•Speedworks Motorsport ace races to second BTCC rostrum•22-year-old one of the stars of the show at Brands Hatch•BRDC SuperStar seals fifth place in Independents’ Trophy

Tom Ingram concluded his sophomore campaign in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship with an outstanding performance around Brands Hatch’s legendary GP Circuit that yielded a second podium finish from the last three outings. After Speedworks Motorsport’s customary pre-event shakedown was rained off, Ingram was on the back foot in practice but dug deep in qualifying to place his Toyota Avensis seventh on the starting grid amongst the 30 high-calibre contenders – some of the very best touring car exponents on the planet. Just over a third-of-a-second shy of the outright benchmark in what is by common consent the world’s most fiercely-disputed tin-top series, for added pressure, he also found himself sandwiched right in-between the four title protagonists. On the softer-compound tyres, the talented young Bucks ace made the strategic decision to sacrifice the opening encounter in favour of maximising his chances for the remainder of the day. It proved to be a masterstroke as after pitting under an early safety car period, he returned to the track in clean air and punched in a lap time good enough to secure fifth on the grid for race two – when he would be running on the more durable hard-compound rubber. In front of a record 42,000-strong crowd, a feisty start in the second of the day’s ITV4 live-televised contests allowed Ingram to snatch fourth place from Dave Newsham through Paddock Hill Bend and third from Árón Smith at Druids. After edging away, the Hansford Sensors and RHA-supported KX Akademy graduate and MSA Academy member was lighting up the timing screens and primed to pounce on Adam Morgan ahead when the safety car reappeared due to incidents lower down the order, halting his progress. At the re-start, Ingram again clung onto the coat-tails of Morgan and Mat Jackson as the leading trio once more pulled clear, blanketed by barely three-quarters-of-a-second. After overhauling Morgan’s Mercedes on lap 14, he immediately halved the deficit to Jackson’s Ford, and although time ultimately conspired against him, he was nonetheless delighted to have replicated his breakthrough Rockingham result from a month earlier with a second runner-up finish of his fledgling touring car career. From sixth on the reversed grid, the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) SuperStar looked like a solid bet for another rostrum in the finale, particularly after an excellent start saw him attacking for fourth heading into Druids for the first time. Unfortunately, contact from Newsham sent him spinning, and as he endeavoured to rejoin, an out-of-control Jake Hill ploughed into him and dramatically rearranged the front end of the #80 Toyota. Game over on the spot, whilst the early bath marked a disappointing end to the campaign, it failed to detract from a hugely impressive weekend. After winding up 13th in the overall standings and fifth in the Independents’ Trophy – an eye-catching six-place improvement on 2014 – the three-time Ginetta Champion and former British Karting Champion was able to reflect upon a job well done.“We were certainly looking forward to Brands Hatch a lot more than Silverstone, because we knew its layout and characteristics would play far more into our hands,” acknowledged Ingram, at just 22, the third-youngest competitor in the field. “You need a good chassis underneath you at Brands GP, and the Toyota really scores in that department. It’s a superb track – a challenging, demanding and enjoyable drivers’ circuit – and having achieved our best result of the season there last year, we had another podium in our sights.“Obviously there was a championship battle going on and I was mindful of not wanting to interfere or adversely affect the outcome in any way – so then of course we go and qualify right in the middle of the four title contenders! We were pleasantly surprised to line up seventh after having no shakedown, but in race one, we knew being realistic that in the cooler morning temperatures, the soft tyres were always going to drop off and we would likely struggle to get a decent result, so we decided to play a tactical game.“That paid off with fifth on the grid for the second race and I got a fantastic start to gain two places in as many corners, after which we were firmly in the fight for the lead throughout. We pulled away from the guys behind – which proved we had some really good pace – and I actually felt like I had the quickest car of the three of us at the front.“It was tricky to find a way past Adam, because the only real place I had a discernible edge over him was on the exit of Surtees, which meant I needed to put him out-of-position there. That eventually worked and I got him on the run towards Dingle Dell, after which I caught Mat. He made a couple of mistakes on the last lap, so he was clearly pushing hard to stay ahead – but the Focus is a very fast car in a straight line and every time we came out of a corner I would watch him sail off into the distance.“Without the early safety car, I think we would have had a genuine chance to win because that enabled them to preserve their soft tyres, but still, we were over-the-moon to finish second and it fulfilled our objective.“After that, race three was something of an anti-climax. I wanted to go out with a bang – but not that kind of bang! I got another demon start and although I knew I was going to be slightly vulnerable on the outside line at Druids, there was literally nowhere else I could go. Newsham tagged me and spun me round, but there was very little damage to the car and we could easily have got going again if it hadn’t been for Hill.“That said, it doesn’t take the shine off an otherwise brilliant weekend. To have come away with two podiums from the last three meetings of 2015 is awesome – it marks a significant step forward and validates all the development and hard work put in by the Speedworks boys. It’s been a mega effort, and I’m merely the one that steers and presses the pedals. For a small, single-car independent team with a budget that’s dwarfed by most of our rivals, I think we’ve done a phenomenal job this year and can be immensely proud. I really can’t praise them all enough.”