Outpaces all of his rivals in end-of-year classification
Double trophy haul for Team VERTU star at glittering BRDC Awards
Hyundai racer has ‘simple’ objective for 2026 – a third career crown
Tom Ingram’s record-breaking campaign in the British Touring Car Championship in 2025 has been hailed by respected specialist website Touring Car Times, with the long-established outlet ranking him best in the world in its 19th rundown of the ‘Top 30 Drivers of the Year’.
Behind the wheel of his EXCELR8 Motorsport-run Hyundai i30N, Ingram was indisputably the standout performer throughout last season in the UK’s premier motor racing series, with a staggering 28 top ten finishes from 30 starts – all bar three of them inside the top five in the high-calibre, 25-strong field – yielding an impressive 18 trips to the podium.
On seven of those occasions, the talented Bucks-born ace ascended the top step, carrying his career victory total to 40 and elevating him to seventh on the all-time race-winners list in a championship that is nearing its eighth decade.
A pair of pole positions and six further appearances in the ‘Quick Six’ shootout earned Ingram the Goodyear ‘Wingfoot’ Award as the campaign’s best average qualifier, while an unprecedented total points haul of 462 – 34 more than closest rival, Ash Sutton – saw him lift the most coveted trophy in British motorsport for a second time.
That prompted Touring Car Times to place the 32-year-old first on its prestigious roll of honour, which commends competitors from all four corners of the globe. Ingram has been a staple of the countdown’s top ten since clinching his maiden BTCC crown in 2022, ranking second that season – behind only Supercars legend Shane van Gisbergen – and third in 2024. Other previous winners include tin-top royalty Mattias Ekström, Yvan Muller, Colin Turkington, Jason Plato, Scott McLaughlin and José María López.
“It’s a pretty cool accolade, I must admit,” he reflected. “I don’t think as a championship, the BTCC always gets the credit and recognition it deserves. It’s incredibly tough and while it is a national series, everybody involved puts in so much work and operates to such a ridiculously high standard – so to see our achievements acknowledged like this is tremendously rewarding.”
And it doesn’t stop there. Industry-leading magazine Autosport rated the Team VERTU star a career-high 44th in its annual, cross-discipline ‘Top 50 Drivers’ list – ahead of seven-time Formula 1 World Champion, Lewis Hamilton, no less – while Ingram was also honoured at the glittering British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) Awards ceremony just before Christmas.
In addition to scooping his second Silver Star Award – presented to the most successful BRDC member at the pinnacle of national competition – the Coventry-based racer was handed the Earl Howe Award by Sir Jackie Stewart, recognising the most outstanding performance of the year in historic racing. That was for his Royal Automobile Club TT Celebration-winning display at the Goodwood Revival meeting last September, following a crowd-pleasing duel with former FIA World Touring Car Champion, Rob Huff.
Having prevailed in the same race in a TVR Griffith 12 months earlier, Ingram became the first driver ever to triumph back-to-back in two different cars, bringing fans to their feet as he spiritedly hunted Huff down in the closing stages in dismal conditions. Flashing past the chequered flag barely a third-of-a-second in arrears in a nose-to-tail finish, a penalty for his fellow Jaguar E-type driver for a pit-stop infringement secured Ingram the spoils.
“‘Huffy’ is always good fun to race against!” he enthused, “and I find historic racing enormously enjoyable – the further I get into my career, the more I appreciate the value of experience and adaptability. People sometimes ask me if it’s nice to have a weekend ‘off’ and to be able to race without any pressure, but if anything, I feel more pressure in those situations because I’m comparatively unprepared and out of my comfort zone – yet I still want to win!
“Looking ahead to the task at-hand in the BTCC this year, it’s still very early days obviously and there’s nothing to get too excited about yet, but we’ve had a good off-season and I’m ready to get back at it again now. There’s always more that can be extracted, of course, and with the new Saturday format, the importance of every single session will be magnified as there really will be no time to lose. The focus is on continuing to eradicate our weaknesses while further consolidating our strengths.
“If we can improve upon what we did last year and score even more points and wins, that would be pretty spectacular, but that’s exactly what we’re aiming to do. The target is very simple – I want to win a third title.”
Tom Ingram
Date of Birth: 20 August, 1993
Hometown: High Wycombe, Bucks
Career Highlights
2025: BTCC Champion (7 wins, 18 podiums)
2024: BTCC, 2nd/22 overall (6 wins, 15 podiums)
2023: BTCC, 2nd/31 overall (2 wins, 17 podiums)
2022: BTCC Champion (6 wins, 12 podiums)
2021: BTCC, 4th/35 overall (3 wins, 9 podiums)
2020: BTCC, 4th/36 overall (3 wins, 11 podiums)
2019: BTCC, 6th/32 overall (4 wins)
2018: BTCC, 2nd/41 overall (3 wins, 9 podiums); Independent Drivers' Champion
2017: BTCC, 3rd/37 overall (4 wins, 9 podiums); Independent Drivers' Champion
2016: BTCC, 10th/36 overall (2 wins, 6 podiums); 4th/24 in Independents' Trophy
2015: BTCC, 13th/39 overall (2 podiums);
5th/29 in Independents' Trophy
2014: BTCC, 14th/32 overall (rookie season); 11th/28 in Independents' Trophy
2013: Ginetta GT SuperCup Champion (11 wins, 22 podiums)
2012: Ginetta GT SuperCup, 3rd overall (6 wins, 17 podiums)
2011: Ginetta GT SuperCup (Champion, G50 Class - 10 wins, 18 podiums)
2010: Ginetta Junior Champion (5 wins, 13 podiums)
Image: Jakob Ebrey Photography
