TOM Ingram said he eked what he could from a challenging weekend for Speedworks on home turf in the British Touring Car Championship's fourth round.

The Northwich team's driver scored points in every race at Oulton Park on Sunday, and departed occupying fourth place in the drivers' standings.

It marked a significant improvement on the corresponding meeting last season, when they failed to collect any.

"The positive is that we moved forward in all three races," reflected Ingram.

"Qualifying left us properly on the back foot, and this circuit is the worst place to start down the grid; as soon as you're outside of the top 10, you can pretty much kiss goodbye any hopes of grabbing a strong result.

"Ultimately we salvaged as much as we could and didn't lose out too much points-wise."

A car slowed by 57kg of success ballast could set only the 17th best time in a half-hour qualifying session on Saturday.

However it had been second-fastest in a practice session earlier the same day.

Ingram sneaked into a points-scoring position by the end of the first race, classifying 15th.

Free of the added weight for the second sprint, he went on the attack and made up ground to 10th by the flag and posted the fastest lap along the way.

He added: "We had a lot of pace, but being stuck in a traffic jam like we were meant there was nothing we could really do with it."

A swift start in race three propelled his Toyota Avensis up the order and he proceeded to chase down, and pass, three-time champion Matt Neal - as well as Tom Chilton and James Cole during the closing stages - with a series of aggressive manoeuvres.

That perseverance earned him sixth spot.

"I think that’s what you would describe as the perfect exercise in damage limitation," said team boss Christian Dick.

"We knew it was never going to be a particularly easy weekend, and qualifying was disappointing, but we refused to be beaten and made progress in every race.

"Oulton historically tends to favour the rear wheel-drive cars, meaning when you pitch up with a front wheel-drive car laden down with success ballast, you’re almost certainly going to be in for an uphill struggle.

"Who knows? The extra point Tom scored for setting the fastest lap in race two might turn out to be crucial come the season’s end."

Ingram is only six points adrift of the summit in the Independents' Trophy, a title he won in 2017, while Speedworks are seventh in the independent teams' table.