Tom Ingram was ‘over the moon’ following his Silverstone weekend in the British Touring Car Championship, which saw the Speedworks driver claim his best weekend in the championship to-date.
Having missed out on pole position by just 0.003 seconds on Saturday, Ingram immediately challenged for the lead in race one, passing pole man Ashley Sutton on the opening lap.
Whilst Sutton was able to get back past, along with the second MG of Josh Cook, Ingram later inherited the win when the duo were excluded from the results following a post-race technical inspection.
Race two saw Ingram claim a second consecutive podium finish – a first for the Toyota driver – when he finished in second behind race winner Andrew Jordan, despite Ingram again leading the early stages of the race.
Unfortunately for the 23-year-old, in race three he suffered a technical issue and was forced to retire, but his strong results earlier in the day still make it his best weekend in the BTCC to-date.
“That was a really strong weekend for us,” said Ingram. “Rockingham had been a bit of a shocker, but at the same time perhaps it was something of a blessing in disguise. We learned a lot from what happened there and were able to maintain the form that had allowed us to charge through from the back of the grid to ninth in the final race before being taken out.
“Straightaway at Silverstone, we were right on the pace in practice and so very nearly grabbed pole position in qualifying – and that was without even benefitting from a tow.
“Pace-wise, there wasn’t really anything between the three of us in the first race. I felt I had everything under control early on, but equally, I knew the MG boys would be coming for me. Sutton pulled off a mint move, but I stuck right with him and was confident of being able to return the favour later on until Cook robustly shoved me aside. After that, they worked as a pair to keep me behind but in the end it was all immaterial as they both got disqualified.
“Obviously that wasn’t the way we’d have liked to have won and it would have been nice to cross the finish line first on the road, but a win is still a win and in any case, we had the speed to run at the front throughout.
“I was conscious that race two would be a much tougher prospect with the success ballast and soft tyres, but I held on for as long as I could and when Andy [Jordan] attacked me, I knew he would play fair so I gave him enough room and Adam [Morgan] was able to follow through on the undercut. I’ve learned from earlier in the season that in situations like that, you shouldn’t always fight too hard and that it’s more important to think of the bigger picture, which is what I did.
“I was over-the-moon to come away with another podium finish – that was far more than we’d dared hope for at the start.
“Given the standard of drivers and teams we are up against in this championship and the number of points we’ve lost this year, it’s insane to think we would have been in with an outside shot at the title going to Brands Hatch had we finished race three at Silverstone, and that is hugely promising for next year because we’re only just getting started.
“We’re not looking too far ahead yet, though, because in the meantime, we still have one more opportunity to add some silverware to our collection in 2016…”