Speedworks Motorsport’s Tom Ingram was full of praise for his Toyota Avensis, which he called a “rocket ship” as he stormed to victory from 14th on the grid in race two of the British Touring Car Championship at Silverstone.
The 2017 Independents champion scythed through the field en route to his third victory of the season, passing the ballast-laden Sam Tordoff to take the win.
He told TouringCars.Net he could not compliment the balance of his Toyota enough, and that he felt the victory was crucial in keeping his championship challenge alive.
“As we say every time when we take the weight out she’s a rocket ship,” said Ingram.
“The car just feels superb I honestly cannot say enough things about how good this car feels when we take the weight out.
“We needed that, that was really really important for the championship.”
Now carrying maximum ballast into the final race of the day at the 1.6-mile Silverstone national circuit, Ingram is expecting a tough fight between him and title rival Colin Turkington.
The championship leader starts just behind Ingram but with far less weight onboard, but Ingram is keen to keep him behind in order to close in further in the standings.
“This last race is going to be really difficult. We’ve got the standard tyre – so at least we’ve got the hard tyre out of the way,” said Ingram.
“We’ve got to be ahead of Colin [Turkington] – we’ve got to beat Colin in the next race.”
“Ultimately he is in the power seat a little bit. But he can’t afford to take any risks whereas I can. The plan is to beat Colin.”