Tom Ingram: Thruxton may be a ‘blessing in disguise’

Tom Ingram insists that losing the BTCC points lead at Thruxton may be a ‘blessing in disguise’ after the EXCELR8 driver slipped to fourth in the standings.

Ingram had led the way after the opening round at Donington Park, and was able to retain his advantage at the head of the points at Brands Hatch during round two.

Even with no hybrid available for qualifying at the fastest circuit on the calendar, Ingram qualified in a solid eighth place on the grid and looked set to make up good ground in race one when a fine start saw him vault up the order in the opening corners.

However, a clash involving Dan Rowbottom and Dan Cammish going through Noble as cars bunched up resulted in Ingram taking a trip across the grass – leaving him to put to have grass removed from the front of the car.

From there, Ingram raced from outside the top 20 to grab top ten finishes in the final two races of the weekend and he will now carry some hybrid into qualifying at Oulton Park having lost ground in the title race.

“It was just one of those annoying first lap bunching incidents that happen sometimes in touring cars, and what was even more frustrating was that our pace afterwards was so good – the Hyundai was really well-balanced and felt fantastic,” he said of the race one incident.

“From there, race two was all about making the best out of a bad situation. Having lost a big chunk of points earlier on, we had no choice but to be aggressive; of course we still needed to stay out of trouble, but at the same time we had to get back in the mix. 

“Along the way, we unfortunately picked up some damage when I got hit at the chicane, which knocked the tracking out by more than 20mm. That made the car quite lively to drive, and trying to turn into some of the high-speed corners was pretty terrifying, to be honest; we were actually lucky to finish at all, let alone come through the field as far as we did, which was great.

“Then in the last race, as soon as I got up behind Josh [Cook], I was stuck in his dirty air, which has a bigger effect around Thruxton than anywhere else. In that situation, you simply lose all front-end performance and wear your tyres out more quickly – it’s a vicious circle.

“Looking ahead now to Oulton Park, we certainly need to make up some ground. I’ve had pretty rubbish luck there over the years – something always seems to go wrong, and it’s the one track where I’ve never been on the podium in the BTCC – but hopefully we can turn that around this season. Qualifying will be key as overtaking there isn’t easy, and with a little bit more hybrid deployment at our disposal, perhaps no longer leading the championship might turn out to be a blessing in disguise. We shall see…”