Speedworks Motorsport’s Tom Ingram has described his 19th grid slot for race one of the British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch as “far from ideal but not tragic.”
The 2017 Independent Drivers’ champion was visibly struggling with oversteer from the onboard of his Toyota Avensis during qualifying.
He told TouringCars.Net that although he knew he would struggle in qualifying carrying 66kg of championship ballast, he didn’t think he would qualify quite so far down the order.
“It’s the weight that’s really affecting us,” said Ingram. “We know we’re not going to be on pole when we come here with 66 kilos, but I don’t think we expected to be quite that far back as well.
“Just really struggled with the car, with it just feeling loose. Every time we were going in we’d be falling straight into oversteer, so it made it a very difficult qualifying session – very entertaining – because I spent most of my session clinging on for dear life every time I turned the wheel!
“We’ve got a bit of work to do for tomorrow, but really we know that’s the important day.”
Despite improving on his times tenth-by-tenth in each session today, Ingram couldn’t manage to outqualify title rival Colin Turkington, who lines up 17th for race one.
Sitting 34 points adrift of Turkington in the championship, Ingram knows he has to outscore him tomorrow if he is to have any chance of winning the title.
“We’ve gone quicker every session so far today, we’ve improved the car as we’ve gone through. I’ve found bits and pieces as well,” he said.
“It’s far from ideal but it’s not tragic. We could be a hell of a lot worse. We’re in the mix, we’ve just got to make sure we try to outscore Colin [Turkington] by as many points as we can tomorrow and go from there.
“We’ve just got to go for it.”
Race one of the British Touring Car Championship is set to get underway tomorrow [30 September] at 11:35.