Ingram: I’m confident for the race

Speedworks Motorsport's Tom Ingram admitted he was 'a little bit disappointed' to qualify in 19th for tomorrow's first BTCC race but is confident of having a stronger race car at Brands Hatch.

The Toyota Avensis driver qualified down in 19th position during today's final 30-minute qualifying shootout of the season, but remains in touch with championship leader Colin Turkington, who only qualified two positions higher up in 17th.

All three of the championship contenders struggled the carry the success ballast around the Grand Prix layout of the Brands Hatch with Motorbase Performance's Tom Chilton proving to be the highest of the title candidates in 15th.

"The weight has obviously made a big difference," Ingram told Crash.net. "All of the guys in the top three are together so we know the weight is playing a big role around here.

"The car wasn’t perfect by any means. So we know we’ve got a bit of work to do for tomorrow. Tomorrow is the important day, not necessarily today. Today just lines you up for where you want to start. Its tomorrow we’ve got to focus on.

"As we’ve seen all year long, it’s so difficult to carry the weight and do well. I’m a little bit disappointed, I’d have liked to have been higher but ultimately tomorrow is the important day."

Knowing he must overhaul a 34-point gap to stand any chance in snatching the title away from Turkington, Ingram is planning 'maximum attack' during tomorrow's three races.

Ingram hopes a contrasting tyre strategy between the pair will help him draw closer to Turkington, who has opted to use the soft tyre on maximum ballast during the opening race.

"We’ve got to go maximum attack tomorrow, beat Colin and get as many points on him as we can. We’ve got to hope he has bad luck at some point during the day because really that’s what we need," Ingram continued.

"I think we’ve got better race pace than we have qualifying. We’ve seen that all year. We’ve struggled in qualifying all year but we’ve got a very good race car. I’m confident for the race.

"I’d to think we can move forwards. We understand the tyre. We’ve got the soft tyre for race three and Colin is on the soft tyre with maximum weight. Hopefully we that’s going to hurt him."