Tom Ingram: ‘We could do with livening things up’

Tom Ingram says he hopes the fact that the option tyre will now be used for the remainder of the BTCC season will lead to a ‘bit more racing’ after a relatively quiet weekend on track at Thruxton.

The three races at the high-speed Hampshire circuit saw a combined total of 116 places gained across the field – 45 fewer than in the previous meeting at Snetterton – whilst for the second successive weekend, the same three drivers finished on the podium in the opening two races.

In fact, at Thruxton, the top seven was the same in both race one and race two, with the latter featuring only seven drivers who finished higher than where they started.

That was in stark contrast to the all-action racing seen in both the Mini Se7en and Mini Miglia races that were part of the support package for the weekend – with the first of the Miglia races having a different leader on 11 of the 14 laps.

Ingram would qualify second on the grid and followed Ash Sutton home in both of the opening races, before gaining two places in race three to finish ninth – ensuring the Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 driver was able to keep pace with Sutton in the points despite him making it six wins in the last nine races.

“This is probably the least entertaining meeting of the year because you end up following a car in dirty air and it’s difficult to race,” he said.

“If you can qualify near the front then you tend to stay there unless you have an issue, and there aren’t many chances to overtake. When the chance is there, it comes with a lot of jeopardy involved, and you need to take risks.

“For the second weekend in a row, there wasn’t much movement in terms of the positions at the front. Unfortunately, at this stage of the season, it’s been a bit stale and we could do with something to liven things up a bit, and see a bit more racing – but maybe the option tyre will do that when it returns.”

The option tyre will run at each of the remaining rounds, with round six at Croft being the only other meeting aside from Snetterton where all three compounds will be used.