EXCELR8 Motorsport’s Tom Ingram was ‘full of confidence’ after claiming his third British Touring Car Championship pole position of the season at Oulton Park on Saturday.
Ingram qualified just over a tenth ahead of rival Ash Sutton, having topped all of the qualifying segments he had taken part in.
The Hyundai racer has now scored three poles already this year – more than he has ever had in a single season before – to take his career BTCC pole tally up to nine.
Ingram’s time was over six tenths faster than the previous qualifying lap record, and he achieved the feat with only five seconds of hybrid boost available to him per lap, compared to some of his rivals on as much as 15 seconds per lap.
“It felt pretty special if I’m honest, it felt absolutely amazing,” said Ingram, who had been on the pace all day with fourth and second in practice beforehand respectively. “The car has felt so alive this weekend. Honestly, it’s felt superb.
“The team has done something remarkable with this car, because it feels so special – it feels alive every time I get in it. It’s an absolute pleasure.
“The lap just hooked up. I knew the time I did in Q2 was nice, but there was a little bit more to find.
“We went through some data before and identified a little bit [of time] here there. This place is so much about trying to piece it together as much as trying to produce the overall lap because it’s such a difficult circuit to link everything together.
“It feels fantastic and its really confidence inspiring because so much about this game is staying headstrong.
“There’s so many bits and pieces that have to link together, so from a driver’s perspective, if the car is feeling good then everything is in a good place. I know my team is working harder than ever to make sure that we’re fast.
“We’re confident, we’re happy, we’re relaxed and because we’re not having to chase anything with the car, we’re making such minute little changes just to see if it improves it. It fills us all with such a huge amount of confidence.”