Team Toyota GB’s Tom Ingram believes his starting position of seventh for the opening race of the 2019 British Touring Car Championship was down to a “real team effort.”
The 2018 runner-up heads the fourth row on the grid on the competitive debut of the new-for-2019 Toyota Corolla, which Ingram says is “kind of” where he wants to be at this stage.
He told TouringCars.Net that the Speedworks-run operation should be credited for the strong qualifying because of the engineering calls made throughout the session.
“I’m really pleased with it, and it sounds like a really weird thing to be pleased with seventh, but it’s a nice place to be. We’re in the mix, kind of where we want to be,” said Ingram.
“We’re around good people to race against which is good, and we’re at the sharp end. We went into this weekend ideally hoping for a top ten in qualifying, not really expecting this weather which kind of threw an unexpected curve into it.
“But I’m really really pleased with how we did in the session, we worked well as a team. The calls on the engineering front were absolutely fantastic so we’ve done a really good job there, it was a real team effort.”
Ingram was especially pleased given the slippy nature of the 1.2-mile Brands Hatch Indy circuit in the wet conditions, meaning it was difficult to know where the grip was as the track dried throughout the half-hour session.
“In these conditions you always expect a bit of oversteer. It’s always difficult because Brands [Hatch] is not the grippiest place in the wet because it gets used so much,” explained Ingram.
“So it’s always difficult to predict how the car is going to balance, especially when you’ve not driven it in the wet before it really is just grab your crystal ball and hope for the best.
“But like I say we did a really good job and I’m very pleased with it.”
With the Team Dynamics Hondas locking out the row ahead of him, and the Team BMW duo of reigning champion Colin Turkington and new recruit Tom Oliphant on the second row, Ingram believes the race will favour the longer wheelbase, rear-wheel drive machinery if the track stays wet.
“A long wheelbase, rear-wheel drive car seems to be very strong around here – if you look at when Rob Austin was here in the Audi as well – it was always a track that he went very well at,” he said.
“So it’s a good track for the long wheelbase, rear-wheel drive combination but until the race we won’t know.
“Our aspirations are just to score points, stay out of trouble and just rack up a good, solid amount of points and leave the weekend in one piece, be right in the mix and race from there.”
Although the new Corolla poses challenges for the first half of the season with general car development, Ingram believes his start procedure should be fine in the races as it’s an aspect he has worked hard on during the off-season.
“We’re very happy with it, it’s something I’ve worked very hard on over the last few seasons and I feel very comfortable with it,” said Ingram.
“Starting in the wet is always going to be difficult, but we’ll see, it’s all good fun anyway!”