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| March 18, 2009 |
| PROgression: Tom Ingram - Ginetta Junior Championship |
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 | Tom Ingram
(Photo: Chris Walker - kartpix.net) |
Having revealed back at the start of the year that he was hanging up his karting helmet following eight years of competition – yielding the prestigious BRDC Stars of Tomorrow crown along the way – Tom Ingram has now confirmed that he is to graduate to the hotly-fought Ginetta Junior Championship with the front-running Tockwith Motorsports outfit in 2009, as he prepares to launch his car racing career firmly off the starting grid.
During his time in karting, the young High Wycombe star was always regarded as one of the front-runners – and with good reason, with no fewer than 13 major titles to his name. Now he is hoping to put all of the experience and knowledge he has gleaned to good use as he moves into the closed-top sportscar series, which forms part of the support bill for the hugely popular British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), regularly attended by as many as 40,000 fans and broadcast live on ITV4. It is, he acknowledges, quite a step.
“It’s different to what I’m used to,” he mused, with just a touch of understatement. “In karting it’s one man and his dog standing in a muddy field watching some karts go round; here there are 30,000-40,000 people coming to watch.
“I generally cope well with pressure, though. In the final round of Stars at Buckmore Park in 2006, the whole championship rested on just one race and my main rival was starting behind me. It was the most important race of my life, and I managed to pull it off without any mistakes at all.
“Yes, there will be a lot of people watching, but they’re not going to change the result – that’s all down to me. It will be a bit nerve-wracking to begin with I’m sure, especially with the added pressure of live TV, but it’s all about blanking all of that out and just concentrating on the job in-hand – the racing.”
That, after all, is what Tom has always been best at, but he admitted he has had to try to banish some of his karting habits as he gets to grips with the ultra-light Ginetta – with rear-wheel drive and 110bhp, an entirely different beast to tame.
Having passed his ARDS (Association of Approved Racing Drivers’ Schools) test at Thruxton – the fastest and most fearsome circuit in the country – the 15-year-old has since been out on-track at Tockwith, Llandow and in his first major group test at Snetterton, with previous experience of Rockingham to boot. With the initial sessions all about just adjusting to his new ‘office’, he finally got the opportunity to experiment with different set-ups at Snetterton – and his lap times tumbled.
“Thruxton was a strange feeling,” he admitted. “It was different to what I had been expecting. Getting used to the gears isn’t anything major really – it’s just second nature – but being used to driving a kart, your instinct is to automatically correct any movement. The Mazda I was driving had quite a lot of body roll, so initially I was trying to control it. By the end, though, I was able to tell the difference between when it’s just leaning and when it’s leaning to go into a slide.
“The first time I drove the Ginetta was on Tockwith’s figure-of-eight circuit, just to get a feel for the way it behaves and what it does. People who have never driven a racing car at speed imagine it will have no grip and will throw you all over the place, but when you go out there you find you actually have loads of grip and can go into the corners quite hard. Now I’m more used to the car I’ve started chucking it about a bit more and sliding it, getting the back end out.
“Everything just clicked at Llandow, and since then we’ve been getting quicker and quicker and quicker. I think the spin I had there changed everything; I know where the limit of the car is now. I got to the point where it was no longer ‘what is the car going to do?’ Now I know much better what the car is going to do when and where to put it on the track. The key is to learn how the car is going to handle and being brave enough to know that it isn’t going to go anywhere and to put your confidence in it.
“I wasn’t challenging for fastest lap times at Snetterton, because it was my first time out in the car at race speed with competition. Before it was just me against the stopwatch, but since I’ve been testing I feel I’ve got quicker and become a better all-round driver for it.”
 | Ingram on track in his Ginetta Junior Championship car
(Photo: Chris Walker - kartpix.net) |
It is such a highly focussed work ethic and dedication to his craft that convinced Tockwith Motorsports owner Simon Moore to snap Tom up for the 2009 campaign, and the Yorkshireman is positive that with more time in the cockpit and the state-of-the-art facilities his team has to offer, the reigning Wycombe and Marlow Sports Personality of the Year will really be able to turn heads.
“Watching Tom in karting, he was always one of the drivers who put the most effort in,” Moore remarked, “and like all ex-karters he is very capable. It’s all about how much commitment a driver and his family is willing to put into it when they come into the championship, and I certainly expect Tom to be one of the drivers who really pulls his finger out. The family have always put 100 per cent into their racing and everything associated with it, and if he gets the mileage he needs then Tom should be quite a quick learner I hope.
“He is very good at analysing things for his age and uses his brain well, which is excellent. He’s evidently trying his best and I think he will be very consistent, so a podium is certainly not out of the question. There will be good days and bad days, but as long as he can pick himself up again after the bad days I think he will do very well.”
Tom is similarly clearly enthusiastic about what he can achieve with Tockwith, and full of praise for his new team. With the opening meeting at Brands Hatch now less than a month away on April 4-5, the Monodraught-backed ace is palpably champing at the bit to get going, and if he is keeping his immediate expectations under check – well aware that he is still on a steep learning curve – he is certainly hoping to make swift progress as he climbs his way up the grid.
“We know everybody at Tockwith and have always had a good relationship with Simon,” he explained. “We raced with him and his con Nigel in Stars for several years and Simon has watched me over that time, so he knows what my driving style is; that’s a bonus because it means he doesn’t need to spend time getting to know me.
“I think having a lot of cars in the team is actually a big help. I’ve been talking to some of the more experienced drivers in the team and they’ve been helping me out a bit in terms of what gear I should be in when, and where I should be placing the car and so on. All the drivers share feedback amongst each other, which means you can bounce different ideas about.
“I’m not going into Brands Hatch with any expectations, because I’m only just starting out and I’m still getting used to everything. I would be over-the-moon if we managed to finish inside the top ten; to get a result like that in my first race with 22 cars on the grid would be really, really good.
“Ginettas are a new challenge, and I don’t want to put any pressure on myself to do well. Obviously I would like to do well, but it’s definitely going to be a learning year. I certainly don’t expect to be up at the front straightaway.
“I’m with a good team, and all the facilities they have and the group of people involved will help a great deal. Halfway through the season I think we might be able to get a bit closer to the front, and I will certainly put everything I have into it and be trying my best. I want to get at least a podium by the end of the year, and I think with a bit more testing and set-up and track time under my belt that’s definitely possible. I’m nervous about what lies ahead, but excited too.”
To keep up-to-date with Tom’s progress and results, please visit: http://www.tom-ingram.com |
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