Tom Ingram pleased to close the gap

Tom Ingram said he was happy to close the gap on BTCC points leader Colin Turkington after a strong weekend on track at Croft.

Although Turkington was able to extend his overall lead during the fifth meeting of the year thanks to issues for Adam Morgan, the gap to Ingram – who moved up from fourth to second in the standings – was actually reduced compared to Oulton Park two weeks earlier.

The Speedworks man would prove to be the quickest front-wheel drive car across the weekend, taking the fight to the Subaru and BMW cars to pick up a brace of podium finishes before taking ninth in race three.

“To close the gap on Colin by two points, move up to second in the championship and bring home two podium finishes is more than I expected coming into the weekend,” he said. “We’ve picked up a good haul of points and the lads have worked fantastically – it’s been mega.

“We laid the foundations for the weekend in qualifying, and to be one of only two front wheel-drive cars inside the top eight – while carrying 48kg of extra weight – was a fantastic start. Still, with so many rear-wheel drive cars around us, I genuinely didn’t expect to move forward in race one.

“The car felt awesome even with more weight on-board [in race two] and to take two podiums with a lot of ballast and at a rear-wheel drive circuit was a great result.

“We’ve had a few challenging weekends but I think we are getting back in the window that we need to be in to make it work – which is what we need.”

Whilst others near the front of the field struggled at Croft, Ingram admitted that he expected them to fight back when the season resumes at Snetterton after the summer break.

“We are going to have to watch out for the guys who had a nightmare here as they will be strong at Snetterton after losing a bit of weight,” he said. “I’m trying not to be too fussed about others and just focus on what we are doing as we just need to make sure we stay close to Colin.”