Off the back of an impressive maiden season of car racing in the BTCC-supporting Ginetta Junior Championship, Tom Ingram made sure of leaving his mark when he tried out a single-seater for the first time in one of the new MSA and Autosport-backed Young Guns cars – and his performance and potential drew high praise indeed, with Anglo Motorsport admitting that he is already ‘at the top of their list’ for 2010.
Having achieved a brace of pole positions and a podium finish in Ginettas – despite having had to miss almost half of the rounds due to budgetary constraints – Tom was invited out-of-the-blue to test the 135bhp, 130mph machine around Brands Hatch by Martin Phaff, the brains behind the new initiative and former owner of Ginetta Cars. He may have had only seven laps behind the wheel, but the 16-year-old certainly turned heads in the paddock.
“I was really impressed by the car,” enthused the High Wycombe ace. “It’s really good-looking, and a lot bigger than I had expected it to be. It looks like an F3 car – and it sounds fantastic! I was really, really looking forward to driving it, though at first I was a bit nervous because it was damp, and it was the first time I was going out in a single-seater! Fortunately, as the time got nearer the track started to dry out, and when I went out onto the circuit it was dry enough for slicks.
“I really didn’t know what to expect, if I’m honest – only that it was obviously going to be a lot different to what I had experienced before. It’s hard to describe how it felt; it’s a totally different kettle of fish to the Ginetta – you simply can’t compare the two. I did one cautious lap and then just gunned it. It came pretty naturally to be honest – it didn’t feel all that different to driving a kart.
“The biggest things were the sheer speed, the incredible grip levels and how quickly it would go round corners; you would arrive flat-out, just dab the brakes and turn in. It was absolutely fantastic – an amazing feeling and so much fun! I was just buzzing afterwards – I wanted to go out again and drive lap after lap after lap!”
Notably impressed by his raw pace, consistency and feedback – “From ten minutes on the track, for every single corner of every single lap I could say pretty much exactly what the car was doing...everything I noticed inside the car I fed back to them,” Tom explained – both Phaff and Anglo Motorsport team principal Steve Clark were left waxing lyrical about the former British Karting Champion afterwards, as he now weighs up his options ahead of 2010, with a second season in Ginetta Juniors and a shot at Young Guns glory both serious possibilities, dependent upon what kind of sponsorship he succeeds in attracting over the winter.
“Tom really stood out compared to everybody else who had a run in the car,” underlined Clark, a racer himself at British GT and Porsche Carrera Cup UK level. “I’ve taken on this team to try and do the job, and run it as I think it should be run with my experience of racing for so many years myself. We just want to be able to give opportunities to young up-and-coming drivers, and it’s really exciting when you see someone like Tom, who as soon as he got in the car just clicked. He was on the button straightaway and gave us loads of good feedback; he really did look different to every other driver we put in the car.
“I could scarcely believe he had never driven a single-seater before – that was incredible! For starters the Young Guns car has downforce and a sequential ‘box, and half the weight and nearly twice the power of the Ginetta! It’s a massive difference, and Tom just took to it straightaway. We have a lot of interest now so we have the luxury of being able to pick who we want to run, and if we can put a deal together Tom is definitely at the top of our list.”
“I was very impressed with Tom’s driving,” echoed Phaff, who similarly founded the Ginetta Junior Championship six years ago. “It was the first time he had been in a single-seater and he was very assured, held really clean lines and was very quick. I didn’t get to see him much in Ginetta Juniors, but I understand he shone there too. He certainly impressed a number of people watching in the Young Guns car, and we would absolutely love to have Tom in the series next year.
“Young Guns is an affordable, entry-level single-seater series designed to bridge the gap between karting and Formula Renault UK and discover the stars of the next generation – and it will be on the televised, well-established British Great & Dunlop bill, guaranteeing good exposure. I’ve long held the belief that we need to have a national motorsport single-seater series that’s priced so that people don’t have to give up their homes to see if their kid is talented or not.”
On the basis of his stunning test debut, in Tom Ingram’s case at least, that question appears already to have been well-and-truly answered.
