Team Toyota GB’s Tom Ingram admits he “missing” the feeling of being in realistic contention for the 2019 British Touring Car Championship title despite heading into the season with the focus to develop the new Toyota Corolla.
This time last year, Ingram headed into the season finale as the closest challenger to Colin Turkington’s BMW 125i M Sport and would eventually finish as runner-up but claim the Independents crown.
He told TouringCars.Net he will relish the opportunity to enjoy the final trio of contests in Kent with “no pressure,” but that he wishes he was challenging for the championship outright.
“It’s nice to come into the weekend this year with no pressure and we can enjoy it, but equally I’m missing it slightly,” said Ingram.
“I’d like to be in the mix to try and win it, but I think 2020 is realistically when we were aiming for it.
“We’ll get this weekend out of the way, settle down and go through a load of information over the winter and come back really strong next year.”
Ingram struggled in changeable conditions during qualifying, ending up 17th with lots of work to do across the three races on the iconic 2.4-mile circuit.
“It was hard work, I don’t think we quite got the setup right for the full wet,” he said.
“When it was greasy earlier on, it felt really good. I was really pleased with it and was fairly confident of getting a top five in qualifying to be honest with you.
“So I was hopeful going in, but we just missed what we needed to get the most of it, so we were hanging onto it for most of qualifying.
“Starting on the Dartford Crossing as we do today we can have a bit of a run-up and see what we can get!”
With the weather again looking ominous this morning, Ingram believes “reacting to changes” quickly will be key, which was a strong point of his double victory in mixed conditions at Silverstone last time out.
“It was all over the place yesterday. I think Sunday raceday is going to be the same, we’re going to have those horrible mixed conditions where I don’t think it’s going to be fully wet, I don’t think it’s going to be fully dry, it’s going to stay greasy all day,” Ingram said.
“We’ll keep our eyes peeled and react to changes as quickly as we can.
“It was alright at Silverstone – all things considered! I don’t think we’ll quite have the same sort of performance this weekend but you never know, never say never.”