TEAM Vertu achieved another three podium finishes in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) at Snetterton.
Title contender Tom Ingram finished second in race one before Adam Morgan and Tom Chilton both stood on the podium in race two.
However, the Droitwich-based team just missed out on a top-three place in the final race as Ingram had to settle for fourth.
Ingram achieved his 100th podium finish in the BTCC with his result in race one and sits second in the drivers’ standings on 117 points behind early leader Ash Sutton.
However, the Coventry driver could not hide his frustration after suffering a potentially costly DNF in race two.
Ingram said: “In the end it’s been alright, but I’m kicking myself over race two as that one was down to me.
“Despite that, we’ve scored decent points from a second and a fourth, and it could certainly have been a lot worse than it was.
“Even though the car wasn’t perfect in race one, I really enjoyed the battle with Ash before taking second, and then in the final race, having more hybrid and being able to deploy it at a lower speed made a massive difference.
“It was really enjoyable and it could have been even better if we’d not picked up a bit of damage from the incident with Jelley.
“Hitting 100 podiums this weekend is something I probably didn’t expect when I joined the BTCC grid and whilst I want to add more wins and more championships to it, it’s a nice number to reach.”
Team Vertu headed into the weekend having secured a podium finish in every race of the season so far.
And Ingram’s second-place finish in the first race stretched Vertu’s podium run to seven races.
Further back, Morgan placed sixth and Chilton seventh while debutant Ryan Bensley finished 16th.
The team substituted Touring Cars racer Bensley in for Michael Crees for all three races at Snetterton.
And Vertu backed up their opening race podium with another two in the second race.
Both Morgan and Chilton stepped onto the podium although a rare error from Ingram saw him spin and crash out at turn one with Bensley down in 18th place.
Vertu saw their podium streak come to an end in the third and final race of the weekend.
However, Ingram produced a magnificent drive from the back of grid to finish fourth despite an early scare after he was hit by the spinning car of Stephen Jelley.
Further back, Morgan placed 15th with Chilton 18th and Bensley 20th.
Vertu remain top of the teams standings on 231 points with Napa Racing UK just behind on 218 points.
Bensley added: “I’ll admit that I was nervous coming in about the potential of being at the back, and I’d prepared myself for the fact that it was possible given how late the deal was and the fact that I’d had no time in the car.
“I just wanted to have fun and see what I could do in this championship, and I feel the only thing I was really lacking was seat time.
“When I look at the data, I can see that I’m losing time in the high-speed sections of the track where it’s all about confidence and that comes with time in the car.
“However, I can’t thank Team Vertu enough as everyone has been so welcoming and has really helped me learn as much as possible.
“In the final race when it was all kicking off in front of me, I just wanted to get my elbows out and get involved as the racing around me was just bonkers. The whole experience has been brilliant.”
The BTCC season continues at Thruxton on the weekend of June 7 and 8.
