Speedworks Motorsport’s Tom Ingram was pleased to claim a podium finish in the second British Touring Car Championship race at Snetterton, having made up 24 places during the race.
The Toyota driver was on scintillating from in the race to make up for his mechanical dramas in race one, and by the end of the first lap he was in 12th place after a rocket start that saw him gain 15 places.
Ingram then continued picking off his rivals ahead of him whilst he made the most of running with no success ballast, getting up to sixth by the time the safety car came out due to Rob Collard’s accident.
When the race resumed with just two laps to go, Ingram was able to pick off Sam Tordoff for fifth on the 12th lap, before getting past Brett Smith for fourth later around the same lap.
He then claimed the final podium finish by a mere 0.042 seconds in the run to the finish line on the final lap of the race.
“Of course, we were really going for points in that race,” said Ingram. “I kind of had maybe the top ten in mind, but then once we got there I thought maybe the top eight, then the top five and then the safety car came out and I thought ‘right, now’s our chance to try and do it’.
“I just tried to get as much tyre temperature on the safety car laps, and that is what made the difference on the restart. I had a load more tyre temperature whilst the other guys were struggling, and it played into our hands.”
Although Ingram was able to claim a strong result, and the Dunlop ‘forever forward’ award for gaining the most places in the race, he said it doesn’t make up for the loss of points in race one, even though he is now just four points shy of the championship lead.
“It doesn’t fully make up [for race one] because we still lost a hell of a lot of points, but it means we can sleep a little bit better at night, knowing that we’ve got some really good pace in the car.
“I think we were potentially on for a podium in the first race, so it would have been a very, very strong points haul so far, but at the same time maybe we wouldn’t have had the pace in that second race and taken the risks that we did.
“We can’t change what’s happened now and I’m more than happy with the result that we’ve got. We need to focus on that double race now.”
Ingram is looking forward to the final race of the weekend, where he starts from fourth in the ballast-free race.
“We’re in really good shape for the last race. Whatever it does with the weather it just needs to do one thing. If it’s going to rain now it has to rain, if it’s not we’ll keep it [with a dry setup]. I’m more than happy for it to be dry, to be perfectly honest.
“People would have been on a wet setup on slick tyres in race two, so the pace wasn’t the true pace of what this double race is going to be.
“It’s going to be a lot quicker than that come the final two laps of the last race.”