Tom Ingram: “We had a blinder of a weekend”

Tom Ingram was left full of praise for his EXCELR8 Motorsport team and his Hyundai i30 N after rocketing to the top of the British Touring Car Championship standings at Croft this past weekend.

Ingram entered the sixth meeting of the year trailing Ash Sutton by ten points however the 2022 title winner produced a superlative performance to turn the tide and leave with an eight-point cushion over his main rival.

The 31-year-old smashed the existing lap record to claim pole position in qualifying and he duly converted it into a commanding lights-to-flag victory in race one, all while Sutton endured a torrid race where he failed to score due to suffering a puncture.

Despite running the less favourable hard compound tyre in race two, Ingram managed to salvage eighth and he then concluded his weekend’s work with a feisty drive to second place in a frenetic reverse grid finale.

Securing an 18-point swing over Sutton throughout the weekend, Ingram was left buoyed by his and the teams efforts.

“We’ve had a blinder of a weekend and with how the car and how the results have gone for us, it’s been a bit of a perfect storm really,” he said.

“The opening race of the weekend where we got the win and Ash had his problem is one of those where you have to really capitalise when the chance is there as we are never going to beat him in every race in the same way he isn’t going to beat us.

“Sometimes you have to admit defeat and sometimes you have to go on the attack, and that was a chance for us to attack.

“We did what we could to minimise our losses in race two, although obviously it’s a bit disappointing that we lost some points to Ash in the final race, particularly as I’d got the move done on him but then got caught up behind Aiden.

“However, given that the race around us was complete and utter carnage, I’m glad we came out of relatively unscathed! Coming in behind, we leave ahead with a big swing in the points, so it’s been a good weekend.”