- Bucks-born ace scythes from seventh through to first at ‘Home of British Motorsport’
- Team Vertu star closes on second Drivers’ crown courtesy of 38th career win
- 2022 BTCC champion ‘excited’ to fight for another title in Brands Hatch GP finale
Ingram boasts a stellar record around the celebrated ‘Home of British Motorsport’, but going there with minimal TOCA Turbo Boost (TTB) as championship leader, he knew he would be up against it to extend his extraordinary run of reaching the ‘Quick Six’ in every qualifying session to-date this season – and so it would prove.
In greasy mixed conditions and with the lap times characteristically close around Silverstone’s compact 1.64-mile ‘National’ layout, the Team VERTU star failed to escape Q1 for the first time in over a year, leaving him 14th on the grid amongst the 22 high-calibre contenders for the curtain-raising contest.
Undeterred by that early setback, Ingram made an assertive start to rise to 12th on the opening tour, and despite being hamstrung by the lowest TTB deployment in the field, he continued to move forward from there. After toughing it out with title rival Ash Sutton on lap four, he ruthlessly despatched both pole-sitter Daryl DeLeon and Dan Rowbottom to take the chequered flag seventh – the best-placed finisher on the less-favourable medium-compound tyres.
With the softer rubber bolted on for race two and significantly more boost at his disposal, the 2022 champion went immediately on the offensive. In front of the live ITV4 television cameras and a capacity trackside crowd, he unleashed a masterclass, climbing to third within a lap before exploiting a great exit out of the Maggotts-Becketts complex to blast past race one-winner Dan Lloyd down the Wellington Straight.
No sooner had he snatched second than he latched onto the tail of Jake Hill, overhauling the outgoing title-holder on lap four to grab a lead that he would not subsequently relinquish – pulling away to the tune of almost four seconds at one stage as he sped to the 38th triumph of his illustrious career in the UK’s premier motorsport series. He drove home his dominance by posting a scintillating new lap record – almost half-a-second faster than anybody else was able to muster all day.
That left Ingram 12th on the partially-reversed grid for race three, with minimal TTB once again and back on the medium tyres. Notwithstanding that double disadvantage, he gained four positions on lap one, before displacing both Charles Rainford and front row-sitter Mikey Doble to advance to sixth.
His next target was Hill, and sensing his chance, the talented Bucks-born ace boldly squeezed his Hyundai i30N between the BMW and the pit wall, but with their no-holds-barred duel continuing into Copse, the closely-following Rowbottom opportunistically split the pair to shuffle Ingram down to seventh.
After regrouping, the 32-year-old reclaimed sixth place from the Ford driver with a handful of laps to go – keeping his foot firmly planted as Rowbottom edged him onto the grass – prior to slicing past Aiden Moffat almost within sight of the finish line to steal fifth and a potentially crucial extra championship point.
The result means Ingram has exceeded his best-ever season score with three races remaining, as he zeroes in on a second BTCC crown. He will head into the high-stakes finale around Brands Hatch’s legendary Grand Prix circuit on 4-5 October seeking to seal the deal.
Tom Ingram, Driver, Team VERTU, said:
“It was a really good weekend overall – we did everything we needed to and a little bit more besides. We were aware we would be on the back foot to begin with due to having minimal TTB – realistically, we knew getting beyond Q1 would be a tall order, simply because the differences around Silverstone’s ‘National’ layout are so minute that a lack of turbo boost there really affects you.
“We also opted for a bit of a halfway-house in terms of set-up as all the weather apps suggested more rain was coming – but it didn’t come quite quickly enough for us. While it was disappointing to be so far down the grid, the saving grace was that Ash [Sutton] was only just ahead so it definitely wasn’t a disaster.
“The game plan for Sunday was to stay smart, keeping the bigger picture very much in mind, and we had a blinder in race one to make up seven places. That set the tone and showed that we had the performance in the car, which prompted us to grab the bull by the horns in race two.
“We could have been super-conservative and just copy what Ash did by going on the medium tyre, but the important thing was to give ourselves the best possible chance to score big points while we could. When you’ve got the soft tyre and an advantage in terms of boost – which hasn’t been the case for us very often this year – you’ve got to exploit that. I think we probably could have done the same on the medium compound, but at this stage of the season, it wasn’t worth the risk.
“We couldn’t have asked for a better result, and although that left us vulnerable to conceding some points in the last one due to having to run the medium again, I think we played it the right way – especially as the reversed grid race can be a bit of a lottery when you’re starting back in the pack. We knew we were going to lose ground to Ash given the tyre situation, so it was all about trying to minimise the damage and we did exactly that.
“Overall, I’m very pleased with the way Silverstone went, but while it’s nice to be going into the season finale with a little bit of a points cushion, by no means is it signed-and-sealed yet – far from it. We certainly can’t afford to cruise and collect at Brands Hatch – just one bad result could throw the battle wide open, so we need to ensure we keep executing everything to perfection and approach the weekend with the same strategy and mentality that has served us so well all year. I’m feeling excited – bring it on!”
Images: Jakob Ebrey Photography
