Champion Ingram keen to unlock more speed from Hyundai

Tom Ingram admits finding more performance from his EXCELR8 Motorsport-run Hyundai over the remaining rounds of the British Touring Car Championship is going to be crucial for the defence of his drivers’ title.

Jason Craig_1

02 Aug 2023

Ingram struggled in qualifying on the series’ resumption at Croft in north Yorkshire last weekend, with an early spin and a lack of front end grip leaving him on the fourth row of the grid where he lined up alongside the Vauxhall Astra of CarStore Power Maxed Racing’s Aron-Taylor Smith.

In Sunday’s opening race he managed to climb a place and finish sixth on the soft compound tyre at the wheel of his Hyundai i30 Fastback N before resorting to the medium Goodyear for race two. At the end of it, he narrowly missed out on a podium to the Ford Focus ST of NAPA Racing UK’s Dan Rowbottom.

The reverse grid draw was kind to Ingram, placing him third. Right from the start he was embroiled in a tight scrap with the Honda Civic Type-R of Josh Cook before getting in front and slotting into second place.

He then turned his attention to BMW UK’s Colin Turkington only for the action to be halted mid-way through lap one when BTCC title-rival and race two winner Ash Sutton damaged a wheel on his Focus ST and retired at the mouth of the pit entrance.

On the restart, Ingram once again hurried and hassled four-time champion Turkington but with the Northern Irishman using the safety car period to generate sufficient heat into his front tyres, it soon became apparent a runner-up finish was the most likely outcome for Ingram.

Combined, his performances at rounds 16, 17 and 18 leaves him only six points adrift of Sutton – the same number that separated the pair before a wheel had been turned in anger around Croft.

“It has been a strange weekend and we leave Croft in the same position we were in at the start in terms of the points,” said Ingram. “Qualifying is super important now and we were on the back foot after the spin, although at the same time, it could have been a lot worse and we could have ended up in the wall. However, we managed to get a lap in that put us in a position to challenge towards the business end of the grid, and that is what we did on race day.

“It was a challenging day, but we have done a good job as a team to pull things back, and we went forwards in every race. We can’t ask for much more than that, and we end up coming away from a weekend that hasn’t been our strongest with some decent points.

"Like others, we haven’t quite had to pace to take the fight to the Fords on track last weekend, and we know we need to unlock more performance with the car in the races to come,” he added.