Easily his most impressive weekend of the campaign so far, the Huddersfield driver once again conquered the UK’s most fearsome race track almost exactly one year on from claiming his first ever Porsche Carrera Cup GB Championship win at the 2.35-mile Hampshire venue.

Unlike the rain-affected outing in 2012, this weekend’s races took place under bright skies and in warm conditions and after qualifying on the front row of the grid for each encounter the 21-year-old was determined to secure a brace of podiums. In doing so, Daniel has rocketed up the championship standings from seventh place into the top four.

Making a blistering start to Sunday morning’s fifth round, the Team Parker Racing driver instantly moved ahead of pole-sitter Michael Meadows on the outside line through Allard and scorched into a 1.2 second lead on the first lap alone.

Knowing the importance of conserving his Michelin tyres as much as possible, with the high-speed nature of Thruxton notorious for causing punctures, Daniel struck the fine balance of not taking too much out of them while continuing to maintain strong pace at the front.

Despite an early threat from Jonas Gelzinis and then a challenge from Rory Butcher, the latter running on brand new tyres, Daniel didn’t put a wheel wrong with an inch-perfect performance. Just after mid-distance, with Butcher having asked too much of his Michelins, Daniel increased his lead once again and he went on to win by 2.3 seconds thanks to a faultless drive.

“The start was the main focus, we knew if Michael [Meadows] got ahead it would be really hard to try and get in front of him so I put everything into making a great start and it paid off”, explained the West Yorkshireman.

“For the first few laps I did struggle, I had quite bad understeer so just tried to maintain the lead and do whatever I could. Through the middle of the race though, as the rear tyres got worse, the car became more balanced and it was absolutely mega then. I just tried to be consistent after that to bring it home. It really is fantastic to be back on the top step of the podium, especially at Thruxton.”

Lining-up second on the grid again for round six, Daniel got away cleanly from the line but Meadows managed to convert his pole position into the lead. Running in second place throughout, Daniel took the chequered flag little more than a second behind Meadows to cap an outstanding weekend.

Porsche Carrera Cup GB now takes a five week break from action with rounds seven and eight of the season taking place on 8th/9th June at Oulton Park Island Circuit in Cheshire.

Despite arriving at Silverstone with just three days’ practice time under his belt, following a last-minute deal with Sean Walkinshaw Racing, the highly-rated, former karting star demonstrated his potential by setting the 5^th-fastest lap in Saturday’s timed qualifying session.  From this promising start he went on to finish a creditable 6^th place on his car racing debut.

Starting Race 2 from third place, by virtue of a reverse grid based on the top eight drivers’ previous day’s finishing positions, Barlow snatched the lead as the field streamed into Copse.

He was reeled in and passed after two laps, but refused to let new race leader, Seb Morris, escape. A game of cat-and-mouse developed between the pair until, with two laps remaining, Barlow made his move: “I thought ‘I have to go for it’ and stuck my car down Seb’s inside at Becketts, but he held me off. However, I carried better speed through Chapel Curve and onto Hangar Straight. I jinked one way and then the other and drove past as we approached Stowe Corner,” explained Jack. “From there I defended into the chicane at Vale, allowing the 3^rd-placed driver to attack for 2^nd. This gave me the chance to create a gap and I knew I just had to maintain it through the last lap.”

“Even as I approached the chequered flag, my victory hadn’t sunk in,” he added. “I never, never went there expecting to win. It is a fantastic result for me and SWR. They were all extremely pleased for me and I really couldn’t have done it without them.”

Driving down the pitlane, towards the F1-style board with a large number ‘1’ on it, added to the occasion: “It’s what you see at the end of each Grand Prix and there I was, at Silverstone, doing the same thing. I was presented with my trophy on the F1 podium and of course, got to spray champagne on it. Even now, it hasn’t sunk in!”

In the thrilling battle for 5^th place in Race 3, Jack again showed that he has a great future ahead of him by putting on a great show as he diced with Matt Bell, before settling for valuable championship points and 6^th place, to go 4^th overall in the championship.

“I am able to race thanks to the support of local firms key Motor Finance and My Costcutter at Skinners of Rye. I would also like to thank everyone at SWR, the MSA Academy, Arai, adidas and Toby Warrington for his continued help.” 

