- Team VERTU star battles to highest step of the BTCC rostrum at Thruxton
- Former title-winner tames country’s quickest circuit for hard-fought podium hat-trick
- Bucks-born ace outscores all of his rivals to close in on championship lead
A fortnight after achieving his milestone 100th podium finish in the British Touring Car Championship at Snetterton, Tom Ingram added a 34th career triumph to his impressive CV last weekend as he outscored all of his adversaries at Thruxton (7-8 June).
Ingram served notice of his intent in free practice around the high-speed Hampshire circuit – the fastest in the country – by lapping second-quickest, a scant 0.008s adrift of the top spot in the ultra-competitive, 24-strong field. He subsequently replicated that result in qualifying – albeit in distinctly different conditions.
As heavy rain caught out a number of drivers and prompted multiple red flags, the 2022 BTCC champion circulated more than a second quicker than anybody else in his group in Q1. By similarly advancing comfortably through Q2, he duly maintained his flawless record of reaching the top six shootout on every occasion to-date in the UK’s premier motor racing series in 2025.
Ingram was then on a very rapid lap indeed in Q3 when a puddle of standing water as he exited the final chicane caused his Hyundai i30N to dip two wheels onto the sodden grass heading along the start/finish straight, sending it fishtailing wildly across the line. While a tremendous save prevented the car from spearing across the track into the pit wall, the loss of momentum and time very likely cost him pole position.
In front of the live ITV4 television cameras and a huge trackside crowd the following day – and under contrastingly sunny skies – the Team VERTU star immediately set about making amends, assertively overtaking arch-rival Ash Sutton around the outside at the end of the opening tour.
However, with the safety car having simultaneously been summoned due to an incident further down the order and some uncertainty regarding whether the pass had been completed before the boards appeared, he elected to give the place back rather than risk picking up a penalty.
It did not take him long to repeat the feat. Pulling off an almost identical move shortly after the re-start, Ingram survived contact as Sutton slid into the side of him – obliging both drivers to skip the chicane – and once in the lead, he would not relinquish it again, going on to take the chequered flag over a second to the good to seal a hard-fought first victory of the campaign.
With the lowest turbo boost allocation in the field in race two – by dint of his earlier win – the talented Bucks-born ace knew he would be hard-pressed to do the double, and after Sutton blasted past at the start and exploited his own extra boost to pull away, he turned his attentions to fending off a brief challenge from Thruxton specialist Josh Cook to successfully secure the runner-up spoils.
From sixth on the partially-reversed grid for the day’s finale, Ingram made up some early ground prior to settling into a tense five-way tussle for honours. On lap 12, he gained two positions to third when Sutton and defending champion Jake Hill tangled directly ahead of him – artfully avoiding getting caught up as collateral damage – and thereafter judiciously used the little turbo boost that he had to catch and overhaul Dan Cammish for second.
His ninth rostrum finish from 12 races this season made the 31-year-old the biggest scorer of the weekend, as he strengthened his grip on second spot in the title standings while reducing his deficit to Sutton at the summit from 15 points to nine heading next to Oulton Park in Cheshire on 21-22 June.
Tom Ingram, Driver, Team VERTU, said:
“A win and two second places – we can’t ask for very much more than that really, can we?! We were strong again all weekend, worked hard and consequently came away with a great haul of points.
“The conditions in qualifying were just horrible. There was so much standing water on the track, which was pretty scary, and there were times when it felt like I had zero control of the car! I aquaplaned coming out of the chicane on my quickest lap about 100 yards from the start-line and caught the grass. I honestly thought I was going to finish the lap in the wall so I was relieved to end up second, even if we clearly had the pace for pole.
“One big positive was that the Hyundai felt amazing in the wet and was fast with it, which is really encouraging considering that seemed to be our major weakness last year – it was satisfying to see that the changes we made over the winter have paid off.
“Race one was really tight, spicy and action-packed! There was a little bit of doorhandle-to-doorhandle with Ash [Sutton], and when he hit me, I had no option but to jump the chicane to avoid a crash – there wasn’t a lot else I could do in that situation. I subsequently yielded back the time I’d gained as per the rules and controlled the race from there. I was super-chuffed with the result. Every so often, I’ve had people remind me ‘you’ve still not won a race this year’, so it was nice to finally get that ticked off!
“I got another decent start in race two, but Ash’s launch was rear-wheel-drive-esque and that left us playing catch-up straightaway, which is never easy at Thruxton with the wind and the dirty air you pick up round there. I knew that even if I managed to close the gap, he had enough turbo boost advantage over me to counter – I was never going to be able to compete with him in that respect.
“That being the case, it was important to be smart, not take too many risks and focus on bringing the car home, so I was happy to settle for second and then in race three, I really got it hooked-up well at the start and tried to grab as many positions as possible early on.
“I was lucky not to get collected when Jake [Hill] and Ash collided; I could see Jake was a little bit out-of-sorts and I very nearly tried the same move as Ash – I’m very glad I didn’t! Their clash obviously played into my hands, and I think saving the turbo boost we had until the end was key. There was a lot to try to manage and it was a case of picking our battles to a certain extent, but Team VERTU did an amazing job as always and we came away with another mega result. We’re in a good place…”