Tom Ingram completed his biggest points haul of the season to date in the latest round of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Oulton Park in Cheshire. The former Ginetta sportscar ace took his best result of the year in race two, but was deprived of a chance to better it when a fuel pressure sensor failed causing him to retire.
Stockport’s top racing team, Hughes/Speedworks Motorsport were once again in action at their ‘home’ circuit of Oulton Park for rounds 10, 11 & 12 of the 2014 BTCC. Free Practice began in almost torrential conditions at the Cheshire venue, whilst thunder could be heard in the distance there was no sign of the rain letting up any time soon. Tom and the team seemed to be struggling to get to grips with the wet conditions, setting 16th and 18th fastest times in FP1 and FP2 respectively. The sun shone through as the afternoon progressed however, and on a dry track Ingram took his Toyota Avensis by the scruff of the neck and qualified the Speedworks run car 9th on the grid for the first of Oulton’s three rounds on the 2.69mile International circuit, not used by the BTCC since 1996.
Admitted Tom:
“We’ve struggled in the wet; we just can’t nail the set-up. Hopefully it’ll be dry tomorrow, because I know we’ll be quick!”
Raceday started under sunny skies and the Avensis showed strong pace in front of Oulton’s enormous crowds, holding on to 9th place at the flag in the opening race of the day. Race two panned out slightly differently as ahead the Audi of Rob Austin made a great start whilst behind it, try as he might, Jason Plato’s MG was thwarted in any attempts to pass, leading to a close convoy of cars totalling anything up to 20 cars at one point, including the Avensis of Ingram. Tom hung on to 9th place until the penultimate lap when the retiring BMW of Nick Foster promoted him to 8th, whilst passing the works MG of Sam Tordoff on the final lap gave the BTCC rookie his best result of the season, 7th overall.
Race 3 started on a very wet track after a heavy mid-afternoon downpour had soaked the Cheshire circuit, and following a reverse grid draw that had promoted the Avensis to the front row of the grid it was hugely disappointing that only three corners into the race a fuel pressure sensor failure led to retirement.
Explained Ingram:
“Starting from P2 on the grid it was our best chance so far to have a good result but unfortunately we got 3 corners in and a fuel pressure sensor let go. One of those things that you can never expect or prepare for. A great weekend, and one that we learned a lot from. Chin up and onto Croft”.
The Hughes/Speedworks racer now sits 10th in the Independents Championship and 12th overall.
Elsewhere there were two wins for Colin Turkington in his eBay Motors BMW and a win for the VW of Aron Smith. Colin leads both the overall and Independents Championship as we head to the next rounds of the series at Croft Circuit on the 29th June.
On another note, a highlight of the weekend was the attendance of Speedworks Team Principal, Christian Dick, just one week after his accident at the wheel of the Ginetta at Zandvoort in Holland. Christian arrived to a warm round of applause in the hospitality unit and also featured on ITV interviewed by Louise Goodman. Get well soon Christian!
For more information see www.hughesmotorsport.co.uk or www.speedworks.com