Tom Ingram left Thruxton with ‘mixed emotions’ after scoring pole position, a fourth and a brace of podiums, but having also lost out on a victory in the second race of the day.
Going into the third event of the British Touring Car Championship season, Ingram, with only five seconds of hybrid in qualifying, defied the odds to score a superb pole position, over a quarter of a second clear of anyone else.
However, the 2022 champion then made a poor start in race one, dropping to fifth, before recovering a place on Daniel Rowbottom. Passing proved challenging in the opener, and Ingram took the chequered flag in fourth, despite threatening Ash Sutton for a podium place.
In race two, Ingram was fired up and controversially passed NAPA Racing’s Dan Cammish at the final chicane at the end of the first lap – by cutting the corner.
After going on to pass Sutton for second on lap five, Ingram quickly closed in on leader Jake Hill and passed him with an undercut at the high-speed Church corner for the lead.
Although Ingram won on the road, he was penalised by the stewards for the move on Cammish after the race, dropping him to third.
Despite dropping two places in the order, Ingram still had to run with the hybrid allocation for winning a race in the final sprint of the day, as well as start from eighth on the grid.
The 30-year-old duly fought his way through the field in the finale, including passing BMW duo Adam Morgan and Colin Turkington late in the race, to secure his fifth podium finish of the season.
“We’ve had like 45 points this weekend, which is pretty good going,” said Ingram to TouringCars.Net. “It could have been a hell of a lot worse.
“We’ve been strong, we’ve been quick, we’ve been fast and the car has felt good and alive.
“I cocked up race one – hands up, that was my fault. I can’t blame not being able to see the lights, but it’s not aided me in making a good start.
“In race two the car felt alive, and it was good to take a win, although it obviously changed afterwards.
“I’d passed Dan on the way in, got an overlap on him, and Dan’s then rolled out of the brakes to recover the position.
“We were both going in very tight, because Dan had forced me tight to the inside. My choices were one of three: continue on the circuit and take Dan out, hit the tyre wall or jump the chicane. It’s fairly obvious which one you’re going to do.
“I went into the corner ahead, I jumped the chicane and got ahead. Dan lost time having to scrabble to get back on the circuit and was about 10-15 kph slower at the exit of the corner to recover, so I obviously got a bit of a gap. I dropped back, Dan was back on my bumper again, I thought we were alright.
“In race two the reason I jumped the chicane was to not make contact, I didn’t jump it to gain an advantage because the move was kind of already done. I jumped it to not have a crash – so Dan didn’t have a crash, so I didn’t have a crash, and neither of us came out with any damage.
“TOCA said to me that I should have stayed on the circuit and made contact and run Dan off the circuit and then we should have argued about me running Dan off the circuit after the race.
“Should I have given the place back? Yes. Josh [Cook] got in the middle of it. But I tried to give back the advantage I could over a given time, so as not to screw myself, and Dan was back on my rear bumper.”
Despite the fact that the win taken off Ingram keeps him third in the drivers’ standings, the EXCELR8 Motorsport believes it could be useful to have two to four seconds more hybrid available to him than he could otherwise have had in qualifying at Oulton Park.
“The car again has felt fantastic this weekend. It’s been up on its toes, it’s felt alive and it’s generally felt like a really good race car.
“It’s encouraging and we’ve shown in that last race with minimal hybrid that we’re able to attack.
“We know Thruxton is a lot about the chassis as well. We’ve said over the years it’s not an engine that makes a difference around here – it can help – but the chassis is what’s important and I think we’ve shown again this weekend that we’re pretty good.
“Overall, it was a really strong weekend. We gave away a few points that we probably shouldn’t have so there were certainly some mixed emotions, but considering how the hybrid allocation works, I don’t think leading the championship is necessarily the way to go at the moment – especially heading to Oulton Park, where it will likely have a big effect.
“Let’s see if that pays dividends for us from a chassis perspective. Generally, I’m happy with the car everywhere – engine performance, chassis performance – every aspect of what we’re doing is going well at the minute.”