Excelr8 Motorsport’s Tom Ingram closed the gap at the top of the British Touring Car Championship standings to Ash Sutton to six points after Oulton Park after a “fairly consistent” weekend.
The results showed on Sunday for Ingram, who took away two podiums and a fourth place finish. Asked if he had a good weekend, Ingram was pleased that his results had been consistent.
“I am [pleased],” Ingram told TouringCars.Net. “It feels like we’re having a Colin Turkington year, doesn’t it? Where we just seem to be there or thereabouts, but we don’t seem to be winning that much.
“So, look, it’s alright. We’re fairly consistent. It’s difficult because I was hoping that this was going to be the weekend of big points for us. After FP1, after FP2, after Q1, I felt like that was going to be the case.
“Unfortunately, just that second set of tyres in Q2, kind of scuppered it for us. But we’ve just been playing catch up as the weekend’s gone through. So, considering we were sixth this morning off the grid to end up at two thirds and a fourth, I’m actually fairly pleased with it.
“There’s obviously a bit of chaos with safety cars and stuff going on. We closed the gap, obviously, with what happened in the last race. But, no big dramas. We’re all good.”
Ingram and title rival Ash Sutton made contact off the line in the final race of the day which left Sutton out of the race. Ingram believes that it was near enough a racing incident.
“I came across to cover the position off and Ash kept his foot in what was ultimately a closing gap. So, yeah, it’s just difficult in that scenario because it all comes up fairly early on.
“But, as far as I can tell, Ash had every opportunity to not drive into the gap that was closed and cause damage to himself. And very nearly me by spinning me as well. So, yeah, given the performance that he’s got in the car, he doesn’t need to be.
“If he carries on the way he is, he’s going to win this by Silverstone. So, you know, it felt like the old Ash was coming out a little bit this weekend.”
After that gap has come down to Sutton there are six weeks before the BTCC goes to Croft. That being the case Ingram cannot wait to get back in the car.
“We’ve got Donington tyre test in the middle, which will be good. And then we’ll go on to Croft and see where we end up. Croft is a place we’ve tested at pre-season, so I’m looking forward to it.”