Tom Ingram insists that he is ‘ready to win’ his maiden British Touring Car Championship title ahead of this weekend’s season finale at Brands Hatch.
The Excelr8 Motorsport driver heads to the final BTCC round trailing championship leader Ash Sutton by just seven points, following a victory in race three at Silverstone last time out.
The 29-year-old has remarkably been in overall title contention at the final round six times now, but he has yet to win his first outright BTCC title.
Ingram has never previously won around the Grand Prix loop of the Kent circuit, although he has stood on the podium at the circuit four times previously.
Despite that, Ingram has high confidence for this weekend’s trio of races, citing having slightly more hybrid deployment in qualifying and race one than Sutton and Jake Hill as one of the reasons for his mood.
“I think this weekend will be incredible, because it’s the first time in a long time that four drivers will enter the season finale all with a genuine chance of being able to win it, but also the top three being so close on points,” said Ingram. “It promises to be immensely exciting.
“We’re going to Brands Hatch with the mindset of maximum attack. The plan is to hit the ground running from FP1, fight for the front row of the grid and race wins – and come away with the trophy. I’ve been the BTCC’s ‘nearly man’ too many times – it’s time to finish the job!
“We’ve done a lot of work away from the track over the past week-and-a-half since Silverstone, and I think we’re in a really good place.
“I feel like we’ve done all the homework we need to and have been through every single detail that we’ve got control over, so now’s the moment to get out there and get on with it.
“Brands Hatch is a circuit that suited us really well at the start of the year, when we were quick in qualifying even with no hybrid deployment.
“Fast forward a few months, and we’re in the power seat in the sense that we now do have a little bit of hybrid performance – not as much as Colin [Turkington], granted, but I think actually the ball’s in our court compared to Ash and Jake in that respect.
“We’ve also been faster than Ash for most of the year, and Jake at this stage in the season will be feeling the pressure; that’s true of all of us, of course, but he’s not been here before so is at a bit of a disadvantage.
“Ash has obviously won the title previously, as has Colin and I’ve been in this position of going into the finale in contention for a few years now.
“It will be all eyes on who’s going to crack first, but I’m feeling strong – and ready to win.”