Impressive Ingram proves the best-laid Plans don’t always go to waste

The morning before the meeting, he didn’t even know he would be racing, yet barely 72 hours later, Tom Ingram was toasting his maiden victory in the Ginetta G50 Cup and an early championship lead as he launches his bid for back-to-back British crowns.

Tom might be the reigning Ginetta Junior Champion, but even the most earnest of efforts over the winter had sadly yielded little in the way of funding, meaning that just days before the 2011 Ginetta GT Supercup curtain-raiser at Brands Hatch, the highly-rated young High Wycombe speed demon was facing a season on the sidelines – a travesty for a driver of his undisputed talent and potential.

Given his family’s financial situation, he has become well-accustomed during his fledgling career to everything being Lastminute.com, but this time it really did look as if it wasn’t going to happen, until a ‘phone call from Plans Motorsport on the Thursday before the weekend set the wheels in motion. The team needed a driver, and after succeeding in raising some vital eleventh-hour sponsorship following a presentation at a local business networking event, Tom was ready to roll.

“It was heart-breaking, but as the race weekend got closer-and-closer-and-closer, we just thought ‘we can’t give up’,” he reflected of his winter of discontent. “Even though nothing was coming up and it looked pretty bleak, we kept working away at it – and it was a miracle when it all came together! It was just unbelievable – I was overjoyed!”

It was nonetheless a desperate race against time, and with only half a day’s prior running in a G50 under his belt – and having never so much as set foot inside the car he was to drive over the weekend – the 17-year-old was undeniably on the back foot right from the word ‘go’, needing to get rapidly to grips with a machine substantially larger and more powerful than that which he had campaigned in 2010, and with some of his rivals having been out testing since the beginning of the year.

Electrical gremlins throughout Friday practice didn’t help that cause, severely limiting Tom’s mileage and set-up work, and despite the Plans Motorsport mechanics determinedly burning the midnight oil to rectify the issues, by his own admission he was ill-prepared for qualifying first thing the following morning, and heading into the 20-minute session somewhat blind.

That being the case, to snare pole position in class and seventh overall in the 21-strong field – by some margin the fastest G50 competitor and ahead of five of the newer and faster G55 models to-boot – was nothing short of outstanding, as the BRDC Rising Star simply ‘grabbed it by the horns’ and fairly flew as he laid down a potent marker to his adversaries and gave himself a timely confidence boost into the bargain.

His lack of familiarity with the car, however, unfortunately told at the beginning of the opening race, as with no opportunity to make any practice starts, he let the revs drop too low and as the lights went out, his engine stalled and then, he confessed, ‘it was a frantic dash trying to re-start it before anyone hit me!’ Happily, nobody did, and from practically stone last and with a lot of work to do, Tom scythed his way stirringly back through the field to fifth in the G50 Cup and 13th overall at the chequered flag.

Acknowledging his mistake and vowing to learn from it so that it wouldn’t happen again, the former British Karting Champion made a ‘mega’ start in race two to vault himself immediately into the top ten outright and second in class. From there, he grittily chased down the G50 Cup leader and – with overtaking around Brands’ Indy Circuit no mean feat – concentrated on putting his quarry under as much pressure as possible.

Whilst a move might arguably have been on, Tom conceded that it would have involved an element of risk, and mindful of the car not being his own, he maturely settled for the runner-up trophy and the solid haul of championship points that accompanied it.

From P8 on the grid for the third and final encounter, he again absolutely ‘nailed’ the start before swiftly settling into a rhythm and leading the G50 Cup from lights-to-flag, posting a succession of quick and supremely consistent lap times to maintain his advantage.

Keeping constantly in touch with a trio of squabbling G55s just ahead, the Race Drivers Inc. member displayed an impressively level head by refusing to let himself get sucked into their battle, maturely reasoning that ‘they were in a completely different race to me, so there was no point in trying to fight against them – I wasn’t going to gain anything by doing that’.

In finishing a superb sixth outright – less than two seconds shy of fourth – and comfortably claiming the G50 Cup laurels and fastest lap, Tom artfully belied the fact that he had not raced in some six months and now holds an 11-point advantage in the title standings heading to round two at Donington Park, assuming, of course, that the budget can be scrabbled together to allow him to compete there. Plans Motorsport team manager Graham Horgan palpably hopes it can.

“I’ve followed Tom’s career for a while, particularly last year in Ginetta Juniors, and when we had the opportunity to run a second car, Ginetta suggested he would be the ideal candidate,” he explained. “A deal was done at the last-minute, and I was very pleased and looking forward to running Tom for the weekend.

“He drove fantastically well, gave great feedback and showed amazing maturity for someone who’s only 17 – there wasn’t so much as a mark on the car afterwards. It was a shame he stalled on the start-line in the first race – it was just a case of him not being used to racing on slick tyres – as I think he would have got three wins without that. If you have a problem in race one, it messes up your whole weekend, but I thought Tom did a brilliant job to fight back.

“He really demonstrated his potential, and if the funding can be found, we’re very much looking forward to the possibility of maintaining the relationship throughout the season.”

That sentiment is clearly mutual, and thanking all those whose support enabled him to race at Brands Hatch – Cannon Moorcroft, Puzzle IT, Hazel Cooch FCCA, Crown Coaching, Hunter Stuckey Marshall and Aspen Graphic – having already ably proven himself to be the quickest Ginetta G50 driver around only first time out, Tom promises that he will emphatically not give up as he bids to build upon what was truly a dream start.

“It was the first weekend for the team in the championship as well, and they’re a great bunch of guys – if they weren’t a great team, we wouldn’t have won the race,” he enthused, paying tribute to Plans Motorsport and expressing his gratitude to them for coming to the rescue and belatedly saving the day. “I’d like to say a huge ‘thank you’ to everyone at Plans for giving me this opportunity and putting me on the grid at Brands Hatch.

“It was really encouraging to be up there with the G55s, and it showed we had the pace even in the ‘slower’ car! It was fantastic to win on my first weekend in the G50 and with the team. The main aim for the weekend was to get my name back out there, and I thought to come away with two podiums and leading the championship was pretty good. It was great to be spraying the champagne again – it felt just like I’d never been away...”

It looked it, too.

If you are interested in supporting Tom and helping him get to the next round, please call him on 07817 883469 or e-mail: tom@ingram26.fsnet.co.uk