TOM Ingram claimed his first race win of the new British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) season at Brands Hatch.
The Coventry driver tasted victory in race three and finished third in race one to end the weekend with two podium finishes.
Ingram’s Team Vertu teammate Ricky Collard also stepped onto the podium twice.
Defending champion Ingram already finds himself 47 points adrift of early leader Ash Sutton with the latter driver on the podium in all six races this season.
However, Ingram hopes he can claw the points back with plenty of time left in the season .
Ingram said: “We needed a win. I feel like I’ve already had a couple of wins this year but I’ve not been allowed to keep them for various reasons.
“I’m waiting for them to come up with something to take it off me this time.
“We’ve done a good job. We’ve not had the rub of it so far for the first two rounds of the season.
“We’ve been on the back foot and in the wrong place at the wrong time or slightly out of position. The chips haven’t fell in our favour.
“Team Vertu have had to work hard to maximise what we’ve got. It’s fairly evident to see Ash [Sutton] is going to be super fast this year.
“We’re 50 points back already, we’ve got to make sure we’re leaving no stone and doing everything we can to claw the points back.”
Ingram gave Team Vertu their first race win of the season with a determined drive in race three as Tom Chilton finished 12th, Nicolas Hamilton 19th while Collard suffered a DNF.
That came after Collard finished on the podium in race two as he crossed the line in third place with Ingram just behind in fourth and Hamilton 11th while Chilton did not finish the race.
And Collard finished second in race one with Ingram third as Team Vertu secured a double podium with Chilton fifth and Hamilton unable to finish the race.
The BTCC season continues at Snetterton over the weekend of May 23 and 24.
