Tom Ingram walked away from Thruxton in a “positive mood” after two top ten finishes on the third weekend of the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC).

The 21-year-old, who races for Speedworks Motorsport, lined up 17th on the grid for Sunday’s first race after struggling for pace in qualifying before overnight modifications were made to propel him to a tenth place finish.

Mechanical problems forced the High Wycombe native to retire eight laps into the second race, although he ended the weekend on a high as he fought his way back up to tenth in the final race of the day after starting 23rd on the grid.

“We struggled throughout practice with the set-up; Thruxton is such a unique circuit on the calendar in terms of the demands it places on the car, and despite trying a different approach for qualifying, those problems persisted,” he said.

“The most frustrating aspect was that the balance actually felt ok but the lap time just wasn’t there, which made it difficult to pinpoint what was wrong.

“We made some big changes ahead of Sunday, and thankfully, they paid off. We were quick and consistent throughout, and the first race was good fun – I pulled off some strong moves and to finish inside the top ten from where we’d started demonstrated our fighting spirit.”

Ingram’s Toyota Avensis pipped Stokenchurch driver Jack Goff, who drives for Triple Eight, to the final top ten spot in the last race.

Goff had earlier maintained his consistent start to the season when he finished eighth in race one before missing out on the podium by less than a second in race two, crossing the line in fourth place.

This is Ingram’s second season competing in the BTCC following his debut in 2014 when he finished 15th overall in the final standings – two places below Goff.

Ingram said: “The Speedworks boys did a great job to get the Avensis fixed again in time for race three, although from the back of the grid, I thought to even crack the top 15 would be an achievement.

“That said, I got a fantastic start, gained a lot of ground on the first lap and then just focussed on continuing to move forward.

“The safety car did help us a bit if I’m being honest, in that it bunched the whole field up, but I still had to make the passes – and if we’d been able to start further up the grid, I think it could have been an entirely different story.”

The weekend’s results leave Goff seventh in the overall standings while Ingram is five places back in 12th.

Both Bucks drivers now have three weeks to prepare for the next instalment of touring car action at Oulton Park on 6-7 June, with Ingram heading to Cheshire with renewed confidence.

“We left Thruxton in a much more positive mood than we’d been in after qualifying, and we came away with about the best we could have done considering we began on the back foot,” he said.

“We’ll go testing before Oulton, which hopefully will allow us to hit the ground running there in a much better position.

“We’re still discovering more about this car each time we take to the track – and once we successfully unlock its secrets, I’m very confident in its ultimate potential.”