Ingram travelled to Thruxton with a superb record around the fearsomely-fast Hampshire circuit, and on-form having surged to the top of the Ginetta GT Supercup title standings courtesy of a magnificent podium hat-trick in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship feeder series a fortnight earlier at Donington Park.

“I was really looking forward to Thruxton and to keeping our positive start to the season going with some more strong results and good points,” affirmed the SKYCIG and Hansford Sensors-backed KX Akademy protégé. “I love the challenge that Thruxton poses with its ultra high-speed nature and I’ve always gone well there – and having lapped quickest during the pre-weekend test day, we headed into the meeting full of confidence.

“Qualifying was tricky because the conditions changed with every lap; there was no consistency at all. That made the grip level really difficult to judge, and in hindsight, we changed over from wet-weather rubber to slicks a fraction too soon, which meant that by the time the track was at its best at the end of the session, my tyres were beginning to fade. We missed the window of opportunity, but in the circumstances I was still happy to line up second and I was ahead of my main championship competitor Carl Breeze, which was important.

“I found myself boxed in on the inside line heading into the Complex on the opening lap of race one, which left me with nowhere to go and dropped me to fifth. There was then a long safety car period to clean up an accident further down the field, and when the race finally resumed, we had literally just a handful of laps remaining, which didn’t give me much time to try to fight my way back through!

“That meant I had to pull off some pretty bold moves, and I passed one driver down the inside at Church on lap eight and another around the outside at the same place the following lap for third. I thought overtaking around the outside of the Craner Curves at Donington had been scary – but I soon appreciated that’s nothing compared to going flat-out around the outside of Church at Thruxton at 130mph! I’d never realised how bumpy it is there away from the racing line… It was one of those moves where you just think, ‘I really hope somebody saw that!’”

It was a truly crowd-pleasing effort and a superb recovery drive – and to put Ingram’s bravery into perspective, Church is the fastest corner around the fastest circuit in the UK. In race two later in the day, the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) Rising Star, MSA Academy member and KENNETT brand ambassador worked his way up into second with a peach of a manoeuvre around the outside of the Complex on lap six – but facing a nigh-on insurmountable gap ahead to the leader by then, he judiciously elected to settle for the runner-up spoils.

Moreover, with tremendous stress placed upon the tyres through Thruxton’s high-speed corners, Ingram was mindful of not pushing too hard and taking too much life out of them, and his policy of preservation would reap dividends in the final 16-lap outing the following day.

Further fuelled by an appearance at a ‘KX Question Time’ event alongside two-time British Touring Car Champion Jason Plato on Saturday evening – during which he was presented with the inaugural KX ‘Yellow Jersey’ award for his Donington heroics – the JHR Developments ace headed into Sunday’s ITV4 live-televised, reverse-grid encounter determined to turn the tables on title rival Breeze.

“It was never going to be easy starting from fifth,” he confessed, “but after conceding points to Carl in both of Saturday’s races, we knew we needed to beat him on Sunday! I hadn’t been 100 per cent happy with the car the previous day, so we made a few changes overnight to try to generate better grip and we knew we had tyres that were in better condition than Carl’s – and that really paid off.

“I got boxed in at the Complex on the first lap again, unfortunately, which cost me a position, and when I saw that Carl was already right up at the front, I really thought I had blown it, to be truthful. I got my head down, though, and focussed on battling my way through.

“One driver spun off ahead of me on lap five, and next time around, Mark Davies had a bad run coming out of Church, which allowed me to pull alongside on the inside line heading down to the final chicane. He tried to squeeze me a little, but I made the move stick and then Carl Boardley got it all crossed-up on the exit which gave me a run on him, too, and I went through on the inside into the first corner.

“I passed Jamie Orton for second on lap nine, which left me with seven laps to close down a four-second deficit to Carl in the lead. I knew that was going to be a massively tall order, but you never give up in those situations, and I saw I was gaining on him a lot faster than I had anticipated. It really was a case of qualifying lap after qualifying lap, and when I saw ‘fastest lap’ on my pit board and that I was taking a second-a-lap out of Carl, that only spurred me on even more.

