Tom Ingram says that he has the perfect chance to capitalise after a career-best fourth place in qualifying for the 2015 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship’s visit to Rockingham.
The Speedworks Motorsport man will start fourth on the gird having topped the opening practice of the day also, the result his best on a Saturday in BTCC after being promoted a spot through a penalty for Honda’s Gordon Shedden.
“That’s been a fairly decent qualifying”, Ingram told The Checkered Flag after qualifying, having converted his practice pace into a strong afternoon performance where he held the top spot on several occasions.
“Two decent free practice sessions and this time we managed to capitalise on it. Most weekends we do well in practice but we can never do it in qualifying. I’d like to think therefore that tomorrow we can it into a decent race result.”
Admitting after Croft to TCF that a podium finish in the second half of the season would be possible for the Toyota Avensis driver, Ingram says that a dose of good luck will give him that perfect opportunity to do so on Sunday.
Photo: btcc.net
“We just maximsed it more than anything else. There’s been a lot of times where something hasn’t lined up or we’ve changed something, something might have happened on track or caught the wrong traffic.
“Even in the races things don’t seem to fall into place really. This at the moment is the first weekend where it’s falling into place.
“To start P4 – I’m always disappointed because I think more can come from it. I made a little mistake on that lap so you wonder what could have been, but that’s probably just me thinking about it too much.”
Without the hindrance of penalty ballast in his Avensis, Ingram intends to take advantage of his opportunity to fight for silverware, adding that he is ‘not scared’ at all of those around him fighting for the championship.
“We’ve got to see where we are in race one. It’s so unpredictable because we don’t know what’s around the next corner.
“We’ll wait and see, but I think the pace is there and the car seems to be holding onto its tyres pretty well; this is the first time we’re racing with the top guys rather than the midfield or top 10.”
