Tom Ingram: “We’re a small team kicking ass”

An emotional Tom Ingram hailed the work of the Speedworks Motorsport team as he took his first BTCC victory in style.

Having taken pole position in changeable conditions, some in the paddock were questioning whether Ingram’s pole was anything more than a fluke, but the 22-year-old silenced any doubters as he kept Honda’s Gordon Shedden at bay for the entire race en route to a lights-to-flag victory.

“It’s absolutely unbelievable,” Ingram told TouringCarTimes. “I knew we kind of had the pace from where we were in free practice and qualifying but to be honest I didn’t expect we’d be able to get away and gap Gordon like we did, that’s pretty stellar. When the safety car came out I was caught up behind one of the backmarkers and he was dithering around wondering what to do. I didn’t know if he was going to let me past or not and I was thinking I didn’t want to go past him under a safety car because then it could’ve got messy so I was trying not to go past him but at the same time not let Gordon past – it got quite messy to be honest – it almost ended with him crashing in to the safety car at pit exit!”

Ingram’s maiden podium was a highlight of the 2015 season, and once again he was quick to thank the team for the work they put in over the winter to tackle the might of the manufacturer teams at the top end of pit lane.

“This goes to show we had the pace to be at the top end all along,” said Ingram. “It’s been unreal – sleepless nights, long hours, trying to get the sponsor to do it again. It’s superb that we can, as such a small team, fight against the likes of Honda, MG, BMW and beat them. It’s just a small little operation which at the minute is kicking ass, and it’s quite cool!

Having selected the soft tyre for race two, Ingram now faces running full ballast on the softer rubber, as Rob Collard had to do in 2015, dropping down the order as a result. Knowing what happened to the BMW driver twelve months ago, Ingram has admitted race two will be somewhat of a damage limitation run.

“To be honest with you we still want a good result,” he said. “We just need to minimise the damage caused, hopefully it won’t be too bad and we’ll get a good result.”