Speedworks Motorsport’s Tom Ingram is expecting a hard time making progress in the opening British Touring Car Championship race at Thruxton.
However, the incumbent championship leader expects the Toyota Avensis to hit the front once losing success ballast in the opening race, from which he starts in sixth alongside Power Maxed Racing’s Senna Proctor.
“I’m really chuffed with that, from where we were after first practice, I thought we were really going to struggle today after not even making it into the top twenty,” Ingram told TouringCars.net.
“It’s nice to pull that back and end up in a nice position come qualifying.”
Temperatures are set to soar once again at the 2.4 mile Hampshire circuit on Sunday, increasing the rate of degradation, especially on front-wheel drive cars.
Ingram, however, is in pragmatic mood about the ebb and flow of the standings over the season, and says his mindset has changed slightly to roll with the punches, rather than stress over unlucky weekends.
“Degradation was as you’d expect, it’s bloody hot and we’re carrying 75 kilos.
“We should be good, P6 will leave us out of the carnage of people trying to win a race. The plan is to lose the weight during race one.”
“We’re braced for a shit one. When it happens, we don’t need to stress about it, we’re due a couple a year.
“I think that’s the key to it, is that we’re expecting it at some point, and that’s all you can really do.”
The opening race at Thruxton gets underway at 12:15 tomorrow [20th May].