Tom Ingram: “The weekend went as planned”

Tom Ingram admitted that his Brands Hatch weekend had gone exactly to plan after securing his second victory of the BTCC season.

Ingram headed into the event on the back of a breakthrough win for the EXCELR8 team at Snetterton in the previous meeting, although that meant he carried additional success ballast into round three having moved up to second in the championship standings.

Despite the extra weight, Ingram qualified his Hyundai in a solid sixth place on the grid, although a strong start when the lights went out saw him jump up into third on the opening lap of race one.

Contact from Gordon Shedden saw him slip back down the order as he ultimately finished in sixth, but that meant a reduced level of ballast for race two.

Ingram took full advantage to quickly move up into the podium places and he would eventually find himself running second behind race one winner Tom Oliphant. When the WSR driver left the door open heading into Paddock Hill on the final lap, Ingram was able to get ahead into the lead and secured his second win of the season.

A twelfth place finish in the reverse grid final race ensured he ended the weekend still sitting second to Ash Sutton in the standings ahead of round three at Oulton Park, with Ingram insisting his strategy had worked as planned.

“With the weight coming in to the weekend, we knew that race two provided our best chance at spraying the champagne as it was going to be tough in qualifying and race one,” he said. “We lost some weight in race one as we expected and got a top six, and I then really enjoyed race two.

“Tom only really gave me one chance to get ahead and I didn’t need a second one when he left the largest gap in the world; there was no second invitation required when we were going for a win.

“To get another victory for the team is fantastic, and having picked up more points in race three, it’s still nice and close in the standings heading to Oulton Park.”