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Tom Ingram - Ginetta Juniors and Karts

Rising star Ingram rubs shoulders – and wheels – with F1 legends 

It is not very often that, as an aspiring young racing driver, you get the opportunity to go wheel-to-wheel against former F1 stars and Le Mans 24 Hours winners – but for Tom Ingram, that dream became a reality when he was invited to compete in the popular annual Johnny Herbert Karting Challenge. 

Back in the summer, Tom returned to his karting roots in the midst of his maiden car racing campaign in the BTCC-supporting Ginetta Junior Championship, and finishing an excellent second in a special Red Bull Racing-backed outing at Daytona Raceway Milton Keynes, doggedly chasing down the leader – experienced sportscar competitor Chris Dymond – for all he was worth in the closing stages. 

The High Wycombe driver obviously left a lasting impression, because when organisers were drawing up the list of entrants for the end-of-season Johnny Herbert Karting Challenge, his name again featured prominently – and he headed to Docklands Raceway in London for a bit of fun...with a competitive twist. 

“It was first mentioned a while back, when we did the race at Milton Keynes,” Tom explained. “I then didn’t hear anything more about it until two or three weeks ago, when they told me I was in the team – that came as quite a surprise!  

“Milton Keynes had been a lot of fun, so I was really looking forward to getting back in the kart at Docklands – though I had no idea just how many people would be racing! At Milton Keynes there had been ten drivers in the race I was in; at Docklands there were 22 teams of six drivers each! It was definitely the biggest event I’ve ever competed in.” 

Admitting that the track was ‘pretty good fun’ – bucking the general trend of short indoor circuits – Tom twice put his team’s down-on-power kart fifth on the grid during qualifying, but as his less-experienced team-mates similarly took their turns, the RaceDriversInc.co.uk entry slipped down the order to an eventual ninth position. 

Quicker than his five team-mates – two of whom similarly compete professionally, with the other three being enthusiastic amateurs – the former British Karting Champion was entrusted with driving the second and last stints, when he determinedly hauled the kart up from 14th place to 11th at the chequered flag, and set a superb best lap time for the team that would incredibly have been good enough for third on the grid in qualifying.  

More importantly still, the 16-year-old’s efforts allowed the RaceDriversInc.co.uk crew to claim the internecine honours in their fraught duel with sister team RaceDriversInc.com – even though a brace of black flags for his team-mates arguably cost the sextet a top ten finish in the final reckoning. 

There was even the odd skirmish along the way with the likes of organiser and 1995 British Grand Prix winner Herbert, Michael Schumacher’s former F1 team-mate Riccardo Patrese, ex-Super Aguri star Anthony Davidson, five-time Le Mans winner Emanuele Pirro and GP2 Series debutant Sam Bird amongst others... 

“It was a lot of fun!” Tom enthused. “I’ve never done anything like a team event before – it felt quite odd to be relying on other people to do your work for you! That was something very different for me. 

“It was great to be battling with such big names – and having a few altercations with a few of them! You see them on TV, but you never think you’ll actually get the chance to race against them at any point. Some people were really competitive – and I think I was one of them! 

“The atmosphere was really good; there were so many people there – the place was absolutely jam-packed – and it was for such a good cause as well, being in aid of the Harry Birrell Scholarship Trust. All of the teams raised a lot of money for charity, and we got two shirts signed by all the celebrity drivers too that will be auctioned off at a later date. I just really enjoyed the day.”

 pics : Jeff Bloxham

Tom Ingram - Ginetta Juniors

Ingram signs off season with double score – and vows to go ‘all-out’ for glory in 2010 

Promising young High Wycombe motorsport star Tom Ingram ended his maiden campaign of car racing in the Ginetta Junior Championship with a double points score at Brands Hatch – and then vowed to put all that he has learned this year to good effect in 2010 with a concerted assault on title glory. 

Tom headed into the finale of the hotly-fought closed-top sportscar series aiming simply to remind his rivals that they would do well to watch out for him, having been forced to miss three of the four previous meetings since the mid-season break due to a lack of funding. 

A red flag-punctuated opening practice session, however, did little to aid the 16-year-old’s efforts to get to grips with Brands’ celebrated GP circuit, having competed around the shorter Indy layout in the championship curtain-raiser all the way back in April. Still, the fourth-quickest time of the 18 competitors present in sector three hinted at the potential that remained to be untapped. 

“We knew the weekend was going to be all about trying to regain some ground really after having missed a few rounds,” reflected the former British Karting Champion, “so we were just aiming to score points and move up the table a bit if we could.  

“Unfortunately, in practice people were just pushing too hard, too early and spinning off and crashing all over the place. What I desperately needed was track time to get out there and learn which way the track went to be honest – and not being able to do that was frustrating. Some of the other drivers had been there testing the previous week but we couldn’t afford to do that, so that definitely put us at a disadvantage – we weren’t able to get enough laps under our belt to sufficiently refine the set-up.” 