“I got onto the back of him with three-and-a-half laps to go, but then I had a different problem because as a former BTCC racer and the defending Ginetta GT Supercup Champion, Carl knows every trick in the book and is renowned for being incredibly difficult to overtake. I quickly pinpointed the Complex as the place where I would have to make my move, as that was where I seemed to have the greatest margin over him.

“I attacked immediately by trying to dive down the inside into Seagrave on lap 13, but he slammed the door shut. That cost me my run around the rest of the lap and meant I had to regroup, but having seen it done in the BTCC before, I knew you could pass around the outside of Campbell – which gives you the inside line for Cobb. I resolved to give that a go, knowing I would have to plan practically a whole lap ahead to make sure I was right on his tail by the time we got there.

“On the penultimate lap, I got a good run up the hill out of Allard, which gave me the opportunity to pull alongside Carl on the outside line heading into Campbell. It was literally doorhandle-to-doorhandle and real heart-in-mouth stuff as he tried to squeeze me, which resulted in slight contact. Although I then had the inside line for Cobb, the touch sent me a little bit wide and Carl pulled back alongside on the drag down to Noble, but I made sure I held him off and was able to ease away.

“It was probably the best win I’ve ever had, in all honesty. I really had to fight hard for it. In the past, we’ve never had the funds to risk the car or try moves like that due to fear of damage, so I owe a huge debt of gratitude to my sponsors SKYCIG, KX and Hansford Sensors for giving me that chance now and allowing me to really race for victory.”

Few would be inclined to disagree with Ingram’s assertion, as he set not only the fastest lap of the race in his Ginetta G55 – for the sixth time in 2013 – but indeed all four of the quickest laps, with none of his adversaries capable of getting to within even half-a-second of his blistering raw pace.

A stunning performance, the 19-year-old’s second triumph of the campaign and seamlessly consistent seventh consecutive rostrum finish enabled him to re-assert his authority, extend his advantage from 15 points to 32 in the chase for the coveted crown and steal a vital psychological edge going into the early-season hiatus.

What’s more, when the Ginetta GT Supercup action resumes in early June, it will do so at Oulton Park, another of Ingram’s favourite circuits and one where the former Ginetta G50 Champion, Ginetta Junior Champion and British Karting Champion claimed his maiden pole position in car racing in 2009 and sped to a commanding lights-to-flag victory double last year. As he bids to maintain his current momentum, a repeat 12 months on would be just the ticket.

You can follow Tom on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tomingram80 and keep up-to-date with his latest career news and results at www.tom-ingram.com

]]> http://www.formulakartstars.com/ingram-sprints-clear-in-ginetta-gt-supercup-standings-with-stunning-second-victory-of-2013/feed/ 0 http://www.formulakartstars.com/sam-brabham-bags-fourth-class-podium-at-thruxton/ http://www.formulakartstars.com/sam-brabham-bags-fourth-class-podium-at-thruxton/#comments Fri, 10 May 2013 09:17:09 +0000 FKS http://www.formulakartstars.com/?p=9715 JTR Formula Ford season debutant, Sam Brabham scooped his fourth Scholarship podium in six races with an impressive drive to third in class, in round nine of the Dunlop British Formula Ford Championship at Thruxton.In a repeat of his outstanding Donington Park championship debut form, the 18 year-old Henley driver climbed from 10th on the grid to take fifth by the second lap. Brabham then posted the third fastest lap of the field on his way to honing in on the fight for second place, finishing just 0.3 seconds adrift of fourth-placed Harrison Scott.

Today’s trip to the rostrum completed another solid showing from Brabham, who had minimal experience of the 2.3-mile track prior to the triple-header race weekend. After qualifying eighth in damp conditions on Saturday morning, the Henley College student delivered a steady drive to fourth in class in round seven while building his circuit knowledge.

The third generation driver returned on blinding form for round eight and stormed from ninth to fourth in four laps, partly thanks to an awesome move around the outside of Andy Richardson and Juan Rosso at the Chicane. In the hunt for an outright podium position, Brabham was battling with Rosso when a spin on lap seven pushed him back to finish 10th.

With his notable charge through the pack in round nine on Sunday, Brabham equaled his best season result of fifth overall and sealed a points-perfect run, since the start of his single-seater racing career with JTR.

