Tom Ingram was left frustrated after red flags curtailed his charge towards victory in the second British Touring Car Championship race.
The Speedworks Motorsport driver had been running third in close proximity to defending champion Gordon Shedden and eventual race-winner Rob Collard.
The result sees Ingram’s championship lead slightly reduced to thirteen points over Shedden.
After the race endured a delayed stoppage whilst barrier repairs were carried out following Daniel Lloyd’s heavy accident at Church, the resulting ten-lap sprint was then halted with three tours of the 2.3 mile circuit remaining as Martin Depper hit the tyre stack heavily at Seagrave.
With the timetable already stretched by the early delays, officials chose to declare the result on lap seven, halting Ingram’s charge.
When asking by TouringCars.net afterwards if the decision was a frustrating one, Ingram admitted an opportunity to challenge for victory had been very much on his radar.
“Massively so, because we had the pace to keep going forward – we definitely had the pace on Gordon [Shedden] and Rob [Collard]. It would have been nice to have had a few more laps to see if I could have gotten them.” he explained.
This weekend sees the first introduction of the newer Hard compound of tyre from championship suppliers Dunlop, which Ingram complimented for it’s durability on the abrasive track service in increasingly high temperatures.
“It was so short that there was no tyre-saving, it was just [flat out] for the entire thing and not looking after them,” he did explain.
“They’re definitely staying on, they’ve definitely got a tyre that lasts – we’ve lost a little bit of performance with it but it lasts all the way through so we can take that away from it.”
Ingram will start on the outside of the second row in fourth for the third and final race of the weekend at Thruxton.