Nonetheless, come the end of the day Tom had improved from 12th overall to an impressive fifth, barely a second shy of the leading pace and only one spot adrift of the champion-elect. That being the case, grid positions of ninth and seventh respectively for the two races fell some way below expectations, particularly as the Booker driver had been third on the timesheets until the very dying moments of the qualifying session, when a number of drivers improved but he didn’t. Worse still, come lights out in race one he swiftly became the victim of some end-of-term over-exuberance. 

“At the start I was pushed right the way across the track, nearly into the pit-lane exit wall,” recounted the Conway House Dental Practice, Terry Payne and Joe Bloggs-backed driver. “If I hadn’t braked I would have been in the wall! That cost me a lot of places, and then coming out of Paddock Hill Bend into Druids I was again forced right the way onto the grass, which left me boxed out through Graham Hill Bend. I dropped from ninth to second-to-last within the space of just three corners.  

“After that my pace was good, but everyone was defending so much that it was difficult to come through the pack and I ended up 13th, though less than a second away from the top ten. I was disappointed because I would have liked to have done a lot better, but that’s racing I guess – it was the last meeting of the year, so there’s always going to be a bit of push and shove. 

“In race two I got off the line pretty well at the start and got through Paddock Hill Bend fine, and then heading up towards Druids I managed to get down the inside of a few people, but it appeared that there was more grip on the outside line so a lot of drivers went round there which left me boxed in again. I dropped right the way down the field due to that, but then I just got my head down and concentrated on being aggressive and making moves when I could.  

“As it was the end of the season, I thought I would just go for it; there was nothing to lose at that point. I haven’t been able to drive like that for a long time – I’ve always had to be cautious – so it was nice to go out there and not have to worry about what would happen if someone hit me or if I spun. It was good fun working my way back through to seventh, and a really exciting race. I had a few good battles and got past Alex Austin down the inside on the grass through Dingle Dell on the last lap! I had so much momentum I just thought ‘I can’t stop now...’” 

Indeed, ‘can’t stop now’ is something of a mantra of Tom’s impressive fledgling career to-date, as he and his family have overcome all manner of financial obstacles to keep him on the grid and showing his mettle right up at the sharp end.  

Having missed almost a third of the season due to his shortfall in budget, the reigning Wycombe and Marlow Sports Personality of the Year can be proud indeed of what he has achieved during his rookie campaign in cars after stepping up from karts – with a podium finish, brace of pole positions and consistently eye-catching drives along the way, en route to an eminently respectable 12th spot in the final championship standings. At times a rollercoaster ride and invariably an experience, looking back, Tom is satisfied – and looking ahead he is already fired-up for the next challenge. 

“I don’t think the results we got at Brands reflected the pace we had over the weekend,” he mused in conclusion. “They were just spoiled by the bad luck we had at the start both times. That’s what I know I need to work on the most for next year. 

“Since the accidents at Oulton Park and Croft in the summer I’ve had to be really careful to avoid any more damage – it’s always been in the back of my mind that I can’t afford to chuck it off the track – but if we can get together the money we need to come back in 2010, I’ll be able to be a lot more aggressive and really go all-out to win.” 

pic Lee Foxon

Ingram back on the grid, back on the pace – and back in the points 

Following an 11-week absence from the grid that he admitted had been one of the longest waits of his life, Tom Ingram finally returned to action in the Ginetta Junior Championship at Silverstone, and proved that the enforced break had done nothing to either dim his on-track skill or competitive hunger with a brace of strong points-scoring finishes. 

A lack of funding had led to the young High Wycombe star having to sit out the previous two meetings at Snetterton and Knockhill – costing him almost 150 potential points, and with that all hope of what had looked like being a superb top five championship finish in his rookie season of car racing. When he rejoined the fray at the celebrated ‘Home of British Motor Racing’, he confessed to a mixture of excitement, anticipation – and just a few nerves... 

“I was feeling excited, because I had been out of the car for a while,” Tom revealed. “Silverstone is a great circuit with a lot of history behind it, and I was just looking forward to getting back into the car again and hopefully getting a decent result there. I was a bit nervous going into the first practice session, but I coped with it fine.” 

Eleventh-quickest in both Friday sessions as he dialled himself back into the groove, the 16-year-old’s efforts were hampered somewhat by handling and set-up issues caused by a twitchy rear end, but after they were resolved Tom fairly flew, lapping fifth-fastest amongst the 17 competitors in the final practice session on Saturday morning, barely seven tenths adrift of the outright pace. 

He would go on to snatch sixth and fourth positions on the grid respectively for the two races in qualifying, meaning that out of 12 attempts, he has now lined up inside the top half dozen on eight occasions – a brilliant record for one of the most inexperienced drivers in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) support series, and one that proves he is also indubitably one of its fastest learners. 

“It was all just about getting back into the car and getting used to it again,” Tom acknowledged, “but that didn’t take too long. I was pleased with my qualifying performance, but afterwards my dad told me that if I’d found just a few more hundredths I’d have been one place higher both times, and the annoying thing was I got demoted to sixth on the last lap. I was happy with the car in general; there were a few things that could have been better, but you just have to drive through that.” 

