Toyota Gazoo Racing’s UK Tom Ingram admitted the lead battle throughout the opening British Touring Car Championship contest at Thruxton “had him on the edge of his seat.”
The 2018 runner-up qualified on the front row for race one, and would leapfrog Dan Cammish by getting a superior start and dragging past on the run to turn one.
He would never relinquish the lead thereafter despite soaking up pressure from Cammish’s Honda Civic and kicking up the dust on the exit of the high-speed Church corner on numerous occasions, with Cammish’s closest challenge coming on the final tour.
“Dan had me on the edge of my seat as much as the car did to be perfectly honest,” Ingram told ITV post-race. “She was a bit lively in the last few laps! I could see Dan was strong – of course he is – he’s top draw and he’s in a top car around here.
“I knew it was going to be difficult to get him on sheer pace so I knew I had to get him off the line, so I was well chuffed go get him off the line, and well well well chuffed to get our first win of the year.”
Ingram continued to point out that the balance in his Toyota Corolla had changed between qualifying and the opening race, with the car feeling much more “lively” come race day.
“At Church [corner], I’m not sure if it’s the wind direction or something today but it definitely felt a lot more lively than it did in qualifying,” he explained.
“I could see that Dan was super, super strong through that sector – I could gap him in sector one and sector two – then we’d get to sector three and he’d be coming at me like a freight train.
“So I knew I had my work to do in the first sectors to make up what I was going to lose in the third sector.”
The second British Touring Car Championship race of the day at Thruxton is scheduled to get underway at 14:35 BST.