Tom Ingram was happy with another strong Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship meeting after the Speedworks Motorsport driver claimed a second podium finish of the season in the opening race at Donington Park.
Ingram, who took a maiden race victory in the championship a fortnight prior at Brands Hatch, was caught out in qualifying by the timing of the second red flag stoppage for Mat Jackson’s Ford spinning out, and had to settle for fifth on the grid behind both works MG and Honda outfits.
From there, he was able to work his way up to claim a second podium of the season, his fourth overall, after a clever tyre strategy enabled him to push during the latter stages of the contest.
“I was a bit gutted to miss out on pole in qualifying – I was literally 100 yards away from crossing the line when the session was stopped,” admitted Ingram.
“That said, fifth place was far from a disaster when it would have been all-too-easy to end up way down the grid in those conditions.”
“Our plan was to preserve the tyres during the opening half of race one so I could go on the attack over the second half, which worked a treat. Although the red flags conspired against us just as I had latched onto the back of Cook, we were chuffed to come away with another podium.
In the second race, Ingram was able to initially challenge eventual race winner Mat Jackson for the lead, before the performance of his tyres began to fade which, combined with the success ballast on board, meant the Toyota Avensis slipped back through the field to 15th after an off whilst fighting Aron Smith and Jack Goff for position.
“I felt like I had the legs on Jackson in race two, and I was concentrating on looking after my tyres again whilst keeping Mat under as much pressure as I could but the extra ballast had an effect on our straight-line speed and after the two safety cars, it all unravelled a bit.”
Ingram elected to run the softer Dunlop compound of tyre for the final race of the afternoon, which was a relative step into the unknown for the team given a lack of running on the rubber thus far this season. This ultimately proved to be a hindrance to the former KX Academy member as he slipped through the order and out of the points finishes by the chequered flag.
“In race three, we couldn’t get the soft tyres to work at all, which was a legacy of our almost total lack of running on them at Brands Hatch but notwithstanding that disappointment, overall it was another very positive weekend. To take a second podium of the season in race one and challenge for the lead for more than half of race two was really satisfying, and as soon as we add greater consistency to our armoury, I’m confident we’ll be even more of a force to be reckoned with…”
Ingram heads next to Thruxton placed 12th overall in the Drivers championship and sixth in the Independents category.