Tom Ingram saw his title aspirations take another – very literal – knock at the hands of an over-aggressive rival at Croft last weekend, but the Speedworks Motorsport star has promised to come back all guns blazing when the 2017 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship returns from its summer break.
 
A minor error in treacherous conditions towards the end of the first free practice session resulted in significant front end damage to the #80 Toyota Avensis, ruling the 23-year-old out of FP2 as the Speedworks mechanics effected repairs.
 
That left Ingram short on track time going into qualifying, but he was nonetheless on a lap that looked good enough to put him on the front row of the starting grid when the red flags flew less than ten minutes in for a serious accident involving no fewer than 12 cars, which he carefully managed to avoid.
 
With no break in the weather and the need to carry out extensive barrier work, the running did not resume, meaning the talented young Bucks ace would line up an unrepresentative 13th amongst the 29 high-calibre contenders for the first race the following day.
 
With less success ballast on-board for race two, the three-time Ginetta Champion and former British Karting Champion was in confident mood.

He made a bright start to advance to seventh, only to then find himself speared into by the MG of Josh Cook later around the first lap, breaking the Toyota’s suspension and consigning him to the rear of the grid for the day’s finale. From there, Ingram gritted his teeth and lapped amongst the quickest drivers on the track en route to a 16th-place finish – just one spot shy of the points. 

Ingram said: “We began the weekend on the back foot after FP1, with a small mistake on my part that incurred a fair degree of damage.

“The Speedworks boys did a tremendous job to repair the Avensis in time for qualifying, for which I owe them a massive ‘thank you’.
 
“Despite missing FP2, we knew we were there-or-thereabouts going into qualifying but the session was obviously cut short by the kind of accident that nobody ever wants to see, and my thoughts are with all the drivers involved for a speedy recovery.
 
“The stoppage meant we didn’t get chance to put down a representative lap time – only a banker to make sure everything felt right before the big push. I was already a second up and on course for a front row start on my next lap when I came around the corner and saw cars all over the place and the red flags flying. Ultimately, it was just one of those things and it paled into insignificance in light of the fact that three drivers were injured.
 
“From 13th on the grid, race one went perfectly to plan, with good pace and a good haul of points and that left us in very strong shape for the remainder of the day. With a few set-up tweaks and far less weight on-board in race two, we were ready to go on the attack. I got a great start to move up to seventh and we were well in the mix, and then Cook just launched his car up the inside of me where there was no room to overtake.
 
“It was totally unnecessary – especially as he had a penalty coming for something else – and it cost us a lot of points from both that race and the next, because when you start at the back in a championship as competitive as the BTCC is at the moment, there’s only so much you can do. Our target was to break into the top 15 in race three – and we very nearly succeeded.”