Tom Ingram believes there is no reason why he can’t replicate the race-winning form he displayed last time out at Oulton Park in this weekend’s British Touring Car Championship races at Croft.
Excelr8 Motorsport driver Ingram scored his 21st and 22nd BTCC wins at the Cheshire circuit – which were the first-time he had summitted the podium in touring cars at the circuit in his nine years in the championship thus far.
Croft is similar for Ingram in that the North Yorkshire circuit, which has traditionally favoured rear-wheel drive cars, is not one where he has picked up many of his career victories. In fact, the 28-year-old has only won once at the venue, when he won the reverse-grid race in 2020.
Ingram, who is now second in the drivers’ championship standings heading into the weekend, pointed to the fact that he should be at the front from the off, without having to worry about success ballast holding him back in qualifying.
“I’m really looking forward to the weekend,” said Ingram. “If the performance at Oulton Park is anything to go by, I think we have genuine reason to be excited about what we can achieve.
“We were hampered a bit last season because of the weight we had to carry in qualifying, but we showed as the weekend went on that the Hyundai was a strong package at Croft and we return this year with a car that we know is a step forwards.
“It would be nice if we could aim for a place on the front row of the grid again as that would put us in the best place possible for race day but as ever, we need to see where we stand once we hit the track – and there are also question marks over what the weather will throw at us.
“There is no real reason why we can’t look to try and repeat what we did at Oulton Park and it would be a great way to celebrate 250 races in the BTCC.
“When I joined the series, it was always with a goal of being here for the long term so it’s nice to reach that landmark. Having scored plenty of wins and podiums so far, hopefully this is the year we can fight for that title.”