Tom Ingram

Tom Ingram (born 20 August 1993 in High Wycombe) is a British racing driver, currently racing in the British Touring Car Championship. Having won the Ginetta Junior Championship in 2010 and the G50 class of the Ginetta GT Supercup in 2011, Ingram was named a British Racing Drivers' Club Rising Star in 2011.^[1] He won his first BTCC race in Round one of the 2016 season at Brands Hatch.

Karting

2001

Ingram started his racing career at the age of 8, karting in the Open Cadet Class. In his first 5 races, he came 3rd once and won 4 novice awards, racing in the Formula 6, Buckmore Park and Bayfords Meadows Summer Championships. In the winter of that same year, Ingram also competed in the Sandown Park Kart Club Championship and finished 2nd. In his second year of the Open Cadet karts, he won 8 of the 12 races in Formula 6 and 6 of the 8 rounds in the Bayford Meadows Summer Championship winning both championships. He also set 3 lap records at 3 different circuits.

2002

In September 2002 he stepped up to the F6 Honda Cadet Championship and the Bayford Meadows Winter Championship and won all 3 races and the championship.

2003

In 2003 he took delivery of a brand new Project One Honda Cadet chassis and used this for the rest of the season which was the National "O" plate finishing 3rd overall he also won the Lydd Championship and came second in both the Bayford Meadows and Buckmore Park Club Championships. He also finished 3rd in the Formula 6 Championship.

2004

Later in 2004 Ingram contested in the Super 2 National Championship and the Formula 6 Championship. He finished 2nd in the F6 and 6th in the National 4 stroke Championships. In October 2004 he changed classes to 2 stroke Rotax Minimax using a Tonykart Chassis (the minimax is a class that uses an adult sized chassis and 125cc water cooled 2-stroke Rotax engine).

2005

In 2005 Ingram managed to finish 3rd in the Buckmore Park winter championship, 4th in the Bayford Meadows Winter Championship and 1st in the Lydd Winter Championships. He also finished 2nd in both Buckmore Park and Bayford Meadows Summer Championships and gained many other notable results in the year including 2nd in The Brazilian Cup and 1st in the Renault Champion of Champions meeting his first major win.

2006

In 2006 Ingram won his first ever British Championship which was The BRDC Minimax Stars of Tomorrow Championship. 2006 also saw Ingram compete in the Super 1 British Kart Championship but a bad accident in the second round saw Ingram hospitalised and out of the championship. Ingram voted local Sports Personality of the year.

2007

2007 saw Ingram compete in the BRDC Stars of Tomorrow Junior Max Championship which he finished 8th. He also won the Brazilian Cup at Whilton Mill. Ingram voted local Sports Personality for the Year for the second year in a row.

2008

In Ingram's final year in Karts he competed in every major competition in the UK including Stars of Tomorrow, Super 1, Kartmasters but struggled with finances and missed some of the rounds.

Motor racing

2009

In Ingram's debut season in cars he competed in the Ginetta Junior Championship, which is a one-make support championship for young drivers between 14-17 year olds on the BTCC (British Touring Car Championship) package, racing Ginetta G20s. He finished 12th in the championship after missing 6 rounds due to funding issues. He managed to get onto the podium in his second race as well as getting 2 pole positions and 5 top 5 finishes.

2010

2010 saw Ingram win the Ginetta Junior Championship with the Hillspeed team getting 13 podiums, 8 fastest laps, 5 wins and 6 pole positions. For this year, the old Ginetta G20 had been replaced by the new Ginetta G40. As a prize for winning the championship Ingram had a full day's testing with Pirtek British Touring Car team finishing the day just half a second off the time set by Andrew Jordan set in the morning. During the winter of 2010 Ingram made it into the final four of the Formula Renault Racing Steps Foundation Scholarship.

2011

In 2011 Ingram became a BRDC Rising Star and was competing in the Ginetta G50 GT Supercup class, although he had very limited testing he managed to get used to the new car and won the championship with 2 rounds to spare; he managed to pick up 10 wins and a total of 18 podiums, 13 fastest laps and 13 pole positions starts. Ingram also made it into the final four of the Porsche Supercup Scholarship.

2012

2012 sees Ingram compete in the Ginetta G55 a 3.7ltr V6 380bhp sportscar class of the Ginetta GT Supercup racing for JHR Developments, Ingram won Jason Plato's newly launched KX Academy scholarship and secures funding and mentoring for the rest of the season. During this season Ingram had 6 wins, 17 podiums, finished 3rd in the championship. Ingram was voted Radio Le Mans Young Driver of the Year.

2013

For 2013, Ingram remained with JHR Developments in his Ginetta G55 in the Ginetta GT Supercup. Ingram was invited to drive a MG ZR 190 for MG dealer Brown & Gammons at the MG Live event at Silverstone.^[2] He qualified on pole, and won race 1 by over 6 seconds, also taking the fastest lap. In race 2, he won by almost 16 seconds and took the fastest lap again.

Ingram finished the season as the 2013 Ginetta GT Supercup Champion with 22 consecutive podiums, 11 wins, nine 2nds, two 3rds, five poles and 15 fastest laps.

Ingram was the only member of Jason Plato's KX academy to win a championship and remains very proud of this achievement.

2014

Ingram made his British Touring Car debut driving for Speedworks Motorsports in their Toyota Avensis and despite this being one of the first NGTC cars Ingram made some good progress with 13 top ten finishes.

2015

Ingram re-signed for Speedworks Motorsports in their very heavily revised Toyota Avensis. In race three at Rockingham Ingram secured his first ever podium after a titanic battle with his former mentor Jason Plato and despite swapping the lead on a couple of occasions he finished a very emotional 2nd. This race was voted by the fans as the best race of the season. In the season finale Ingram secured his second podium with another 2nd place.

2016

Ingram re-signed for Speedworks Motorsports in the Toyota Avensis and at the Brands Hatch Indy circuit he qualified on pole for the first race of the season setting a new Touring Car lap record of 47.994 and then went on to secure his first British Touring Car Championship race win. He also secured his first Independents Cup race win.

In the second meeting at Donington Park Ingram secured his second podium of the year with a 3rd place in race one.

Racing record

Career summary

* Season still in progress.

Complete British Touring Car Championship results

(key) Races in bold indicate pole position (1 point awarded – just in first race) Races in italics indicate fastest lap (1 point awarded) * signifies that driver lead race for at least one lap (1 point awarded)

References