Brabham commented: “Overall I think we’ve made pretty good progress this weekend. I’ve learnt a lot and gained some valuable experience. Qualifying was my first chance to get to grips with the Thruxton circuit at speed, as I’d only completed a handful of laps shaking down my new JTR Mygale, so I was reasonably pleased with eighth.

“I struggled to get the balance of the car in race one, but everything started to come together in race two. I made some good moves and had a great fight with Harrison [Scott] and Juan [Ross] for third. Juan ran wide heading into Goodwood, I was a bit over-eager and spun, but we still salvaged some points.

“A great start for race three really put me in the mix and I was able to pick off a lot of places early on. I managed to catch Harrison and together we were pegging down the leaders, but towards the end I had understeer through the fast corners and I couldn’t find a way through. All in all it was a good race and I’m pleased to take another Scholarship podium finish.”

Daniel will arrive in Hampshire on Saturday with his confidence high having been quickest during the official pre-event Thruxton test three weeks ago, where he impressively headed reigning champion Michael Meadows by half a second.

While undoubtedly having the pace to be able to repeat his heroics of 2012 this weekend, the Huddersfield racer is more focused on securing two consistently strong podium finishes in order to climb the points table.

Having been forced out of the opening race of the season following contact and then suffering from fuel pump issues in round three just over a week ago, the Porsche Carrera Cup GB Scholar is long overdue a problem-free weekend.

“Perhaps we should think we’re going to have a bad weekend and then it’ll turn out good instead!”, said Daniel tongue-in-cheek, “Seriously though, we have had a tough start to the year but we know we’ve got the pace to be right there at the front. Thruxton should be good, we obviously had our first win in Porsche there last year and we were quick in testing so I really am looking forward to it.”

Unsurprisingly, the weather could play a factor during rounds five and six and that was certainly the case last year at the 2.35-mile track when Daniel supremely conquered tricky, wet conditions on slick tyres to take his history-making first win in Porsche Carrera Cup GB.

“I’m not fussed either way what the weather does, we won in the rain last year and we’ve been quick in the dry as well so I’ll be happy whatever the conditions are”, he added, “It’s so close at the front, it’s always going to be at this level, and there really is nothing in it. We just need to do a better job in qualifying and then deliver the pace we showed in testing which I’m sure we can.”

Qualifying for rounds five and six of the Porsche Carrera Cup GB Championship will take place at 12.00 on Saturday, 4th May. Both races will be contested on Sunday, 5th May, with the first getting underway at 11.10 and the second – which will be broadcast live on ITV4 and in High Definition on ITV4 HD – starting at 16.25.

After his runaway start to the season, Dan Cammish is the man the rest of the grid has to try to beat. The Leeds youngster stole the three Easter Brands Hatch rounds and repeated his pole position-to-chequered flag performances a fortnight ago in all three Donington Park races to give himself and the JTR team a healthy advantage in the title race.

But Dan missed last month’s Thruxton test, and that may offer a sliver of hope to those chasing him. Quickest in that test, and by a margin of a quarter of a second, was 17-year-old rookie Harrison Scott in his Falcon Motorsport Mygale. After a quiet and sensible maiden weekend of car racing at Brands Hatch, Harrison was truly in the swing of things at Donington Park, recording his first podium results and with them two Scholarship Cup class wins.

Another rookie who impressed at Donington was 18-year-old Sam Brabham, son of Le Mans winner David Brabham and grandson of three-time World Champion Sir Jack. Sam missed pre-event testing and had no experience of the circuit but nonetheless qualified mid-grid and went on to record a hat-trick of top-seven placings in the races.

The third pilot of the JTR squad is young American Camren Kaminsky. His EcoBoost-powered Mygale was the quickest through the speed trap in the Thruxton test at 142mph, and the Phoenix man will be hoping to repeat that speed and translate it into some good results following a disappointing Donington weekend.

Jamun’s Argentinian drivers are showing great pace, Juan Rosso collecting a brace of seconds at Donington on his championship debut – he missed Brands Hatch with an injured hand – while his countryman Nico Maranzana took a podium also to reinforce his championship second place. Their British running mate Luke Williams showed strong pace at Donington also.

