Tom Ingram: ‘That’s the nicest the car has felt around here’ after front row at Thruxton

Tom Ingram has come back from his Snetterton illness with another front row performance, leaving the reigning champion and his EXCELR8 team “very pleased”.

Consistency has been key to the start of the season for Ingram. Despite getting his only victory this season under an illness, performances like these still help the team feeling.

“I’m very pleased actually,” said Ingram to TouringCars.Net. “It’s a nice place to be, obviously on the front row. Kind of in the mix where we need to be, but it’s so difficult around here. You get one lap, even on a hot day, you get one lap at it.

“So if you get a bit of a crosswind, if you get a bit of traffic, if you just have a bit of a mistake, it’s so difficult to get it to link together. I’m very pleased just to be in the mix. That’s the nicest the cars felt around here, in terms of driving this car.

“To be honest, even when I was driving the Toyota, yes, we had the great result in 2020, when we were crazy fast, we won two, but actually it felt a bit of a handful. Whereas this is actually starting to feel alright today, which is promising.

“We’ve worked hard at it over this week and going all the way through. So I’m pleased that we’ve taken a step forward with it. We’re obviously closer to the pace than we were last year, which is good. So big points have scored to rise. We’ll see what we do.”

Ingram has looked for consistency over speed this season with an approach that seems to be suiting well. Others might easily get flustered by being so often off the top step, but not the reigning champion.

“I don’t think we need to worry. I think we’ve got the pace. It’s just been circumstantial up till now, in terms of why we haven’t been able to deliver through. I’ve thought of myself, mistakes, just bits and pieces. I think the weather has made a bigger factor to that as well.

“We went the wrong way then, we went the right way then. It’s just linking it all together.
Tyre situation, there’s so many variables. But I’m not worried. I think we’ve got good pace. We’re not far away. We just need a little bit more luck to fall our way. And the momentum will come. I’m not worried about it at all. We’re in good shape.”

The heat and hard tyres are always a talking point at Thruxton. This being said, Ingram is confident the car will be able to cope with speed in those conditions.

“I think so. We did a long run in FP1 and the car felt phenomenal. It felt really strong and we’ve improved it since then. So I think we should be all right for tomorrow.”