Tom Ingram takes advantage to secure early lead

Tom Ingram admitted he was pleased to secure the early lead in the BTCC standings after a race winning performance in the opening meeting at Donington Park.

Ingram was able to take advantage of the squabbling between Jake Hill and Colin Turkington to grab a fine win in the opening race of the weekend in his Bristol Street Motors-backed Hyundai, and then took a close second behind Gordon Shedden in race two.

With the introduction of the hybrid system rather than success ballast, Ingram was able to enjoy three strong results with fifth in race three to secure an early lead over Shedden in the standings, although he admitted that issues for others had helped his cause.

“It’s been a great weekend and to come away with a win, second place and fifth is a really strong start to the year,” he said. “In the past, it would have been tough to get those kind of results with success ballast and different tyres, but I was able to control things a bit more myself in terms of the strategy as it was down to me as to when to use the hybrid.

“I don;t think we had the quickest car this weekend and the fact that Jake and Colin had their issues has helped our cause a bit, but we have done a good job and it means we leave Donington Park in the best place in the standings.”