A fault with the fly-by-wire throttle caused Tom Ingram’s retirement in the opening British Touring Car Championship race at Rockingham.
The Speedworks Motorsport racer held a narrow advantage over his nearest championship rival Colin Turkington heading on to the final tour of the 1.94 mile Northamptonshire circuit.
A loss of signal, however, caused the power to cut out from Ingram’s Toyota Avensis, and he was forced to park the car.
As a result, Team BMW racer Turkington re-assumes the lead in the title race by a three point margin, with Ingram set to start a torrentially wet second race from the rear of the field.
“It was just a fly-by-wire fault,” Ingram told TouringCars.net after the race.
“These don’t have a cable, there’s a signal that bounces back between the throttle pedal and the throttle buddy to open the inlet that way. It’s lost signal and therefore drive altogether.”
He was, however, pleased to be able to fend of Turkington’s BMW in the tricky conditions.
“Yeah, absolutely. I don’t think realistically we had the pace to stay ahead of him if it was a qualifying lap, but in those conditions we had the pace to stay ahead.”
He couldn’t, however, call the extent to which he can now mount a fightback in the final two races of the weekend.
“I don’t know, we’ll have to wait and see. I’d like to have another comeback.”
The action resumes at a wet Rockingham at 14:25 BST.