A battling eighth in a ‘boring’ if closely-contested race one – ‘there was just a lot of yo-yoing of positions, but it was a decent result, and we got solid points and no damage’ – made way for a very different second encounter. Out on dry-weather tyres in slippery conditions that even the BTCC pros had struggled in, race two was anything but dull, as the reigning Wycombe and Marlow Sports Personality of the Year recounted. 

“I knew I didn’t really have the pace to be pushing the leader,” he mused of his expectations, “so again I was just hoping for a decent result with no damage. It was my best start of the year so far – I got to the first corner and I was leading it from fourth! I just dived through the middle and then got pushed right up against the pit wall and thought ‘I ain’t backing out of this!’ 

“I kept my foot in, but then because it was wet and I was the first one to test the conditions – no one knew what it was going to be like, so the leader is always the guinea pig – I got a massive slide on into the first corner and the car stepped right the way out. I lost a load of momentum and a few people were able to jump past me. I was very mindful of not being able to afford any damage, and after that it was just about keeping it on the island, putting decent laps together and keeping out of trouble.” 

That he undoubtedly did, and along the way Tom enjoyed entertaining scraps with a number of rivals – most notably namesake Tom Howard – as the Ginetta Junior field scrabbled around for grip and traction with light rain rendering the track surface treacherous. For a long time part of the second-placed tussle, and at one stage the fastest man on the circuit, the former British Karting Champion eventually took the chequered flag less than two seconds shy of the podium in sixth – and stated that he had not enjoyed himself so much in a long time.  

“They said ‘as long as you get loads of heat into the tyres on the warming-up lap and keep that heat in them it shouldn’t be too bad’,” the Tockwith Motorsports ace recalled of the conditions, “and it wasn’t to be honest. I just had to keep the power down and drive through it really; it was the same for everybody else, and everyone was sliding about. I had a few scary moments, but at the end of the day we finished. 

“It was a really good battle with Tom – we were swapping places nearly every corner! I was a bit annoyed, admittedly, because I thought if we hadn’t been battling we could maybe have caught up to the pack in front, but regardless of that we still had a good, clean race between us. We didn’t touch once, and that’s how racing should be. 

“The whole thing could have gone any way to be fair – all you needed was for one driver to have a slip-up at the front and chuck a few people off. Saying that, someone did spin right in front of me on one of the laps which mucked my momentum up. The most important thing was that we got another good, solid result and stayed out of trouble. At the end of the day I’m really pleased. I’ve come away with two decent results, good points and no damage to have to pay for, which is one thing off our minds now.” 

Indeed, with budgetary limitations ever at the forefront of his family’s concerns, the importance of keeping his car in one piece at all costs can scarcely be underestimated, and looking ahead now to the penultimate meeting on the 2009 calendar at Rockingham on September 19/20th, more of the same is the clear goal. Whilst fifth spot in the final drivers’ standings is still mathematically within reach, at just eight points adrift of ninth, Tom recognises that a top ten finish is now a more realistic target.  

“We’ve got three weeks to scrabble together enough funding to be able to go to Rockingham,” concluded the Joe Bloggs, Conway House Dental Practice and Terry Payne-backed speed demon. “Fingers crossed, we might be able to get there, but we still need some more money to be sure. I’ve done ten laps round there in a T-Car, and it’s a fantastic track to drive. You’ve got the tight, twisty bit which is quite narrow, and then you go onto the ‘oval’ section and there are just massive banks, which were designed for IndyCar-style cars. 

“At the beginning of the year I was hoping for a top five or six championship placing, but now after we’ve missed two rounds I think it’s more sensible to aim for a top ten.” 

For a driver looking increasingly like the complete package – his racecraft has always been peerless, his qualifying in Ginettas is excellent and now he has mastered the starts too – it seems the pieces of the jigsaw are all beginning to fit into place. Watch this name – Tom Ingram has a very bright future ahead of him indeed.

pic Bob Bull

Ingram storms through the spray on one-off return to karting roots

He may now be a regular front-runner in his maiden campaign of car racing competition, but Tom Ingram ably reproduced the kind of form that saw him crowned British Karting Champion in 2006 on a one-off return to his roots at Milton Keynes’ Daytona Raceway.

Enjoying a well-deserved mid-season break from the Ginetta Junior Championship – in which he is currently placed as top rookie, Tom was approached by Race Drivers Inc. (RDI) with a view to participating in a special, Red Bull Racing-backed Summer BBQ and Race Day alongside sportscar driver Chris Dymond, single-seater specialist Ollie Millroy and former karting sparring partner Alice Powell amongst others. He didn’t need asking twice.

“I was contacted about it the week beforehand, completely out-of-the-blue,” explained the Booker-based 15-year-old, who is backed by Joe Bloggs and Conway House Dental Practice. “I received an e-mail from the RDI explaining what they do and what the event would involve; they said there would be a showcase race, and would I like to be a part of it?

“I was really keen straightaway, and there was no cost to us either, which given our financial situation was obviously the most important thing. We went along and it was brilliant fun! I hadn’t been out in a kart in ages, but it was good to meet a lot of drivers I didn’t know before, and a good way of trying to promote the sport.”

