Speedworks Motorsport’s ‘biggest weekend of the year’ lifted Tom Ingram into the top ten drivers’ in the British Touring Car Championship, after the Toyota driver scored a trio of top five finishes in Cheshire.
Ingram had emphasised before the weekend how he wanted to string together a trio of solid results, having only scored big in the first race of the weekend in 2016 prior to Oulton Park.
The Toyota Avensis driver started the weekend in particularly strong style, setting the fastest time in both of Saturday’s free practice sessions, before putting his car in fourth on the gird in qualifying, with only brake issues and traffic preventing him from being even higher up the order.
A poor start in race one dropped Ingram to seventh, from where he could only recover to fifth come the chequered flag around the notoriously difficult-to-overtake circuit.
Ingram then finished where he started in fifth in race two, before he only just missed out on a podium in race three, eventually finishing in fourth to string together three points finishes for the first time in a race weekend this season.
“I’m really chuffed,” said Ingram. “I think we did a cracking job. We were always going to struggle a bit against the rear wheel-drive boys at Oulton and it didn’t quite come together in qualifying, which was partly me not hooking all the sectors up and partly due to traffic.
“Although our perfect lap would have put us on pole, if I’m being honest, I’m not sure we had the speed to stay there in Sunday’s hotter conditions.”
Ingram admits that his start in race one cost him significantly, with the 22-year-old forced to battle with MG’s Ashley Sutton and Eurotech Racing’s Daniel Lloyd, on the last lap, in order to regain ground.
“I gave myself a mountain to scale in race one after the start. We had a real cat-and-mouse scrap with Sutton and then it was great to pip Lloyd at the flag – when we began the last lap two seconds behind, I never thought that would be possible.
“Notwithstanding the fuel pressure problem, I was catching [Gordon] Shedden towards the end of race two but knowing how important it was to leave Oulton with a good points haul, it wasn’t worth risking any rash manoeuvres. I was content to settle for fifth again, and to be the second-quickest front wheel-drive car on both occasions was really satisfying.
“The third race was a bit livelier. We knew the soft tyres would drop off towards the end, but we hung on for as long as we could and very nearly made it. I fought as hard as possible and whilst it would have been nice to come away with an outright podium, I was more than happy to take another top five finish.
“We ran up at the sharp end all weekend and achieved three really strong results entirely on merit – and that’s precisely the kind of performance we’ve been targeting all season.”
Speedworks Motorsport Team Principal Christian Dick even went as far as to say there were ‘tow classes’ at the circuit over the weekend, with rear-wheel drive cars dominating proceedings, in part thanks to an upturn in form for the Subaru BMR cars.
“Oulton is our biggest weekend of the year without a doubt,” said Dick. “It’s obviously very close to home for us and we always receive a tremendous amount of support from friends, family, sponsors and fans, so it goes without saying that we were all particularly keen to put on a good performance and I think we delivered.
“If you look at the results, it was almost like there were two different classes – one for front wheel-drive machinery and one for rear wheel-drive. Eight of the nine podium places over the three races were filled by drivers of rear wheel-drive cars, and we were the second of the 24 front wheel-drive competitors across the line every time.
“We’ve been reiterating since the start of the season that the primary objective is to put a whole weekend together and score three strong points finishes, and that’s exactly what we did. We finally found the consistency that’s been lacking until now, took the fight to the big boys again and came away with three Independent wins and having moved up the championship table.
“The Avensis was on-form and Tom barely put a foot wrong; it was a stellar showing all-round, which is testament to the tireless hard work put in by all the Speedworks guys.
“There were a few questions hanging over us going into the weekend, but I think we successfully silenced the doubters – and in some style!”