INGRAM BROTHERS IMPRESS ON RACE DEBUT

After many track test sessions, long days in the shed and plenty of tweaking on the dyno, the Ingram Brothers Racing Team excitedly headed out to Sydney Motorsport Park on the weekend with their new 20B RX8 & FD RX7 for the round 2 of the NSW Sports Sedans championship - the official race debut for both cars & a return to racing for Matthew & Peter after a 4 year hiatus.

Competing in a field of 18 cars, many well-established and track-proven cars & highly-experienced drivers with a wide range of powerplants, excitement levels were high leading into the first race of the day with the team keen to prove early on that both cars have what it takes to run with the front of the pack.

In Saturday morning's qualifying run, both cars impressed on the track, holding pace well and improving with every lap & it certainly didn't take long for the competition to realise these boys mean business... After 7 & 6 laps respectively, both cars qualified within 5 seconds of the lead car - Peter in the RX7 in P3 with an impressive 1:32.3752 lap time & Matthew close behind in 5th spot with a very respectable 1:33.7160, with a top speed recorded of 278kmph, the fastest in the field by far!

These results had the team in high spirits heading into the first race on Saturday afternoon, & with plenty of data gathered, Rocky set about dissecting every megabyte & ensuring that the Billet By Pac 3-rotors were working as efficiently as possible to give the boys their best chance of getting to the pointy end of the field and staying there!

Once again both cars kicked off strong and were sitting comfortably amongst the front runners however, Peter would run into some issues in the RX7 getting loose through the corners which eventually saw him come unsettled and do a bit of off-roading early into the race where he dropped back to last, but managed to make back quite a few spots and finish in 8th, while Matthew jumped up a few spots to 3rd place in the RX8.

Rolling out on day 2 both drivers were pushing hard, trying their best to push their way up through the tough field. Coming from behind, Peter would find himself having to bustle his way through traffic which saw the RX7 cop a few bumps and grazes on its way to finishing Race 2 in a much better position, right behind his brother Matt in 3rd and 4th places.

With both cars sitting within the top 5 leading into the last race of the event, confidence was at a high and both drivers were focused on a podium finish! The competition wasn't going to make it easy though, giving it their all to hopefully push the brothers into going too hard through the corners where many of the competitor cars were faster... Unfortunately, Peter once again came un-stuck on a corner in the RX7 and dropped back to 13th position which was certainly not where he wanted to be on the last race of the day! Peter pushed hard and battled it out to move his way up through the field and finish the day in 8th spot before a lucky lifeline was tossed out by way of a yellow flag and safety car which saw the field bunch back up, giving Peter a fighting chance of being able to claw his way back to the front of the field.

While Mathew was still slogging it out ahead in the RX8, Peter fought his way back through the field, making up as much ground as possible with blinding-fast pulls along the straights where the car is at its strongest, jumping spot to spot and eventually settling into and finishing the race and event 3rd spot behind Matthew for the 2-3 finish - an awesome result from the two drivers and their amazing machines!

After a Huge weekend of racing the whole team were understandably chuffed with their efforts and the results, with all their hard work paying off in the end. To come out after a 4-year break, probably a bit rusty with two new cars and finish in the top three is a great result and one that gives the team a big confidence boost and reassures everyone that the R&D, testing and tweaking prior to this has them pointed in the right direction moving forward.

We couldn't be happier for Peter, Matthew, and the rest of the Ingram Brothers Racing crew and are glad to be part of such a professional and welcoming team and look forward to what we can accomplish in the future. Stay tuned for a video coming soon.