Hughes Speedworks Motorsports’ Tom Ingram left his best ’til last and got the second half of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship underway, as the Summer break came to an end, at Norfolk’s Snetterton track with round’s 16, 17 & 18 of the 2015 Series.
Left: Tom Ingram between races at Snetterton
Ingram set 9th fastest time in qualifying for the first of the three rounds on Snetterton’s ‘300’ layout, just three tenths of a second off the Pole lap of former BTCC Champion Colin Turkington in his VW CC.
The BTCC once again proving it’s quality with no less than seventeen cars covered by less than one second around the 2.9 mile lap, Tom sandwiched on the grid by the BMWs of Sam Tordoff and Rob Collard, and with the first three places being locked out by teammates Turkington, Aron Smith and Jason Plato – the first time a team had taken the first three places in qualifying since Vauxhall back in 2007.
Race 1… proved a frantic affair with Ingram losing four places on the opening lap due to evasive action required to avoid the spinning Audi of Hunter Abbott. The Toyota Avensis racer chipping away at the places gradually climbed back up the order, nicking 10th place off the BMW of Tordoff three laps from the end.
Tom would start Race 2 with the 9th fastest time … but once again lost a couple of places on the first lap in the typical BTCC melee. A lap later and he’s clawed his way back to 8th and chased another former Champ Andrew Jordan [MG] closely for the following ten laps. Then it appeared lady luck deserted the former Ginetta Champion once again, as just one lap from the end a tyre punctured, forcing him to tour the Hughes Safety Showers Team’s Avensis back to the pit lane with the finish line in sight, and out of the points.
Ingram sought redemption as the red lights went out for Race 3… starting 19th on the bumper 28 car grid. Leaving his best ’til last, a first-rate drive from the young racer and some great racing alongside the likes of former Speedworks racer Adam Morgan [Merc], saw him climb no less than ten places, to 9th overall, during the final 12 lap encounter of the day.
“We’ll take that!” commented a relieved Ingram. “The car felt superb all weekend. Same again though, it just hasn’t fallen in our favor, but it will. We are making such awesome progress it’s not going to be much longer before we get a proper big result.”
Ingram continues to sit 12th in the overall standings and 5th in the Independent’s Championship.
Elsewhere there were two wins for Turkington, including a 1-2-3 in Race 1 for his Team BMR VW CC’s, and a first BTCC win for MG’s Jack Goff. Jason Plato sits top of the BTCC Championship, ahead of teammate Turkington.
The BTCC’s next stop is North of the border, as the Series heads to Knockhill in Fife on the 23rd August.