A hard-earned trio of podium finishes saw Tom Ingram narrow the gap to the top of the title table in the 2026 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship at Oulton Park last weekend (6/7 June), sending him into the summer break in bullish mood, stating he will be ‘even stronger over the remainder of the season’.
Ingram headed to Oulton as the BTCC’s form driver around the popular Cheshire circuit, holding both the qualifying and race lap records there in the UK’s premier motorsport series. The reigning champion was also aware, though, that his lack of TOCA Turbo Boost (TTB) – three seconds per lap in qualifying by dint of his second place in the standings, when the majority of the field had access to 20 seconds – would significantly disadvantage him around a track noted for its undulating nature and steep climbs.
That being the case, eighth on the grid was a commendable effort, and the defending champion went immediately on the offensive in Saturday’s ‘Race to Pole’, gaining two spots around the outside of Old Hall Corner on the first lap before displacing Mikey Doble (LKQ Euro Car Parts with Power Maxed Racing) to advance to fifth.
Following a post-race penalty ahead, fifth would become fourth, which is where Ingram duly began the first of Sunday’s three full-length contests. On a cold, damp track surface, the Team VERTU star moved up to third when Ash Sutton (NAPA Racing UK) and Josh Cook (Speedworks Corolla Racing) tangled at Cascades, to come away from the bout in third.
Due to his strong start to the day, Ingram would have to run the hard-compound Goodyear tyres for race two, as per the regulations for the top three finishers from race one. After catching second-placed Dan Cammish (NAPA Racing UK) while simultaneously judiciously withholding his boost, his pressure paid off as he sliced up the inside into Lodge with three laps remaining to deservedly cement the runner-up spoils.
Back onto the softs for the day’s finale, the Coventry-based racer lined up tenth on the partially-reversed grid and picked up three places over the course of a characteristically feisty opening tour. Comfortably the quickest driver on the track, the two-time title-winner had latched onto team-mate Ricky Collard’s tail and was poised to pounce when the safety car was summoned for a second time at the mid-distance mark, but once the action resumed, the top two exploited their superior boost allocation to remain in front.
Third place nevertheless made Ingram the only driver in the field to reach the rostrum in all three races, and enabled him to cut his deficit to Sutton in the chase for the coveted crown from 57 points to 48, with a seven-week hiatus now before the campaign continues at high-speed Hampshire venue Thruxton (25/26 July).
Tom Ingram, Driver, Team VERTU, said: “After our tricky start to 2026, we needed a solid, plain-sailing, pointsy weekend at what is probably my favourite circuit on the calendar, and that’s exactly what we had. Ash [Sutton] and I shadowed each other throughout Saturday’s ‘Race to Pole’; it got slightly spicy at times, but for the first time this year, I felt that in the heat of battle, we had an edge over him. Despite not really making any changes, the car felt better in race trim than in qualifying, which left us in a good position going into Sunday.
“The left-hand side of the grid wasn’t the nicest place to be in race one due to the damp patches, so I was conscious the launch would be difficult but the coming-together between Josh [Cook] and Ash played in our favour. Knowing I had just two laps of TTB compared to Josh’s full deployment, I was happy to stay on the right side of risk and bank the points for third place. I had my grown-up head on with the bigger picture in mind!
“It was important to overtake Josh quickly at the start of race two, though. Given the big difference in performance, you can get absolutely eaten alive on the hard tyres – whoever the soft pack reaches first tends to be a bit like a lamb to the slaughter.
“Dan [Cammish] and I worked together to create a gap over the drivers behind, and the way they were knocking chunks out of each other certainly helped! The hard tyre worked surprisingly well, and the car felt really racy. I honestly hadn’t expected to finish second; I wasn’t even sure I’d be able to stay inside the top ten, so I was really chuffed with that.
“In race three, we had to try to make some serious progress in a relatively short space of time with the two safety car interruptions. The car felt fantastic back on the soft tyre – even better than in qualifying, and we actually ended up going quicker than we had in qualifying! If we can have a car like that every single time over the second half of the season, I think we’ll be in good shape.
“Overall, I reckon we got as much out of the weekend as we could have done, considering our TTB allocation going into it. As a team, we’ve knuckled down and worked really, really hard to overcome the setbacks we’ve faced over the opening rounds. The goal was to reduce the gap in the points table into the forties, which we achieved, and we had an incredibly fast car throughout, which is really encouraging.
“We’ve ended the first part of the season very strongly – three podiums around Oulton is fairly difficult to pull off, but we did it and now we can go into the summer break with a spring in our step. I think we’ll be even stronger over the remainder of the season, and I’m already looking forward to properly taking the fight to Ash at Thruxton. It’s still clearly a tall order, but if we can keep chipping away like this, it’s definitely doable.”
