Team Toyota GB’s Tom Ingram says he is hopeful that he can “pull it out the bag” as he targets a top eight grid slot in qualifying for the British Touring Car Championship at Thruxton.
Ingram, who secured a maiden victory for the new-for-2019 Toyota Corolla last time out at Donington Park, had a transponder issue in opening practice and could only manage 17th in the second session after being receiving a black flag for infringing track limits.
The 2018 runner-up told TouringCars.Net that he was amongst many others receiving warnings for cutting the final chicane, but feels he needs a slightly better balance in his Corolla as he hopes for at least a top ten in qualifying.
“I got black flagged for cutting some of the circuit – just a little bit! Not a lot,” joked Ingram.
“There were so many of us getting pinged for track limits. We’ve got a little bit of work to do.
“We’re on top of what we need, and we can normally pull it out the bag when we need it, but we’ll see what we’ve got today. Balance of the car feels alright, we need a little bit more, but we’re moving in the right direction with it.
“I’m confident that we’ll move forwards for qualifying, top ten or top eight realistically I think is our target with the weight we’ve got on as well.”
Ingram, who currently sits sixth in the championship standings, noted that a large number of runners were also receiving warnings for cutting the final chicane, both within the championship and throughout the support series.
“There’s a number of places but it’s mostly at the final chicane. It seems to be going on across all of the series, so it’s not just us.
“We’re making a number of changes for qualifying, we’ve got some data from here at the test which we’re now backing up and we know works.
“We have a plan and we’ll see what goes on.”
Qualifying for the British Touring Car Championship at Thruxton is set to get underway at 15:05 BST for a half-hour session.