Despite missing out on a podium position in the opening British Touring Car Championship race at Knockhill, Speedworks’ Tom Ingram was ‘very happy’ with his fourth-place finish, finishing as the top front-wheel drive car and independent driver.
Ingram had started second on the grid thanks to a superb qualifying lap on Saturday, and the 22-year-old held on to that position for the first half of the race, despite pressure from the BMW of Jack Goff.
Whilst Goff went on to pass the Toyota racer on 12, Ingram remained in contention for a podium finish until the penultimate lap of the race, when the Subaru of Colin Turkington managed to squeeze past at the final hairpin corner.
“I’m really happy – obviously we were coming into that race with a lot of rear-wheel drive drivers around us and we kind of knew that we were always going to be the lesser car in that scenario,” said Ingram to TouringCars.Net. “It was always going to be very, very difficult, so to come away with a fourth place, the top independent and to be very, very close to a podium I think we can be very happy with that.”
Ingram added that he had considered it was likely that the WSR drivers behind him would work together to get past, which appeared to be the case when Goff and Sam Tordoff switched positions early on in the race as the former was the faster car on less ballast.
“That went through my head that, but as soon as he [Goff] was going to try it I was just going to try and get past him and be gone, so I was very aware that it was a possibility.
“It’s good that we’ve managed to get rid of the soft tyre early in the day. Even though we’re now on to a decent amount of weight with the normal tyre, we should be in a slightly better shape [for race two].”
Although Ingram’s fourth keeps him in championship contention, 37 points adrift of the lead, he insists that he is not thinking about the overall title.
“We’re just trying to improve and learn as much as we can. You’ve got to remember that this is only my third season in the BTCC, so to even be in a position that we’re able to win the championship is quite impressive I think. But we’ll still try to go for the independents’ title.”