‘POINTLESS’ BTCC WEEKEND FOR HUGHES MOTORSPORT’S INGRAM

Tom Ingram appears to really have a monkey that he can’t shake off his back as the Stockport based Hughes/Speedworks Motorsport outfit suffered a sheared stub axle effectively ruling them out of two of Snetterton’s three rounds of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship.

It was Norfolk’s turn to play host to the BTCC as the series’ mid-season break came to an end. Ingram showed exactly what he’s made of as he went third fastest in the first Free Practice session on a drying track. He was there or thereabouts in the second Free Practice too, setting 8th quickest overall. And just to prove he really did have genuine pace, the Hughes Safety Showers backed racer set sixth quickest time in qualifying, putting him on the third row of the grid for the first of three rounds on Snetterton’s ‘300’ layout.

                                     On track before a sheared axle puts a stop to Ingram

A great start for the BTCC rookie saw Ingram run as high as 4th place early on and despite losing places in the hustle and bustle that ensued, Tom still ran inside the top ten up until the last lap when any ounce of luck that may have been remaining ran out. The front left stub axle sheared, leaving the car with only three wheels and unable to complete the race.

The resulting recovery of the Toyota Avensis coupled with the short turnaround for race two left the Hughes/Speedworks team with their backs to the wall and, despite all best efforts, they couldn’t quite get the car ready to take the start, leaving them with a second DNF of the day.

Race three was then really a matter of going through the motions, starting from 29th on the grid meant Tom was under no pressure other than to bring the Avensis home in one piece, as high up the field as possible. The former Ginetta Champ did a sterling job climbing twelve places to finish 17th overall, unfortunately outside the points.

Admitted Tom (left):

“I’m really disappointed. If we didn’t have bad luck at the moment, I don’t think we’d have any luck at all. I just don’t know what we need to do to turn our fortunes”.

“We just need to move on [to Knockhill] and put our heads down and get on with it” Ingram added.

Elsewhere there were two wins for Jason Plato [MG] and one for Aron Smith [VW], whilst three podiums left Colin Turkington [BMW] with a great haul of points, meaning he continues to lead the Championship from the Honda of Gordon Shedden.

Tom drops one place in the Independants title race, to 11th but stays in 15th in the overall Championship despite failing to score a point in Norfolk.