Speedworks Motorsport’s Tom Ingram admits his championship bid will be “hard work” but emphasised that “it’s not over” despite rival Colin Turkington increasing his points advantage in race one at Brands Hatch.
The 2017 Independent Drivers’ champion advanced five positions to 14th from 19th on the grid in the opening contest, while Turkington progressed from 17th to 12th, extending his points advantage to 38 points.
That means if the Northern Irishman finishes seventh or higher in race two, the title will be his regardless of what Ingram can do.
Ingram told TouringCars.Net he struggled to make significant progress with 66kg of ballast aboard his Toyota Avensis on the 2.43-mile GP circuit.
“It was very hard to make progress, and it’s always hard when you’ve got the weight,” said Ingram.
“What it’s designed to do is to mess you around but we knew it was going to be difficult in that first race to make any meaningful progress.
“We came through, we got into the points which is what we needed to do – granted Colin [Turkington] got more – and that kind of outshadowed what we’ve done really.”
For race two Ingram will start on the medium tyre, with zero ballast in his Toyota and says he will be on full attack to make progress.
“We’ll take the weight out, we’re on the standard tyre. We’ve got to hope that we can try to get through in this next race and try to make some headway, and try to get to the front is what we really need to do.
“It takes it up to 38 points now. It’s hard work, it’s still not over by any means, we’ve got two races and a lot of things can happen.
“But we need some good things to happen now. Maximum attack, try to get to the front.”
Race two of the BTCC on the Brands Hatch GP circuit gets underway at 14:40.