hard in race three which was a good way to finish, but this weekend has hurt in terms of the championship and I have to aim to bounce back when we get to Oulton Park.”
Senna Proctor, #18 Team VERTU Hyundai i30 Fastback N, said:
“My return to the series could certainly have gone a lot worse, and I think three top ten finishes gives me a good platform to build on. To be honest, I’d say that I overperformed in qualifying to get into the Quick Six but then underperformed a little in races, although that is largely down to the fact that I’ve not been in a BTCC car for three years and have a little bit of rustiness to get rid of.
“That was definitely the case in race three at the start, but I know there is a lot more to come over the remainder of the season. The car is fantastic and so much different to when I previously raced it during its debut season. It might be the same shape as it was in 2020 but under the skin, it’s changed in pretty much every way. The team has done a fantastic job with it, and credit to them – so I can’t wait to really get the best out of it as I get back up to speed.”
Adam Morgan, #33 Team VERTU Hyundai i30 Fastback N, said:
“After two really good rounds, Thruxton has been more of a challenge and it’s certainly not been our day. We were on the back foot a bit after a difficult qualifying session in the rain but we saw that the pace was there in race one to come through into the top ten.
“From there however, it didn’t go to plan and we were lucky to escape the issue with Jake at the chicane given that I had to straight line the corner and go through the foam barriers. After the penalty dropped me back to twelfth, I was hopeful of pushing into the top ten again in race three and it was going well until I got a fraction of a tyre onto the grass and then I was just a passenger.
“I’m so frustrated with myself for the mistake, and sorry to the team for the error.”
Tom Ingram, #80 Team VERTU Hyundai i30 Fastback N, said:
“I’m really pleased with the weekend and coming away from it with a front row start, a win and two second places is great. We’ve scored a good haul of points, although it’s slightly bonkers that we’ve done that have still only clawed back six points in the championship – which shows how tough it is this year.
“The only real issue we faced was in race three where we didn’t quite have the pace from earlier in the day but we had luck on our side with the incident between Ash and Jake – although it was also slightly scary as I had to just stay on the throttle and hope I didn’t get collected by one of them coming back on track. It helped bring us back into the fight for the podium and we made the most of the turbo boost to get second late on.
“It’s good to get that first win of the season under my belt, and to give the team a first win at Thruxton, and we’ll look to add to it at Oulton Park next time out.”
Justina Williams, Team VERTU Team Owner, said:
"It's great to have scored our first win at Thruxton and we've shown really strong pace across the weekend, even though the end results for the four drivers have been mixed. Senna in particular however has done a great job after so long out of a car and I'm confident that we have a great chance of success going forwards with the strength we have in depth across the driver line-up."