fears lack of testing killing title chances
Tom Ingram hung onto the lead of the 2010 Ginetta Junior Championship by what he described as ‘the skin of his teeth’ at Oulton Park – but despite a brace of gutsy performances in the face of adversity, the highly-rated young High Wycombe speed demon reflected that a lack of sufficient budget to test in-between rounds is severely hampering his challenge for glory.
Having stunned with a double pole position last year around the undulating and demanding Cheshire track – one of the country’s undisputed true drivers’ circuits – prior to being collected in somebody else’s accident on race day, Tom returned to Oulton following a full five weeks out of the cockpit since the previous meeting at Brands Hatch, where he had twice ascended the podium in torrential conditions. It was not, he conceded, the ideal preparation.
“When everyone else is out once or twice a week to establish a decent set-up before the weekend, hardly getting any time in the car at all puts us at a massive disadvantage,” explained the 16-year-old, who due to funding woes has not tested once since the pre-season media day. “Unfortunately, that’s starting to show now.
“In the first round at Thruxton, nobody had really been out in the car beforehand and I was half a second quicker than anyone else. Now the others are all testing and moving forwards, and we are standing still in comparison. We have no time to test things and the way my team-mate likes the car is very different to how I like it, so we’re having to do all of our set-up work on race weekends.
“We worked on that all the way through Friday at Oulton, and by the end of the day it still wasn’t perfect – which meant we were still changing things on Saturday morning to try and get it right, when we should have been getting ready for qualifying.”
In the circumstances, a ‘not-too-shabby’ P2 in both Friday sessions was an excellent start, as Tom conceded that ‘you don’t want to push too hard when it’s only practice’. However, a gearbox failure in the afternoon led to some burning of the midnight oil in order to fit a new one for Saturday morning’s final practice run, when red flags meant the Hillspeed ace had no opportunity to set a representative lap time ahead of qualifying.
“The gearbox change played on my mind a bit for the rest of the weekend,” he confessed. “I was really having to concentrate on the gears after that because we know we don’t have the money to replace it if it goes again – and you don’t really want to be driving a racing car and having to worry about things like that at the same time.
“On my last lap in qualifying I set a purple first sector – which meant I was the fastest of anyone – and then a green middle sector, which was a personal best. I was four tenths quicker than I had been before which would have been good enough for pole, but then in the last sector I found a slower car right in my way on the racing line. He was doing about 10mph less than I was through Druids, and that’s the one place around the circuit where you really don’t want to be held up.”
Sadly setting the tone for the remainder of the weekend, what would likely have been P1 ended up as P3 for Saturday’s race and P4 for Sunday, lining up each time directly alongside his chief title rival. Had the errant backmarker not baulked him, Tom might very well have begun both races from pole position, which would arguably have put a different complexion on the whole situation.
Embroiled in a fraught three-way scrap over the runner-up laurels in race one, with only three laps to go it all went wrong as the Conway House-backed hotshot uncharacteristically threw caution to the wind when he has been accustomed to having to drive more within himself mindful of his family’s precarious finances – and he paid a hefty price for what was in reality only a minor error.
“I went into the first corner but I didn’t get it into gear properly, and mid-corner the back wheels locked up and just spun me round,” he recounted. “I was bracing myself and waiting for a big impact, but luckily I didn’t hit anything and was able to rejoin, though some way down. I got back to 12th by the end, but with just one more lap I reckon I could have had another four places, because I was so much quicker than the guys in front of me.
“Afterwards I was kicking myself, because it was totally my fault. Richard, the team boss, said it was the first mistake I’ve made all year and unfortunately one that sacrificed a lot of points – if I had just stayed where I was I would have had a much bigger championship lead. I went into the race in completely the wrong frame of mind – I was excited rather than nervous. I’d never been like that before, and I just pushed too hard...”
The fact that Tom’s two closest rivals going into the weekend failed to take full advantage by similarly finishing off the podium at least to some extent mitigated the damage done, but chastened by Saturday’s rare slip, the former British Karting Champion adopted a different approach altogether on day two, and despite having to battle against both the elements and handling difficulties, a haul of points was his just reward.
“I had lost so many points the previous day that I needed to score solidly on Sunday,” he acknowledged. “We had anticipated rain and changed the set-up a little accordingly, but unfortunately the rain never came. We would have been very quick in the wet. As it was, I was able to keep with the front three for the first few laps, but the car then began bogging down a bit out of the corners because of the set-up. The tyres overheated and I was sliding around, and I ended up fourth.
“I was disappointed overall, because I knew we should have done much better than we did, and that it was my fault we didn’t – but I’m hanging onto the championship lead by the skin of my teeth, and the team were brilliant as always. We need to see what happens at Croft now, but I really like the track – it’s very quick, quite technical to learn and a lot of fun to drive – so hopefully we can get a couple of decent results and extend the lead out again.”
Croft, over the weekend of 19/20 June, is the midway point in the 2010 Ginetta Junior campaign, and on his maiden visit to the North Yorkshire circuit 12 months ago Tom impressed by outpacing all five of his then team-mates to qualify on the second row of the starting grid for both races. Have no doubt, Oulton Park may have dealt him a blow, but Tom Ingram will bounce back – and bounce back even stronger.
Tom is desperately seeking sponsorship to be able to complete the 2010 season; if you are interested in backing him, please call him on 07817 883469 or e-mail: tom@ingram26.fsnet.co.uk