Following just three practice laps to adjust to his restricted Rotax Max-style mount – not a million miles away from what Tom had raced in his last year of karting in 2008 – the Tockwith Motorsports driver qualified third in the ten-strong field of professional drivers, behind pole-sitter Dymond and Powell. Visibly back in the groove, any notions that the 15-minute race was to be a purely ‘friendly’ encounter swiftly disappeared out of the window.

“I really wanted to do well, and secretly I’m sure everyone else did too!” revealed the reigning Wycombe and Marlow Sports Personality of the Year with a grin. “I was there to have a good time, but you can’t tell a racing driver not to go out and try to win!

“I hadn’t raced at Daytona since I was eight, but it was always one of my favourite tracks when I was in karting; it’s quite fast and flowing, with tight and twisty sections too. Given I hadn’t been out in a kart at all since last September it wasn’t easy, but it only really took me about two laps to get back into the swing of it. It was good fun climbing back into a kart – you realise how easy they are to hold onto compared to a car!

“In the race we went out in the pouring rain on slick tyres! It was a rolling start, and Chris, Alice and I got a break in the first few laps. Alice and I passed each other a few times, and I was thinking ‘why are we doing this? Chris is getting away...’ She then made a mistake into the first turn, which held me up a bit, and I couldn’t get past properly until the following corner. I went up the inside and held her out wide, but by that time Chris had built up a bit of a lead.

“After the first four laps I began to peg that gap, and with the times tumbling as the track dried out I was closing and closing on him. When I came over the top of the hill for the final time and saw the chequered flag being readied, I got an awesome run on Chris and got into his tow.

“I then went for a mega lunge of a lifetime into the last corner, real do-or-die. I was about five or six kart-lengths back and just launched it up the inside of him, but because it was still very wet off-line I couldn’t slow down quickly enough on the exit. It was worth a go, though...”

Indeed it was, and as he lapped on occasion as much as two seconds quicker than his quarry on the treacherous track surface and came away with the fastest lap time for good measure, it provided proof positive that Tom’s karting talents have far from deserted him, even after almost a year away from the category. What’s more, the winner had competed at Daytona only a handful of weeks beforehand in an endurance outing, and reflected afterwards that had the race continued just one more lap, it would likely have been a different driver on the top step of the podium. 

“Tom drove a great race,” Dymond acknowledged. “I was able to pull away at the start as he was battling with Alice, but he reeled me in and was very close at the end. At only 15-years-old, I was impressed. He clearly has a bright future in the sport.”

Pics Bob Bull

Ingram confirms front-runner status as Ginettas head for mid-season break 

Tom Ingram underlined his status as one of the very brightest young motorsport talents Britain has to offer with another front-running performance in the Ginetta Junior Championship at Croft – but for the second meeting in a row, the High Wycombe star left counting the cost of significant damage from an incident that was not his fault. 

Tom headed to the North Yorkshire circuit off the back of a rollercoaster ride at Oulton Park, where he had stormed to a stunning double pole position in qualifying – in just his fourth outing in cars since graduating from karts, with the title of British Karting Champion to his name in 2006 – only to be unceremoniously removed from the action when he found himself unwittingly caught up in another driver’s accident on race day that tore the front end of the #80 machine apart and left his family and Tockwith Motorsports team facing an all-night repair job. 

That meant his aim for Croft – one of a majority of tracks on the calendar of which the rookie had no previous experience – was to secure a solid haul of points, and after proving to be a top ten fixture throughout practice, he wound up an impressive sixth-quickest at the end of the opening day amongst the slightly depleted 18-strong pack, barely six tenths of a second shy of the top spot.  

From there, the 15-year-old headed into qualifying with high hopes – and third and fourth positions on the grid for the two races, just half a second from pole, would not disappoint. His supreme consistency, indeed – one of his qualities right the way through karting – saw his two fastest efforts separated by a mere two thousandths of a second, and it is consistency, at the end of the day, that wins championships. 

“After the shunt at Oulton we were just trying to get some points back,” he acknowledged. “Of course I wanted to finish as high as I could, but the primary goal was to get some more points on the board. The steering was still a tiny bit out, but there’s nothing you can really do about that and you’ve just got to drive around it. I didn’t feel like it was hindering me at all, and that apart the car felt really good. 

“I had been watching YouTube beforehand to try to learn the track a bit. Although it’s quite tight and twisty, it’s still flat-out in places too; there are a lot of corners where you need to be late on the brakes and make sure you get the apexes spot-on. It’s quite a complicated circuit to learn at first. 

“Practice was a good start, but no-one really looks at the timesheets in testing and I wasn’t entirely sure what we could do in qualifying – after the double pole at Oulton, nothing was ever going to be as good as that! I was just aiming to get a decent starting position really from where to battle for points; I was hoping to be inside the top five, but it was still quite a surprise to get third and fourth.” 

It also meant that Tom has now qualified inside the top four more times than not during his fledgling car racing career to-date, with six top four starts from ten races and an average grid position of 7th, an incredible achievement given his comparative lack of experience relative to the opposition, many of whom are in their second year in the series. And the first race at Croft would only serve to corroborate that scintillating form... 

