HAVING won his first race at Thruxton in 2010, Tom Ingram went into the weekend’s British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) meet at the track in high spirits.

Thruxton is also the scene of his debut in racing and the High Wycombe man clearly likes the track. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that he secured a podium finish in the first race of the weekend.

After outpacing multiple BTCC champion and current drivers standings leader Matt Neal in qualifying Ingram came through a frantic race to finish second.

A puncture to Neal proved pivotal to Ingram’s success as the incident led to a blocked pit lane, leaving organisers no option but to wave the red flags and end the race with Ingram comfortably in second.

“Qualifying was really exciting and race one was every bit as dramatic. With punctures being such a hot topic here, I knew it would be important to look after the tyres,” Ingram reflected on the race.

“At the same time, when you’re fighting for position, your racer’s instinct kicks in so it’s a real balancing act. I felt like I was a bit of a pinball for the first few laps, but the car stood up well to the punishment and so did the tyres.”

If Ingram’s first race in his Toyota Avensis was a triumph, his second would have to be considered one of frustration as a jump start saw him imposed with a drive through penalty.

The punishment meant he dropped down the grid and was forced to claw his way back into the top 20 with a series of superb laps.

Ingram maintained his high speed approach going into race three as he started from 20th on the grid and quickly set about moving up the rankings.

The 22-year-old’s pace was so good in fact, he even recorded consecutive fastest laps and soon found himself back in contention at the business end of the race.

Ingram now had every chance of repeating the podium finish of race one, but mechanical failure intervened as an alternator belt failure ended his race early.

While the Speedworks Motorsport driver was clearly disappointed with the result, he remained realistic in his appraisal of what was a fairly positive weekend.

“As we were waiting for the lights at the start of race two, I felt the car creep forward ever-so-slightly. I didn’t think it would warrant a penalty because it was extremely marginal,” Ingram said of his jump start in race two.

“The Avensis was strong again in race three, and I could attack very easily. Circumstances were playing into our hands and we had caught the group battling for the podium when we were forced out.

“I was confident we could have capitalised on their squabbling to gain some more ground. These things happen, but there were a lot of reasons for encouragement.”

Ingram’s results leave him 11th in the drivers championship while his Speedworks garage are eighth in the team standings ahead of their home race at Oulton Park, which takes place on the weekend commencing Saturday, June 4.