as Ingram delivers at Donington
Speedworks Motorsport celebrated the arrival of new lubricant partner Motul in fine style in the second outing of the 2014 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) campaign at Donington Park – as standout rookie Tom Ingram notched up another top ten double.
Having stunned with a top six qualifying result and front-running race day performance in the Brands Hatch curtain-raiser three weeks earlier, 20-year-old Ingram was again quick to showcase the inherent qualities of Speedworks’ Hughes Safety Showers-backed Toyota Avensis at Donington.
After lining up an excellent 12th on the 31-car grid in the immensely popular, ITV4 live-televised championship – commonly regarded as the world’s premier and most fiercely-disputed tin-top series – the three-time Ginetta Champion and former British Karting Champion took the chequered flag a battling tenth in each of the first two encounters around the fast-and-flowing Leicestershire circuit.
Despite the weather doing its worst on a rainy Easter Sunday, Ingram put not so much as a wheel out-of-place as he duelled energetically and successfully against the likes of multiple touring car champions Alain Menu and Fabrizio Giovanardi.
Indeed, the KX Akademy graduate, British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) SuperStar and MSA Academy member thrilled the tens of thousands of trackside spectators when he pulled off what was indisputably one of the moves of the weekend by braving it around the outside of several adversaries through the flat-out Craner Curves in torrential conditions in race two.
Ingram looked odds-on to make it a points-scoring hat-trick in race three before finding himself excluded from 13th place for contact, but Speedworks was nonetheless able to consolidate its eighth position in the teams’ standings amongst the 21 contenders. Christian Dick – team principal of the Northwich, Cheshire-based outfit – admitted that he is delighted with the squad’s start to the season.
“Overall, it was another superb weekend and the ideal way to welcome Motul into the fold,” he reflected. “We knew it was going to be an extremely tall order to replicate what we had done in qualifying at Brands Hatch, firstly because that had just been such a stunning effort and secondly because different circuits suit different cars. On top of that, the BTCC is so incredibly close and competitive at the moment that you need to get each tiny detail absolutely spot-on.
“There’s such a fine margin between qualifying inside the top ten and languishing outside the top 20, which means there’s a lot of pressure to nail every single area, from car set-up to being out on the right tyres at the right time and making sure you really capitalise upon the optimum window of opportunity. If you’re not performing at 100 per cent of your potential, your rivals will punish you.
“We were very happy with 12th on the grid at Donington. When you sit back and look at the calibre of some of the drivers and teams behind us, it really does underline the strength of our performance – and ultimately, just a couple of tenths-of-a-second would have placed us inside the top ten again.
“The main difference compared to Brands Hatch was Tom’s approach on race day. At Brands, he had understandably been somewhat tentative given that it was his ‘first day at big school’, focussing on keeping his head down and making it to the finish. At Donington, it was like he said to himself, ‘right, I know the drill now, so I’m going to go out there and really get stuck in’ – and he looked every inch the BTCC racer as he got his elbows out on the track.
“His Craner Curves move in race two was particularly impressive, and his overtaking in general really caught the eye. Tom is feeling increasingly comfortable and at home in the Avensis. He is developing a solid understanding of how to get the best out of it and how to communicate to us what he needs, and as a team, we are making encouraging progress in terms of dialling the car in to meet his requirements.
“Obviously it was disappointing to be excluded from race three, but as at Brands Hatch, there were far too many high points to let one low point ruin the mood. We’ve now had two really positive weekends to begin the season, and with a good car and a good pedaller behind the wheel, there’s no reason why we can’t be just as strong if not indeed slightly stronger next time out at Thruxton.”
Speedworks has always been a well-oiled operation, and Dick acknowledged that the addition of high-performance lubricant specialist Motul to its roster of partners is another significant step in its long-term motorsport ambitions.
As part of the agreement, the team will be supplied with vital lubricants, gearbox and engine oils, premier care products and brake fluids. Motul UK Business Development Manager Nick Turner explains just what makes the company such a perfect match for one of the BTCC’s leading independent concerns.
“Motul is pleased to be making its main entry into the BTCC as the Lubricant Technical Partner to Speedworks Motorsport,” he said. “We are keen to enhance our UK motorsport business and see many synergies between ourselves and Speedworks as they endeavour to similarly make progress in the results standings.
“Motul’s dedicated range of motorsport products is being constantly developed to improve power and offer maximum protection at the highest levels of racing and performance, and Speedworks can now benefit from the many years of experience and involvement Motul has had in major international competitions and racing series.
“Our Motul Technical Team will be working closely with Speedworks technicians to ensure they are utilising the most suitable Motul motorsport products required by the particular applications in order to maximise their performance levels.”