“I got a blinding start and jumped straight through the middle of the two Tollbar cars on the front row and into second,” he related. “I then got into the tow of Aaron Williamson in the lead and was going to try and make a move into Tower, but he defended too well. After that I just concentrated on trying to keep my speed up to maintain the pressure on him, but on the next lap Jake Hill got past me, which dropped me to third.  

“I was lining him up to get him back again, but then I lost two more places at the last hairpin – one driver came through and because that pushed me off-line another was able to follow. After that I had (championship leader) Sarah Moore about a second-and-a-half behind me for the whole race, always in my mirrors, and I knew if I made just one small mistake she would be on me, so I had to try and focus on not making any slip-ups whilst closing on the guys ahead at the same time.  

“On the penultimate lap the leader Chris Swanwick went off at Sunny Out, which gave us all a run on him. Thomas Howard went down the inside of him and I tried to do the same, but I wasn’t quite close enough to make it stick and we both ran slightly wide and lost a bit of momentum. At the same place on the last lap Swanwick got Howard back again, and then going into the final hairpin they were both defending really hard.  

“I was hoping they would knock each other wide, and in any case I knew I was probably going to get a better run than at least one of them out of the hairpin. I managed to draft Howard over the line by less than four hundredths of a second... I was pleased, but at the same time a little bit disappointed because I would have liked to have got another podium after making such a good start.” 

Nonetheless, just 2.7 seconds shy of victory at the chequered flag marked the closest he has been to the winner to-date, and as in qualifying he crossed the line as the best-placed of the six Tockwith competitors. A rostrum finish was firmly in his sights in race two, but then disaster would strike, with a nudge from behind on the opening lap leading to the reigning Wycombe and Marlow Sports Personality of the Year’s car being collected by another, damaging the rear end, radiator and water pipes and leaving the bonnet in four pieces. The misfortune prompted championship co-ordinator Stewart Linn to muse that Tom must be the unluckiest driver in the field, having twice now seen his car destroyed through no blame of his own. 

“I think this is the most DNFs I’ve ever had!” rued the Monodraught, Joe Bloggs and Conway House Dental Practice-backed ace. “You can get away with damage a lot more in karting – it’s not so easy in cars. Overall, though, I think it was a good weekend, because again I showed I’ve got the pace to be up there.” 

He unquestionably has, and not only that, but sitting eighth in the title standings halfway through the campaign – with a seven-week break now until round six at Snetterton in early August – he has thoroughly transformed himself from a lower-to-mid-grid challenger on his debut to a regular podium contender scarcely two months on, punching well above his weight. By any standards, that is a truly remarkable feat – and one that has given his rivals considerable food for thought over the summer recess.

Rollercoaster weekend for pole star Ingram at Oulton Park 

Tom Ingram experienced a real rollercoaster of emotions in the latest Ginetta Junior Championship meeting at Oulton Park, storming to an  double pole position in only his fourth-ever outing in cars only to be wiped out of contention minutes into his opening race. 

Despite having featured consistently inside the top three on the timesheets around the undulating  Cheshire circuit in pre-weekend testing, the young High Wycombe driver was unsure as to whether he would even be racing at all due to severe budgetary concerns, but with  funds having been scraped together at the eleventh hour, he was able to take to the track in qualifying.  

What’s more he picked up from where he had left off on the test day b y setting fastest time, and by the a decent margin, nearly half a second for race two.

“The track is just awesome!” enthused the former BRDC Stars of Tomorrow British Karting Champion. “Nearly every other corner is blind and going over the top of a hill. It’s definitely a drivers’ circuit which is what I like, and we had been amongst the very quickest on the test day so I was feeling pretty confident going into the weekend that I could do fairly well. 

“Obviously I wanted to get pole, but I never actually thought I would – to end up there was amazing! You never have an absolutely perfect car – you always have to compromise somewhere – but we changed it a bit more after practice and that just seemed to transform it. I was able to carry a lot of speed into the corners and I was consistently quickest and on pole for near enough the whole session, and never out of the top two.  

“When I came over the line and saw the chequered flag and P1 on my pit board, I was just over the moon to be honest. Any advantage you’ve got is always good, but half a second was more than I’d been hoping for, and to know I had that under my belt was really satisfying. All the leading names were there, so to qualify on pole in my first season I thought was pretty good really.” 

Considering his  lack of experience in the series and time in the car, it was truly a remarkable feat, and one that proved he is  getting to grips with his car and surroundings. Moreover, it meant that his usually stated ambition of a top ten finish went out of the window for race one, before a tardy getaway dropped Tom down to third when the starting lights went out. 

Heading into the second lap trying to regain his advantage, disaster struck! Exiting Cascades and accelerating away up Lakeside straight, leader Pippa Coleman clipped the kerb and spun broadside across the track – leaving the driver of the pursuing Monodraught and Joe Bloggs-backed #80 machine with literally nowhere to go. 

“The more seat time you can get the better it’s going to be,” Tom underlined. “That’s what you need to be able to improve at the end of the day. I now know I can brake later in the car and it’s not going to let go on me. It’s all about gaining trust in the car, and knowing you’re not going to throw it off the track if you brake at a certain point. 

