High Wycombe ace Tom Ingram produced a gritty performance at Oulton Park at the weekend to keep himself and his team firmly in title contention.

Despite getting off to a bright start by lapping second-quickest in the first free practice session amongst the 32 high-calibre contenders – some of the very best touring car protagonists on the planet – the extra weight told in qualifying as Ingram could manage no higher than 17th on the grid, right in the thick of the midfield scrap.

To compound matters, Oulton Park is arguably the toughest circuit at which to overtake on the BTCC calendar, and the reigning Independents’ Champion had to work hard in race one simply to crack the top 15 points-scoring positions.

Having rid himself of the excess ballast for race two, Ingram – headlights ablaze – went on the attack, gaining a couple of spots on the opening tour and making up more ground to tenth by the chequered flag. He posted the fastest lap along the way – his second of the season – in evidence of the Avensis’ pace and potential.

Although out-of-luck in the reversed grid draw for race three, the 24-year-old remained unbowed.

After outfoxing Ollie Jackson at the start, he proceeded to chase down, pressurise and ultimately fight his way past three-time BTCC Champion Matt Neal, before picking off Tom Chilton and James Cole over the last couple of laps with a series of gutsy overtaking manoeuvres to finish sixth.

He said: “The positive is that we moved forward in all three races. We snatched a point in race one even with the weight, and in race two, the Avensis truly came alive on the soft tyres.

"We had a lot of pace – as the fastest lap proved – but being stuck in a traffic jam like we were, there was nothing we could really do with it. Our goal was to get into the top 12 to give ourselves a chance and we successfully achieved that.”