Formula Ford may have been given wings and turbo power but some things do not change – it’s still a multi-chassis formula and the two Sinter cars, piloted by the Radical team’s James Abbott and by SWB’s Fred Martin-Dye, showed good Mygale-chasing pace last time and there’s the prospect of more to come.

Harrison Scott had only one team-mate at Donington, in the form of talented and very rapid young Finn Lassi Halminen, but it is hoped that at Thruxton the team will be back up to full strength with its third Mygale in the hands of a driver new to the championship.

Ex-Ginetta racer Andy Richardson was another man to miss the Thruxton test, but the Lincolnshire driver is nonetheless upbeat: “I know the circuit well from my days in Ginettas, so that won’t be a problem. We are getting to grips with the Mygale with every session, and I’m hopeful we should go well.”

Enigma Motorsport’s George Blundell is hoping for good things at Thruxton, despite his test there being hampered by incorrect gear ratios. George, who finished on the podium at Brands Hatch, said: “It wasn’t too bad but we didn’t have the right gears. It was my first time at Thruxton, too, and the first session was wet – it was a case of going around to learn where the track goes. The second session was dry and I started to find my feet a bit. Hopefully with the right gears and a good qualifying everything should come together.

“I struggled a bit at Donington; we had done no testing there on new tyres and when we put the new tyres on for qualifying we weren’t too sure exactly where we were. Come the third race we were a lot quicker, and right up there on pace with the front runners. Things would have been a lot different if we had had the budget to test on new tyres. But I am staying positive and I have the feeling that Thruxton will be good for us; I’m looking forward to it.”

Hand travelled to Donington buoyed by an impressive debut in the ITV4 live-televised, British Touring Car Championship-supporting Renault UK Clio Cup three weeks earlier at Brands Hatch, where he had turned heads by both qualifying and finishing inside the top ten – pulling off some brave and incisive passing manoeuvres along the way.

“I felt really optimistic,” acknowledged the highly-rated Maple Park hotshot, revealing that his goal was to step it up another gear. “Pre-season testing at Donington had been encouraging, and I carried over the confidence Brands Hatch had given me.

“I had been really pleased with my overtaking and racecraft there – obviously you can’t measure those factors when you’re running around on your own in testing, so it was good to see how I stacked up in that respect – and my pace clearly wasn’t too shabby, either. Although we had struggled at the beginning of the weekend, we worked hard, made a big step forward and gained ground really quickly.”

In qualifying for Donington’s two races, Hand briefly held pole position amongst the 24-strong Clio Cup field, before settling into an excellent fourth place in his Team Pyro-prepared Clio Renaultsport 200 and lapping consistently up at the sharp end of proceedings.

That was until he bolted on a fresh set of tyres – a move that according to all conventional wisdom should have boosted his chances – and his lightning-fast form suddenly and unexpectedly evaporated, leaving him to line up tenth for Saturday’s outing and eighth on Sunday, albeit on both occasions alongside the championship leader.

“That was obviously disappointing, considering we had been looking good for the top four,” the 18-year-old conceded. “As soon as we changed tyres, though, the back end felt loose and I picked up a whole load of oversteer. It was impossible to extract the maximum out of the car as the grip just wasn’t there anymore. I think because my rears were quite used, putting new tyres on the front may have upset the balance, and the upshot was that I was nowhere near the lap times I had been setting earlier.

“In race one, I probably wasn’t quite aggressive enough at the start and lost a position, but I regained it at the end of the first lap. The trouble was, there was then a gap to the pack in front and once they broke clear and dropped me from their tow, I lost four tenths of a second per lap. They dragged each other away from me and I was under no real threat from behind as the next group back were all scrapping amongst themselves, so it was quite a lonely race from that point on, to be fair.”

A second top ten finish from just three starts in cars was nonetheless a laudable accomplishment, but Hand was hopeful of a better result in the following day’s 14-lap encounter – and for the first third of the race, at least, he looked well on-course to achieve it.

“There were a few early battles that cost me some ground, but after things had calmed down our pace was good and I worked my way up to seventh,” recounted the Warwickshire teenager. “I was quite happy there and just keeping my nose clean and trying to take advantage of any opportunities that presented themselves.

