Tom Ingram pleased with front row starting slot

Tom Ingram said he was pleased to secure a front row start for the penultimate meeting of the BTCC season despite missing out on pole by just 0.001secs.

Despite the additional success ballast on his Speedworks-run Toyota Avensis, Ingram went close to what would have been his first pole of the season, only to fall agonisingly short of his Independents’ points rival.

Ingram will now hope to challenge for strong points on race day to maintain his top five placing in the overall points race, and he expressed confidence at maintaining his qualifying pace into Sunday.

“I’m happy with second place, especially considering the fact that we are carrying some weight,” he said. “We knew that the Toyota was going to be strong as saloon cars have always gone well here and that is shown by the fact that the VW and the Audi have also gone well as they benefit from good aerodynamics.

“I’m more than happy with P2 on the grid and I don’t think Jack will be sleeping too well this evening as he knows there is a challenge ahead of him tomorrow.

“I think we’re in good shape for the races as we’ve done a lot of work this season on the tyres to make them last, which should work in our favour, and we’re also running a middle of the road amount of ballast and have some sensible drivers around us.

“I’m expecting the pack to split during the races as people make moves for position and hopefully we can break away with the front guys and see where we end up, but it promises to make good racing.”