4 MOTORSPORT: Speedworks celebrate maiden BTCC race win
What? Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship opener
When? April 02-03
Where? Brands Hatch Indy
Northwich outfit Speedworks, who made their debut in the British Touring Car Championship in 2010, ended a wait to celebrate a first race win in a new campaign’s curtain-raiser.
After setting the fastest lap during qualifying the previous day, driver Tom Ingram steered their Toyota Avensis to a dominant victory the following morning.
He also registered their first pole position on a weekend to remember.
“I don’t think the magnitude of what we’ve achieved has fully sunk in yet,” said team principal Christian Dick afterwards.
Ingram himself was similarly effusive.
He said: “If somebody had told us that we’d be leading the championship after the first race, I’d have thought it was an April Fool.”
How we reported it:
How they Tweeted it:
YES YES YES!!!!! We are BTCC Race winners! What a drive by Tom Ingram. Speedworks motorsport, BTCC Race Winners.... https://t.co/I1s7d0JYX2
— SpeedworksMotorsport (@SpeedworksMS) April 3, 2016
Our sports writer remembers:
“There can rarely have been a more popular maiden victory in the pit-lane of the UK’s premier car-racing series.
“Speedworks had been threatening a breakthrough for a while, and the signing of Tom Ingram as their main driver two years earlier was a signal of their intent.
“That, coupled with exhaustive development of their car during the winter, earned them a deserved reward on a new season’s first day at Brands Hatch.
“For an independently-run team to achieve what they did is not easy; much wealthier, and more experienced, rivals should have an advantage.
“Speedworks, run by Christian and Amy Dick – a husband and wife from Great Budworth – realised their dream in the best possible way; by making incremental, but continuing, progress year by year.”
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