- Bucks-born ace the victim of persistent bad luck in North Yorkshire
- Team VERTU star denied on-the-road triumph by track limits penalty
- Target now to ‘win as many races as possible’ over final two events
Ingram is both the qualifying and race lap record-holder around the challenging 2.13-mile circuit, and despite being hamstrung by the second-lowest allocation of TOCA Turbo Boost (TTB) in the high-calibre, 23-strong field – by dint of his elevated championship standing – a characteristically committed performance saw him secure fourth on the grid for Saturday’s ‘Race to Pole’ as he wrung the neck of his Hyundai i30N to extract every last thousandth-of-a-second out of it.
The Team VERTU star looked likely to match that result in the race, when in a crowd-pleasing pursuit of the top three, he posted the fastest lap – dipping beneath his own prior benchmark in the process – only for a rare late error to send him onto the grass, costing him a place and leaving him fifth at the chequered flag.
Sunday morning dawned wet and cold, and in the changeable conditions, Ingram rapidly climbed to fourth in the day’s curtain-raising contest, after which, he relentlessly hassled Dan Cammish and Ash Sutton in the scrap for second. In front of the live ITV4 television cameras and enthusiastic on-site audience, he tried every trick in the book to unseat Sutton as the pace-setting quartet sped clear of the chasing pack, picking up the position when the championship leader ran off the road at Sunny In.
Exploiting his Hyundai’s excellent chassis, the talented Bucks-born ace subsequently fought his way past Cammish and Josh Cook in swift succession to seize the initiative, but with a five-second track limits penalty hanging over him, it was always going to be the tallest of orders to pull out enough of a gap to nullify that impending loss of time. While he dug deep indeed to cross the finish line more than two-and-a-half seconds ahead of his nearest pursuer, he would be relegated to third in the final classification.
To rub salt into the wounds, that meant Ingram had to run the less competitive hard-compound tyre in race two as per the regulations, on a track surface that remained greasy and damp and with 19 drivers on the quicker soft Goodyear rubber. Notwithstanding that disadvantage, the two-time BTCC champion initially defied expectations to move forward rather than back, as he determinedly cleared earlier winner Josh Cook for second on the approach to Tower.
As the soft-shod contenders inevitably began to come through, he thereafter fought valiantly and was defending fourth place at mid-distance when Cammish locked up into Sunny In and nudged him onto the wet, gripless grass. From there, Ingram was merely a passenger as the #80 i30N skated helplessly head-first into the tyre barriers, resulting in a reprimand for his rival and a big repair job for the EXCELR8 Motorsport mechanics.
From the very back of the grid in the day’s finale, the 33-year-old was looking to reward his crew for their stellar efforts, and he immediately advanced ten spots over the course of a lively opening lap. Headlights ablaze, Ingram had gained a further handful of positions when a bunching effect into the Jim Clark Esses culminated in contact that spat the Hyundai into another wild, high-speed ride across the grass and a second consecutive retirement.
That misfortune has dropped the Coventry-based racer to third in the points table heading into the penultimate outing on the 2026 BTCC calendar at Silverstone later this month (26-27 September), meaning he will travel to the celebrated ‘Home of British Motorsport’ with a bit more boost as he targets an overdue return to the top step of the rostrum around a circuit where he has invariably excelled.
Tom Ingram, Driver, Team VERTU, said:
“I don’t really know what to say, to be honest – it feels like the story of our season! It was one of those weekends where we got caught up in something in every race and seemed to be on the wrong side of it every time.
“The car felt absolutely amazing, and while we were evidently lacking a little bit of TTB on Saturday, fifth position put us in the mix for Sunday. The visibility was then pretty much non-existent in race one, which made for fairly heavy-going and with all the spray and dirt being kicked up and the wipers and screen wash only making it worse, I almost felt like I was driving completely blind!
“That said, we’d tested at Croft pre-season in similar conditions, when the Hyundai had been superb, and it was the same again – it just felt really alive. I think that’s where we’ve worked the hardest to improve it over the past couple of years, because wet weather had always been our Achilles’ heel – and with that now resolved, I was able to go properly on the attack.
“Ash [Sutton] didn’t make it easy, of course – he never does – and I stuck my nose in a few times only to have the door slammed shut firmly in my face! He eventually made a mistake, which enabled me to get past, and once I was released, our pace was just magnificent. I’d looked after the tyres and was able to do whatever I wanted with the car.
“Clearly, it was frustrating to receive the track limits penalty, which seems to have been a bit of a theme this year. It was disappointing to win another race and not keep it, but it was an enjoyable battle nonetheless.
“We knew the hard tyre wasn’t going to be as strong in race two, but we were doing alright until Cammish clattered into the side of us. It was a little bit keen and the second time it’s happened this year – and being on the soft tyres, he could really have got past me anywhere he wanted. Once I hit the wet grass, there was nothing I could do, so I just had to watch the wall come towards me and brace…
“The Team VERTU guys and girls worked their socks off to repair the car in time for race three and I put everything to the back of my mind to focus on what we needed to do, which was move forward. We were doing exactly that and I was going around the outside of Charles [Rainford] when for whatever reason, his car suddenly jinked right and fired me off the road at about 120mph. Still, if our one bit of good luck during a rubbish day was that we didn’t roll, I’ll take that!
“You obviously never completely give up hope, but we need to be realistic and acknowledge that the gap to Ash at the top of the championship is now too big to overcome. We’ve simply left a few too many points on the table this year – but we’ll keep on fighting to try to win as many races as possible at Silverstone and Brands Hatch so we can at least end the season on a high.”
Images: Jakob Ebrey Photography