BTCC Thruxton: Tom Ingram tops frantic qualifying session
Speedworks Toyota man Tom Ingram won a frantic battle for pole position for the opening British Touring Car Championship race at Thruxton tomorrow
Ingram swapped fastest times with points leader Matt Neal for much of the session, with the factory Honda Civic Type R driver also having to contend with 75kg of success ballast.
Ingram's first run was ruined when two of his lap times were disallowed for track limits infringements, but he fought back on his second run to grab the advantage from Neal with nine minutes remaining.
"I didn't think it was on the cards," said Ingram, who has two poles to his name this year.
"I knew we had an advantage with no success ballast on the car, but we just hooked everything up.
"We worked on the car over the free practice sessions and it reaped the rewards."
Scottish teenager Aiden Moffat was also impressive as he managed to usurp Neal too in his Ciceley Racing Mercedes-Benz A-Class.
Behind Neal was the Triple Eight Racing MG pairing of Josh Cook and Ashley Sutton with Adam Morgan's Ciceley Racing Mercedes-Benz A-Class completing the top six.
Behind Jeff Smith's Eurotech Racing Honda Civic Type R in seventh was Andrew Jordan (Motorbase Ford Focus) and Aron Smith's BKR VW CC. WSR BMW 125i M Sport racer Sam Tordoff rounded out the top 10.
Reigning champion Gordon Shedden was 11th, while the leading factory Team BMR Subaru Levorg was Colin Turkington in 13th spot.
RACE ONE GRID
Pos | Driver | Team | Car | Gap |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Tom Ingram | Speedworks Motorsport | Toyota | 1m16.161s |
2 | Aiden Moffat | Laser Tools Racing | Mercedes | 0.033s |
3 | Matt Neal | Dynamics/Honda | Honda | 0.086s |
4 | Josh Cook | Triple Eight/MG | MG | 0.416s |
5 | Ash Sutton | Triple Eight/MG | MG | 0.566s |
6 | Adam Morgan | Ciceley Racing | Mercedes | 0.650s |
7 | Jeff Smith | Eurotech Racing | Honda | 0.665s |
8 | Andrew Jordan | Motorbase Performance | Ford | 0.684s |
9 | Aron Taylor-Smith | Team BKR | Volkswagen | 0.703s |
10 | Sam Tordoff | WSR | BMW | 0.726s |
11 | Gordon Shedden | Dynamics/Honda | Honda | 0.772s |
12 | Jack Goff | WSR | BMW | 0.828s |
13 | Mat Jackson | Motorbase Performance | Ford | 0.951s |
14 | Jake Hill | Team Hard | Toyota | 1.076s |
15 | Daniel Lloyd | Eurotech Racing | Honda | 1.091s |
16 | Martin Depper | Eurotech Racing | Honda | 1.092s |
17 | Rob Collard | WSR | BMW | 1.300s |
18 | Hunter Abbott | Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet | 1.355s |
19 | Daniel Welch | Welch Motorsport | Proton | 1.368s |
20 | Michael Epps | Team Hard | Toyota | 1.515s |
21 | Matt Simpson | Speedworks Motorsport | Honda | 1.536s |
22 | Rob Austin | Handy Motorsport | Toyota | 1.719s |
23 | Ollie Jackson | AmD Tuning | Audi | 2.498s |
24 | Alex Martin | Team Parker Racing | Ford | 2.544s |
25 | Kelvin Fletcher | Power Maxed Racing | Chevrolet | 2.667s |
26 | Mark Howard | Team BKR | Volkswagen | 3.949s |
27 | Stewart Lines | Maximum Motorsport | Ford | 4.455s |
28 | Chris Smiley | Team Hard | Toyota | - |
1001 | Colin Turkington | Team BMR | Subaru | 0.928s |
1002 | Jason Plato | Team BMR | Subaru | 1.483s |
1003 | Warren Scott | Team BMR | Subaru | 2.718s |
1004 | James Cole | Team BMR | Subaru | 2.984s |
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