TOM Ingram started from pole in a British Touring Car Championship race for the first time in the new Corolla and converted it into a second win of the season.
The Team Toyota GB driver produced a dominant display in Sunday's opening sprint at Snetterton, setting the pace from the outset and holding off a challenge from Dan Cammish in his Halfords Yuasa Racing Honda before moving clear to prevail by more than three seconds.
"That's exactly how I wanted it to go," he said afterwards.
"I was happy to try and get a gap at the start and manage the race from there - I was more than happy for it to be boring from that point on.
"The team have worked so hard to get every single last bit from the car and we made a massive step forward testing here [last month]."
Ingram set the fastest time during a dramatic qualifying session the previous afternoon behind the wheel of a machine built over the winter by Northwich-based Speedworks Motorsport.
Cammish had already dipped below the lap record before the 25-year-old pipped his rival's effort by just two thousandths of a second - a remarkable feat around the Norfolk circuit which is the longest on the series' calendar.
Ingram's stunning 1:54.737s proved decisive in grabbing a maiden pole position for the all-new Toyota.
He said: "It was fantastic, I'm so pleased.
"We’ve been quietly going about trying to understand everything about the car and nibbling away.
"We’ve found some amazing things at the tyre test and ticked off a lot that we wanted to try.
"Everyone will have made a step, and we’ve gone another step further still."
There was frustration for Ingram in the second race, which he led until halfway after expertly defending from those behind in a ballast-laden car following his earlier victory.
That changed on lap seven when a slight touch from Colin Turkington's BMW pushed the Speedworks driver wide, and in turn he slid into Andrew Jordan's BMW behind.
Ingram tumbled down the order, afterwards confirming his machine suffered a mechanical problem, and crossed the line in 23rd.
He surged through the field from that lowly starting position in race three, taking eighth place when the chequered flag fell.
However he was later demoted to ninth as a punishment for his part in an incident involving former Speedworks pilot Ollie Jackson (Shredded Wheat Racing with Gallagher Ford Focus).
Ingram rises to seventh spot in the drivers' standings after 18 races, while Speedworks are ninth in the teams' table.
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