“Then, all-of-a-sudden, the drivers directly in front of me tried to go three-abreast into the Old Hairpin, which was never going to work. Two of them went shooting off across the grass, and as one rejoined the track, he did so right in my path, which forced me to swerve onto the grass myself or else he would have collected me.

“That dropped me down to 16^th, and with so much dirt on my tyres it was difficult to fight back – meaning I could only recover to 14^th at the chequered flag. What was most frustrating of all was that had I not had to take avoiding action, I would probably have emerged from the Old Hairpin mêlée in fourth – it was just a case of wrong place, wrong time, and such a disappointing way to end a race that had promised so much more.”

His true potential masked, the seventh-best lap time – barely three tenths adrift of the outright benchmark and faster than the driver who finished fourth – was a far more representative yardstick. There remained, moreover, a whole clutch of positives to take away from the weekend, not least of which the fact that the Sigma and QTS-backed ace is still the leading car racing rookie in the points standings in 13^th position, ahead of a number of more experienced adversaries and even race-winners – and a mere seven markers shy of the top eight.

His sights are now set on the next round on the calendar around ultra-quick Thruxton at the beginning of May. It might have a reputation as the most fearsome circuit in the country, but that characteristically fails to faze the ever-unflappable Hand.

“I learned a lot again at Donington, I honed my racecraft a little bit more, my understanding of how to get the best out of the tyres improved and my speed was good, too, so we need to take that form on and continue to move up the grid,” he concluded. “Thruxton is definitely my favourite circuit I’ve been to, and its fast-and-flowing, balls-out nature seems to suit my driving style. We went well there in pre-season testing, so I’m really looking forward to going back, to be honest – and hopefully it will play to my strengths. Bring it on!”

Albeit not the greatest fan of Donington, Ingram does have an impressive record there and he returned with good memories after clinching his maiden victory in a Ginetta G55 around the Leicestershire track in 2012 – and buoyed by a dominant drive in the final race of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship-supporting Ginetta GT Supercup curtain-raiser at Brands Hatch three weeks earlier.

“Coming off the back of the win at Brands Hatch, I was feeling positive and really looking forward to the weekend,” affirmed the talented young High Wycombe ace. “We had high hopes and high expectations, and although Donington has never been a circuit I’ve particularly enjoyed, we managed to try a lot of things out and establish a good set-up for the car during practice – so everything was looking good.”

That optimism would prove to be well-founded in qualifying, although a fistful of understeer left Ingram unable to demonstrate his true potential and scuppered his efforts to scoop his first pole position of 2013. Pipped to the top spot by a mere three tenths of a second in the 17-strong field, the 19-year-old SKYCIG and Hansford Sensors-backed KX Akademy protégé was nonetheless pleased to be on the front row of the starting grid for race one.

“I got away well and thought briefly about sticking my nose down the inside of pole-sitter Carl Breeze into Redgate – before swiftly thinking better of it!” he recollected. “Carl pulled out a small gap initially, but I was hauling him in when the safety car appeared for an incident.

“I then got a really good re-start and pressurised Carl for the last three laps. The problem is that when you are that close behind someone, you lose all your aerodynamic grip which makes it very difficult to overtake – and I did back out of a couple of potential moves because I knew there was a fair chance they would have resulted in contact. I was very aware of the importance of finishing the race because our target is the championship, and second place represented a decent haul of points.”

Less than four tenths of a second adrift of his quarry when the chequered flag fell – and with fastest lap underscoring his credentials – the result vaulted Ingram into the championship lead as he turned a hitherto seven-point deficit into a six-point advantage.

Race two was a similar affair as the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) Rising Star, MSA Academy member and KENNETT brand ambassador shadowed Breeze throughout – ultimately winding up a scant two tenths shy of glory as the duo sprinted well clear of their pursuers – but from fifth on the reverse grid, the weekend’s ITV4-televised final encounter would rapidly develop into an altogether livelier affair.

“It was never going to be easy from there with some very quick pedallers in front of me – but it got a whole lot harder over the first few laps and although I tried my best to stay out-of-trouble, it kept finding me!” he quipped. “I held my position at the start, but then got forced sideways and sent bouncing across the grass on cold tyres heading down towards Craner Curves and later around the opening lap I was boxed out wide, which dropped me to seventh.

