COVENTRY’S Tom Ingram entered the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) record books after securing another race win at Oulton Park.
Ingram tasted victory in race one at the Cheshire circuit, his 35th in the BTCC, to enter the all-time top-10 winners’ list.
He finished the weekend with successive fourth-place finishes to sit 10 points behind drivers’ standings leader Ash Sutton.
Ingram said: “Oulton Park is a circuit I love, and I felt in a really good place going into the weekend.
“The Hyundai was absolutely amazing in qualifying, and I was over-the-moon to take pole – it was simply the most hooked-up car I’ve ever driven, around a circuit where it really isn’t easy to link the whole lap together.
“Race one was similarly fantastic. You always want a bit of a buffer, and I knew once we had that and had settled into a rhythm, we were in the pound seats because then you can just control the gap as you see fit.
“I knew Ash [Sutton] was going to come through on the softs in race two – that was inevitable.
“My aim on the hard tyres was to try to stay somewhere inside the top-10 and fourth far exceeded my expectations – although Jake [Hill] didn’t make my life easy and I was conscious I couldn’t afford to make so much as a single mistake or he would have been past.
“Race three was then very much a story of two halves, and it was a shame the weather played its part. We went very intermediate on the set-up, but it turned out that wasn’t the way to go.
“The track didn’t dry as quickly as we’d been anticipating, which left us vulnerable early on; when it did begin drying we came back through, but we narrowly ran out of laps to challenge for another podium.
“That was a bit frustrating, but ultimately, the biggest takeaway from the weekend is that this car is honestly unreal – such a joy to drive – and that is full credit to Team Vertu for doing such a cracking job.
“We’re in a really nice window with the Hyundai at the moment, which is a lovely place to be.
“Now, we will use the summer break wisely to continue honing and refining it, to ensure we come out all guns blazing and ready to fight tooth-and-nail for the title over the season’s second half.”
Ingram made the perfect start to the weekend as he converted a pole position into a race victory.
And he set a new BTCC-record lap time at the circuit on his way to securing pole.
The Coventry racer led from start to finish in a stellar drive which saw him cross the line more than five seconds clear of Dan Cammish in second while Chris Smiley completed the podium.
And the win saw Ingram climb to joint 10th in the BTCC’s all-time winners’ list.
He had to settle for a pair of fourth-place finishes in the following two races as Sutton won race two while Gordon Shedden won the final race of the weekend.
The BTCC season continues at Croft on the weekend of August 2 and 3.
