Tom Ingram happy with top six showing

Tom Ingram insisted he was happy with a top six performance in qualifying for the second meeting of the BTCC season at Brands Hatch.

Having topped the times in the opening practice session, Ingram was able to run towards the sharp end when qualifying came around despite running with no hybrid power in his EXCELR8-run Hyundai.

Ingram will share the third row of the grid with the Honda of Josh Cook and the points leader declared himself happy with his days work.

“We can be pleased with today – I think what we saw from the BMWs was a little bit of the rear wheel drive pace,” he said. “I think we’ve been a bit lucky with the rules to be honest as the car we have now is basically running the ballast we carried for much of las year and it feels good.

“What we were lacking today is probably just down to the hybrid, so I’m pleased that we are in the mix and we’re in a position where we can push on race day.”

Ingram will only have a hybrid for nine laps in the opening race and he admitted that challenging the BMWs ahead would be tough.

“We have to see what goes on,” he said. “We can only hope that Jake and Colin trip over each other again as I think the rear wheel drive cars will be strong.

“Five of the top seven cars on the grid are BMWs and I think we’re going to struggle to match them if its hot. They might just drive off into the distance, but you never know…”