“We knew we had the pace for the races, and I thought as long as I didn’t make too many mistakes, I would be there or thereabouts. I didn’t feel too much pressure because nobody expected me to be up there; I was just nervous about having the opportunity and not wanting to mess it up, but unfortunately at the start I picked the clutch up too soon and bogged down off the line. 

“The top three of us broke away a bit, and going through Old Hall for the second time, Jake Hall ahead of me made a bit of a mistake and clattered the kerb. I got the run on him and went for the inside into Cascades, but he chopped across my nose so I decided it would be safer to back off. Pippa then dropped it on the exit of the corner, and I didn’t have any time to react.  

“It’s one of the fastest parts of the circuit at 90 or 100mph, so the car is already unsettled going through the corner and sliding and bouncing about. Pippa went one way and then the other, and I couldn’t avoid her. I had nowhere to go; you’ve got a thousandth of a second to make a decision, and when you’ve got a car going across the track in every direction right in front of you, you just don’t know which way to go. I don’t blame Pippa, because it’s hard to say what I’d have done in the same situation with 21 cars all coming towards me flat-out.” 

Whilst understandably shocked, Tom was thankfully otherwise unscathed by the hefty impact, but if his was far from the only badly damaged car on a tumultuous weekend, then his family are arguably the least well financially-equipped to deal with it – and the consequences were devastating. The bonnet, radiator, wishbone, steering rack, steering column, chassis and centre console were all barely recognisable, and the gearbox had been pushed forward to where the gear lever should have been. When he went to bed to try to shut the incident out of his mind, nobody would have predicted that the Tockwith Motorsports driver would be out again to race the following day – but he was. 

“To fix it in time for the next day I thought was pretty amazing,” he reflected. “When I went to sleep the car was in bits, and I had been all up for racing around the track on foot to be honest! People were up working until the early hours of the morning on my car, and for everyone to pitch in like that was incredible. You don’t expect everybody to just drop everything and help you like that, but they did. They said ‘we will get this done’, and they just worked and worked and worked. I want to say a huge thank you to Simon, Martin and Shaun for all they did.” 

Though the car was far from the machine in which he had achieved pole position, Tom did exactly what was asked of him on day two, keeping out of trouble and staying with the lead scrap despite handling difficulties to take the chequered flag a competitive seventh in a flawless display of damage limitation. 

“The car didn’t feel good,” recounted the reigning Wycombe and Marlow Sports Personality of the Year. “Everything was working, but the steering was at completely the wrong angle, which meant that if I let go the car would drift to the left. We finished working on it with barely 20 minutes to go, and after that it was just a case of shut up and get on with it really.  

“Every time someone went for a move on me I was just thinking ‘please don’t take me out!’ Given what the car had looked like after Saturday’s race, anything was an accomplishment to be honest. To get the car onto the grid in the first place was pretty good, and we got some points on the board too so we did the job. 

“Despite the accident, overall it was a good weekend, and to be able to say I got pole in only my fourth-ever car meeting was pretty good. My goals have definitely changed now. Back at the beginning of the year if I’d finished seventh I would have been very happy, but now it’s disappointing.”

pic  courtesy of Lee Foxon

Ingram shines through Donington spray – but fears lack of funding could curtail season 

Tom Ingram overcame both a complete lack of wet-weather running and engine dramas to register another top six finish in his maiden campaign of car racing as the Ginetta Junior Championship visited Donington Park at the weekend – but the young High Wycombe driver fears his season may go no further as funding has dried up.

Eighth place on his Brands Hatch debut was followed by a superb fourth position and then a rostrum finish at Thruxton, the 15-year-old is certainly looking like the ‘genuine article’. Heading to Donington for round three, he was undeniably in buoyant spirits. “We walked the track when we got there,” he related, “and going down the Craner Curves was pretty amazing. You see it on TV, but to experience it close-up like that is something else. The whole track is a real drivers’ circuit, sweeping up and down and from corner-to-corner and gearchange-to-gearchange – you don’t really get much chance for a rest around the lap!

“It was raining throughout Friday practice, and you can’t believe just how slippery the track is in the wet – it was great fun! It was my first time in the car in the wet, and I was just power-sliding and completely sideways through some of the corners at first – it felt like being back on the skid pan again! It was all steer and counter-steer as the car kicked back.

“At one stage I got back on the throttle when I thought the car was pointing in a straight line again and it just spun me round. I had a couple of ‘moments’ to be honest, but you’ve got to find where your limits are just as long as you don’t chuck it in the gravel or barriers like a lot of people did. I think there were something like 12 red flags in the space of three hours...”

Happily, Tom was not the cause of any of them, and – a bout of sickness aside – eighth spot at the end of the opening day having run inside the top half dozen for most of it was a highly encouraging start. Fully aware that a talented driver can compensate for a lack of experience when the weather conditions turn inclement, hopes for qualifying were high – but an engine problem would see the Monodraught and Joe Bloggs-backed driver unable to get fourth gear, leaving him down in an entirely unrepresentative 16th position at the close.

