Former BTCC champion Tim Harvey believes Tom Ingram has a successful career in Britain’s top tin-top series ahead of him.

Harvey was speaking after another strong performance from the Speedworks driver in the 2014 season, qualifying his Toyota Avensis in the top six for the third time in six events – only failing to make the top ten on two occasions.

“Tom has made a really strong impression in his first half-season in the BTCC – in what is an extremely tough year in the championship,” said the 1992 Champion. “You’ve got 31 cars all running to the same specification; that means it’s difficult to get into the top 15 let alone the top ten because the grids are separated by literally fractions of a second, but Tom has slotted in almost immediately and already looks like an old hand at touring cars.”

Despite his impressive qualifying performance at Snetterton, bad luck got in the way of similar race results. The worst of his luck came in race one, where he was running as high as fourth at one stage, when a stub axle failure caused one of his wheels to fall off, effectively ruining his weekend there and then.

“He has endured a number of issues that have prevented a greater points total,” continued Harvey. “But hopefully his luck will change over the remainder of the campaign to allow him to maximise his opportunities – because he certainly has the pace to do so. I would like to see Tom on the podium between now and the end of the season; I think that is an achievable target, and one that would be a real feather in his cap going into 2015.

“He has impressed a lot of people, particularly with his qualifying pace – and he has been consistently fast, too. Whilst there is a certain level of experience required to be able to compete at the front on a regular basis in the BTCC because it really is so different to anything else, he has very quickly picked up the racecraft – and I know for a fact that he is on the radar of several teams and team managers for next year.”