“The JHR Developments boys had put a superb car underneath me again, though, and I was confident I had the ability to fight my way through – but when I came up against James Birch in fourth, I think he had just about the widest Ginetta G55 in the field! I knew I was quicker because of the manner in which I had caught him, but I couldn’t be too forceful or risk doing anything stupid and full credit to him – he didn’t give me an inch.

“I tried to size up where I was strong and he was weak, and shortly after I’d found a way past, I also overtook my team-mate for third. By that point, though, the two leaders were so far ahead that I honestly thought the window of opportunity had closed and my chance of catching them had gone. We had set my car up so that it would come on strong straightaway, and I hadn’t been able to make the most of that performance as I had been tucked up in Birch’s dirty air.

“It was only in the very closing stages that I realised all was not lost and going into the last lap, I was right up behind Matt Nicoll-Jones in second place. I got a good run on him through Craner Curves and we battled side-by-side as he tried to hang on around the outside – but I got the job done, which was tremendously satisfying and I was over-the-moon to end up second. I genuinely never thought I would claw my way back that far after the first few laps.”

Had he managed to clear Birch just a fraction sooner, Ingram acknowledged, he could have been toasting a truly extraordinary against-the-odds triumph, but still, a fifth fastest lap from six starts this year underlined his outstanding raw pace and his fourth consecutive podium finish has seen him open up a 15-point margin over his adversaries in the chase for the coveted crown.

Better yet, next up is ultra-quick Thruxton in Hampshire, where the former Ginetta G50 Champion, Ginetta Junior Champion and British Karting Champion claimed his first car racing rostrum in 2009, breakthrough victory in 2010 and a commanding hat-trick in 2011. He was well on-track to add to that success in 2012 when his driveshaft failed whilst in the lead – so he will return 12 months later seeking payback.

“I absolutely love Thruxton!” he enthused. “We topped the times in testing a couple of weeks ago and I just can’t wait to get there now and build upon our momentum from Brands Hatch and Donington. It’s such a fun circuit – completely balls-out – and fortune definitely favours the brave.”

And there was, after all, no shortage of bravery from Tom Ingram at Donington Park…

Qualifying: 2nd
Dynojet Racing man Wrathall ran at the sharp end of the times throughout the qualifying session as he looked to secure the second BTCC pole of his career. For a long spell the #11 Avensis was on top of the pile but defending champion Gordon Shedden (Honda) was able to better Frank’s time by just 0.049secs, demoting Frank to second on the grid.

“Pole would have been nice, but it’s not the end of the world that Gordon beat me to it,” he said. “I was right on the limit for that lap and had to really push. I managed to pull it out of the bag and then when I tried to go quicker again, I overdrove a bit and it wasn’t worth making a mistake.” Frank’s qualifying result was all the more impressive given the time he lost during free practice earlier in the day with engine electronics issues.

Race 1: 7th
Unfortunately the repercussions of those electronics issues made themselves apparent from the outset of the first of the day’s races, with Frank slipping to fourth behind Shedden, Andrew Jordan and Matt Neal on the opening lap, and then losing a further place to Jason Plato on lap two.

Wrathall and his fellow Toyota driver Adam Morgan staged a battle royal over fifth place, together with the MG of Sam Tordoff, for much of the race. Frank, troubled by a lack of turbo boost in the lower gears, was literally powerless to prevent his rivals getting in front. “Because of the problems we had in practice we were running the engine settings a bit on the ‘safe’ side and we weren’t using our boost as we should. As a result our engine was down on performance, which showed in that race. The Toyota was fantastic: when I was behind someone I could see I had an advantage on them, but as soon as I was on the straight they were pulling away from me: I was a sitting duck. It’s disappointing when the car is handling really well. But seventh is a solid result, and I am not too disappointed.”

Races 2 & 3: Did not finish
Running on the soft-compound Dunlop tyre, Frank moved up a place on the opening lap of race two to take up sixth spot behind fellow Toyota man Morgan and – following an early Safety Car period – looked well placed to make further progress, with his Avensis getting quicker with each lap. However, his hopes of pushing forward toward the podium were ended on the eighth lap when his throttle linkage broke, forcing him into retirement.