“I knew the times weren’t there,” he confessed, “but I felt like I literally couldn’t push the car any harder; it was sliding through the corners enough as it was. I was getting on the power as early as I could on the exit of the corners, but no matter what I did I just couldn’t keep with them.

“I would catch them on the brakes and through the corners, but on every straight they would just pull out half a car length on me – which equates to around two car lengths a lap around there. I was following one driver, and though I closed right up into every corner, when we went to accelerate away again he was gone.”

The issue was subsequently traced to a 2007-spec engine mapping having been mistakenly left on the ECU (engine control unit) last year, when the car should have been equipped with 2008 maps. That had resulted in the spark plugs becoming jet black and prevented the engine from revving high enough to reach fourth gear.

“The team owner Simon Moore told me I must have just driven the absolute balls off it to get up as high as I had been at Thruxton!” Tom joked. “The mapping was changed, and when I woke up on Sunday morning I found it revved a lot more and was a lot more responsive on the throttle and I thought ‘we could be on for something here’.

“It was dry on the warm-up lap for race one, but as we were sitting on the grid it began to drizzle. It carried on like that for the first four laps and it was good fun fighting my way through, but then going uphill onto the straight we were suddenly greeted with flat-out rain. We got to the last chicane and it was absolutely soaking wet, and after that everybody was just tip-toeing around trying to keep it on the island – but at the same time of course you still have to push as hard as you dare to stop others from steaming past you.

“At one point coming onto the back straight we were three-abreast; I had my team-mate David Moore to the left of me and Max McGuire to my right on the inside. It was like that all the way down the straight, and at the end of it I looked across and saw both of them still there and I thought ‘there’s no way I’m giving this up’, so I just braked immensely late and cut across in front of Max and managed to keep both places. I was pretty proud of that, but it did get a bit hairy for a moment...”

Hairy or not, sixth at the chequered flag – a ten-place improvement on his grid position and barely six tenths of a second shy of fifth – was a superb result for the Tockwith Motorsports star, and Tom would go on to successfully battle against a far-from perfect set-up and a succession of knocks in a fully wet race two to cross the line 11th and preserve his 100 per cent finishing record so far in 2009.

Moreover, the performance has kept the reigning Wycombe and Marlow Sports Personality of the Year firmly in the hunt in an excellent fifth in the drivers’ standings out of 24 competitors, and comfortably top rookie – the only question now is whether he will be able to continue his impressive challenge.

“The conditions in the second race were tough,” he concluded, “and it was just about keeping it on the circuit for a lot of the time, because it really was hammering it down. I was starting on the wetter side of the track on the outside – the inside had been dried out more as it was on the racing line. I wheel-spun away and got a huge slide leaving the grid, but I managed to make up a couple of places on the first lap and then I got launched from behind. Later someone pushed me out wide, drove down the inside of me and then turned across my nose, which has left us with a lot of damage to both the front and rear of the car.

“I haven’t really had much time to think about what happens next or whether we’ll be even be racing in round four at Oulton Park, because we’ve got so many other things going on. We’ve got to raise the finances to be able to continue, because the way things are we’re not going to be able to complete the season. It would be devastating for me if we can’t carry on.”

Ingram ‘over the moon’ with podium in fourth-ever car race! 

Tom Ingram admitted to being overwhelmed at having taken his first ever podium finish in only his fourth outing in the Ginetta Junior Championship at Thruxton, as the former BRDC Stars of Tomorrow Karting champion belied his lack of experience to put in a great display around the fastest track in the country. 

Having gone into the Brands Hatch curtain-raiser three weeks earlier practically blind in terms of knowledge and seat time, a test day at Thruxton gave Tom a great confidence-boost, as he lapped up at the sharp of the 18 competitors present, ending up an encouraging sixth in the morning and eighth overall at the end of the day. 

“It was the first time we had ever been out on scrubbed tyres,” the 15-year-old related, “and to be in the top six was pretty jaw-dropping really! I came round and saw P2 and the number four on my pit board, which I misinterpreted as meaning I had just two laps left and was four seconds off the pace. I thought ‘there’s no way I’m that far off’, so I ended up pushing harder and harder and harder until I nearly binned it! I thought I should probably calm down a bit then, and when I came in I was told I had in fact been second-quickest!  

“I was pretty amazed to be honest. That was definitely a confidence boost, because if you are quick in testing you know the pace is there, so come the race weekend we knew we were going to be there or thereabouts, and it was all really a question of just keeping a cool head. Even if you don’t qualify that well, you know you can make the places up if you have good race pace. It’s all about the tow at Thruxton too – if you can get into the tow, the amount of time you can find is massive, because the circuit is practically flat-out everywhere!” 

Entering the weekend with high hopes of building on the eighth-place finish he had on his debut at Brands Hatch three weeks ago, Tom did do so in with some style.

Staying out on wet tyres in free practice as the track surface dried left him in 13th, but with new rubber bolted on for qualifying he secured a superb third on the grid amongst the 22-strong field for race one – barely a tenth of a second shy of the front row – and followed it up with seventh for race two. Indeed, he even held pole position for much of the session, despite admitting to being plagued by understeer. 

