Tom Ingram says he is ‘in a happy place’ after a double podium finish in Croft’s British Touring Car Championship races saw him turn a four-point deficit into a 21-point advantage at the weekend.
The EXCELR8 Motorsport start went into the event four points behind Jake Hill, but emerged 21 points ahead of his rival, after out-performing all of his rivals at the North Yorkshire circuit.
Setting the pace in first practice on Saturday, Ingram remained rapid in FP2 before qualifying his Hyundai in third later in the day, despite having just three seconds of hybrid boost on his lap.
The opening race saw Ingram quickly dispatch NAPA Racing UK’s Dan Cammish for second on the opening lap, but he had no answer for the pace of Colin Turkington as he followed the BMW driver home in second.
In the second race, Ingram was able to overhaul Turkington for the lead on the opening lap as the latter got his hard tyres up to temperature, but a charging Rob Huff soon caught up to the 2022 champion and, on the soft tyre, the Toyota driver took the lead on lap five.
As Josh Cook and Daniel Rowbottom, also charging on the soft rubber, also got by, Ingram was left to take the chequered flag in fourth as the leading driver on the harder compound.
Drawn to start from fifth on the grid for the final race, Ingram was in the thick of several battles for a podium.
He ultimately took third, having seen off Turkington in a controversial incident at Barcroft which saw the BMW driver hit the barriers after contact between the title rivals.
With a second, fourth and third from the trio of races, Ingram was the weekend’s top scorer, praising his car’s performance throughout.
“It was a hell of a weekend – fast and frenetic throughout,” said Ingram. “I knew we’d be really strong from a chassis perspective at Croft, but at the same time, I was conscious of the hybrid situation and with the allocation we had, I genuinely didn’t expect to be fighting for the front two rows of the grid.
“I think we over-performed in that respect, and while Q3 wasn’t quite perfect, I was very pleased to line up third.
“I didn’t need a second invitation to fill the gap Dan left open for me on the first lap in race one. After that, I tried to match Colin but at a certain point, I had to admit defeat, knowing he had more hybrid available than I did.
“I was also mindful of needing to be a bit careful on the soft tyres in the hot conditions so I pushed for as long as I could until Colin began to deploy his hybrid, and let’s be honest, he was never going to make a mistake – it’s not for nothing that he’s nicknamed the ‘King of Croft’!
“We knew it would be tricky on the hard tyre in race two; we won that particular battle, which was great, but as soon as the guys on the softs came up behind, it made sense to let them past so they could just get on with it.
“In that scenario, you don’t want to trip over people, especially when we had a gap back to everybody else on hards. Discretion was definitely the better part of valour; there was little point in fighting too hard or taking any risks when the soft tyre was clearly much quicker.
“Race three was then fantastic for the whole team, and I was so, so pleased for Tom [Chilton – team-mate] – he had the pace all weekend and he drove fantastically.
“The Hyundai felt phenomenal again – really alive and an absolute joy to drive – and knowing we’re in such a great window with it obviously gives me a lot of confidence.
“The BTCC is so incredibly competitive that we’ve got to make sure we perform every single time, but that’s a kind of pressure I enjoy, so we’ll keep our heads down, keep focussing on ourselves, keep doing the job we need to do and keep ticking the race weekends off.
“There’s still a long way to go and of course there’s always more we can extract, but we’re in a happy place and the car seems to be working well everywhere.
“Hybrid will likely be very significant at Knockhill, but I think we’ll be strong there nevertheless – so the target has to be more of the same…”