“The car was really good and it would have been interesting to see how the soft tyres held up, as we were getting quicker and the guys in front were losing time,” said Frank. “However, when the throttle linkage broke, the throttle was stuck wide open so I had to get hard on the brakes as I went down to the Old Hairpin to bring the car to a stop. It’s very disappointing as we were in good shape.”

Unfortunately that retirement left Wrathall 22nd on the grid for the finale – right in the danger zone, as he was to find on the opening lap, when his car was struck unintentionally from behind by another Toyota, the Speedworks car of Ollie Jackson.

“Will Bratt outbraked himself looking to go up the inside of Lea Wood; they were side by side in front of me across the chicane and pretty slow, so I had to enter the chicane slowly behind them to avoid a collision, and Ollie perhaps misread the situation and piled into the back of me, which broke the rear suspension. That’s the sort of thing that happens when you start a BTCC race from the back.

“Today’s been such a wasted opportunity really. The Toyota has felt so good – it’s been absolutely on rails, the best handling we’ve had, and if we hadn’t had the problem with the turbo the potential was there for top three or better. It’s a lot easier to take days like this on the chin when you are fighting a lot of issues with the car, or if I’m not driving well, but I feel like today everything was right apart from the engine holding us back and it’s been the difference between a great day and a disaster. But we’ll bounce back.”

Frank’s chance to do just that comes in a fortnight at the super-fast Thruxton circuit in Hampshire, where he claimed a podium finish last year.

The Dynojet Racing team is backed by Mac Tools, FUCHS Titan Race, Toyota Material Handling, Klenzan, Dyno Drive, Angel Springs, K&N and Graphix.

Brabham’s performance was made all the more remarkable considering he only drove his JTR Mygale for the first time last week, and has since only notched-up two track tests preceding his all-important debut. But from the moment he set wheel on the National circuit for the first time in qualifying on Saturday morning, he showed his clear pace and natural potential to clock-in an impressive seventh overall.

Despite a slow getaway due to a missed gear, Brabham swiftly settled into his first ever single-seater race and battled back from last off the line to make the top six by lap nine. Seizing fifth spot from Nico Maranzana two laps later, the Henley College student routinely posted purple second sector times and then the second fastest lap of the field on lap 12 as he threatened to join the fight for an outright podium position.

Only time lost at McLeans on lap 15, due to a well-controlled slide, could temporarily halt his advances and allow Maranzana back through. Yet Brabham was far from finished and fought back to re-claim fifth at the final Chicane, sealing second in the Scholarship class in the process.

The son of sportscar legend, David, and Grandson of triple Formula One World Champion, Sir Jack, followed that awe-inspiring performance with a third-place class podium and seventh overall on Sunday morning. He rounded out an amazing weekend with sixth overall and another trip to the rostrum for Scholarship third in the final race of the weekend.

Brabham commented: “Words can’t describe how it feels to take three Scholarship class podiums on my Formula Ford debut. I couldn’t ask for a better weekend. I didn’t get the best start to the event with an electrical issue preventing us from testing on Thursday, but that actually helped me focus to make sure I was on it for qualifying and seventh was quite respectable.

“I got a poor start in race one, but that just made me more determined to show everyone what I could do and I think I proved that. A better start in race two put me in contention, but understeer into Redgate pushed me wide and I took a while to work my way back through the pack. Although I was faster than the guys ahead, I couldn’t find a sensible place to pass and had to bide my time. My pace improved, I was pushing hard and I got out of shape at the Old Hairpin, but that’s all part of the learning curve and I still got some good points with seventh overall.

“Although I had a great start for race three, I was too cautious on the brakes in to Redgate and I was a bit frustrated to lose some places. I got back up to sixth and had a close battle with Harrison Scott, but my pace dropped off as the tyres went past their best, which was hardly surprising considering how hard I was pushing throughout qualifying and the three races.

“The JTR Mygale felt great all weekend, we’ve got a fantastic package and now it’s all about building my race car experience and improving with every event. This weekend’s results give me a huge confidence boost heading in to the rest of the season, I know I have the pace and can run with the top drivers.”