“I was turning into the first complex and just waiting and waiting and waiting,” the Monodraught and Joe Bloggs-backed ace explained. “I think I was probably going into the corner too hard, when I should have been braking and turning in earlier and more calmly. I was just braking really hard, changing down the gears as fast as I could and chucking it into the corner, when I should really have been Mr Smooth.” 

Nonetheless, P3 was a superb effort, and despite his lack of practice in terms of standing starts, the Wye Valley School pupil made a strong getaway when the lights went out in the opening encounter. He then went on to duel energetically with fellow karting graduate and Tockwith Motorsports team-mate Carl Stirling, before ultimately getting the better of the Irishman – who would go off in a haze of tyre smoke in his attempts to keep up – to take the chequered flag in a wholly unexpected fourth place, despite suffering a slight scare along the way... 

“Two or three hours before the race we were all having a laugh and a joke, but with an hour to go I decided to return to the awning, just concentrate and get in the zone and focus on what I was going to do,” Tom recounted, revealing a remarkably wise head for one so young. “There wasn’t too much pressure on me, because nobody had really expected me to be up there. I just had to try and keep calm, make sure I got a decent start, get into the tow and not make any mistakes. I got a good start and was then able to put consistent laps together, get into the tow when I needed to and make moves straightaway. 

“At one point, Aaron Williamson ahead got a tank-slapper on, lost the back end and was practically out in the field. In that kind of situation, though, the momentum carries you back onto the track, and as Carl and I went left to avoid him, his car snapped left too. That forced us both onto the grass, and right as I was going past Williamson – flat-out and sideways on full opposite-lock on the grass – his car suddenly swung towards me again, before I came bouncing back onto the track to be chucked one way and then immediately the other! 

“There was a huge tyre wall coming up ahead of me, but I thought ‘I’ve done all this hard work, I’m not giving it all up for this’ and I managed to hold onto the car using what I had learned on the skid pan up at Tockwith. It did get a tiny bit hairy for a few moments...” 

If it was a remarkable save, it was an even more remarkable result, just six seconds shy of victory at the chequered flag and with a fastest lap a mere six tenths off the best of the race – and it left Tom vowing to go better still in race two. With the throttle body on his car having been cleaned out overnight – immediately rendering the #80 machine noticeably more responsive and crisper to drive – the reigning Wycombe and Marlow Sports Personality of the Year would be every bit as good as his word, engaging in a fraught tussle with David Moore that tested both his nerve and his mettle to the absolute limit. 

“I wanted to do even better on Sunday,” he confessed, “and when I was lying in fourth chasing David I thought ‘I can’t really let myself down now’. I had latched onto the back of David earlier in the race and we worked together as he pulled me along and up to the fight over fourth place, which brought us both right into contention. I knew I had the pace and that I was easily quick enough, and I got by him on the inside heading down into Church.  

“With two laps to go he overcooked it as he tried to get back past again and missed the apex of the corner, which threw him over to the outside of the track. I got a mega run on him and got him going across the line to begin the final lap. I was once told that the last thing you want at Thruxton is to be just ahead of someone going into the last lap because of how much potential there is for slipstreaming round there, and I think that lap was pretty much the longest I can ever remember! David was putting pressure on me like you wouldn’t believe – I couldn’t see anything in my mirrors except for his car just swerving all over the place trying to find a way by!  

“He had a lot of pace and I kept expecting him to stick his nose up the inside – he couldn’t have been more than about a foot away from the back of my car for the whole lap, which meant I had to concentrate on not putting a wheel out of place whilst trying to both defend and attack at the same time! He was just pushing and pushing and pushing, and if I had missed a single apex or missed a gear by a fraction or had a single slide he would have got me, but I was just able to brake that little bit later so he couldn’t attack me and managed to keep him there for the whole lap.  

“We came across a backmarker in the last corner of the lap and I was able to force David to take the outside line around him. I went over the line screaming inside the car – my throat is still hurting now! I reckon they must have heard me on the pit wall, because I was just going mad! The whole team was really pleased for me, and Simon who runs it told me I had driven a fantastic race.” 

Indeed, many remarked afterwards upon Tom’s pace, racecraft and consistency from lights to   flag – with no less than Ginetta Cars managing director Richard Dean noting his performance as the hallmark of a driver with a promising future ahead of him. As weekends go, it couldn’t be faulted in any way. 

“I was over the moon with the result,” the Booker-based speed demon enthused, “and kind of shocked too to be honest. We couldn’t really have asked for any more. At the beginning of the weekend none of us had thought we’d be coming away with a fourth and a third. To come away with those results only second time out made me absolutely chuffed. I’ve always said that if I could get a podium by the end of the season I would be happy, and we got one in just our fourth race...” 

Tom now sits fourth in the championship and top rookie as he heads to Donington Park on 16-17 May. He might be keeping his feet firmly on the ground in limiting his objectives to just the top ten again, but following his Thruxton success he is certainly heading to the East Midlands circuit for the first time with an added spring in his step.

Pics Lee Foxon and Jakob Ebrey Photography