Mixed bag for Ingram at Snetterton
SPEEDWORKS Motorsport had a mixed weekend at Snetterton, as the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship team took Tom Ingram to a sixth, seventh, and twelfth positions in the Series three races in Norfolk.
Well inside the top ten throughout Free Practice, Tom grabbed 4th on the grid for the first of three races around Snetterton’s 2.9mile ‘300’ layout.
Dropping two places on the opening lap of Race one, Ingram briefly grabbed fifth back a couple of laps from the end, dropping back to sixth the following lap, where he took the flag.
Race two was stopped early on when a multi-car shunt on the Bentley Straight caused the red flags to fly. The race was restarted over a shortened distance with Ingram crossing the line in seventh place, just 0.7secs behind multiple BTCC Champion Jason Plato in his works’ Subaru.
A theme was beginning to evolve, as on the opening lap of Race three yet another multi-car incident took a serious turn, when the Chevrolet Cruze of Hunter Abbott rolled, hitting the scaffolding tower of one of ITV’s cameramen as it came to rest on the barrier. The tower collapsed to the ground, luckily no-one was hurt.
At the restart Ingram effectively ended up on Pole Position, with the BMW of Sam Tordoff retiring on the warm up lap with a drive-shaft problem. But the rough and tumble of the BTCC had it’s say, with Ingram ‘nudged’ out on the opening lap, a concertina effect of cars jostling for position in to the hairpin. Down to fourteenth, Ingram claimed back two places over the, once again, shortened Race distance, crossing the line in twelfth place at the finish.
“Definitely mixed,” Ingram proclaimed of his weekend’s results. “The last Race didn’t go to plan at all, we were bundled down at the first hairpin, there was a few overzealous moves going on and I was the cork in the bottle that got fired out. But even the other two [Races] we haven’t been as strong as we have.
“Ideally we need to get back on the podium at Knockhill if we can. I’m pleased that we’ve come away from this weekend with three good points hauls, but disappointed that they could’ve been better”.
Ingram now sits second in the Independents Championship and seventh in the overall standings. Speedworks are also second in the Independents Teams Championship, and sixth in the HiQ Teams Championship.
Next up for the BTCC is Knockhill Circuit, North of the border in Scotland, on the 13-14 August.