It has been a torrid last couple of months for Tom Ingram, of that there can be no doubt, but as the 2011 Ginetta GT Supercup headed north of the border to Knockhill, he brilliantly banished the bad luck that has been hounding him of late to regain the top step of the podium – and rediscover his early-season momentum.
Having held a commanding 96-point advantage in the title standings following race one at Croft in mid-June, Tom arrived in Scotland sitting just a single marker ahead of his nearest pursuer and well aware that he needed to bounce back and re-establish both his authority and consistency following five nightmare outings, characterised by a succession of mechanical failures and incidents not of his own making – with the previous meeting at Snetterton arguably the worst of his career. He knew he had to re-assert himself as the one to beat.
Happily, for a driver whose efforts have been persistently stymied by a funding shortfall, local man Matthew Kirby generously stepped in to sponsor the talented young High Wycombe star for the weekend – but still, the pressure to perform was indubitably on with a vengeance.
“Last year, we were ultra-consistent and finished every race,” Tom mused. “This year, we’ve had so many failures to finish and other problems already. Snetterton had just been a complete disaster, and I could sense the championship was beginning to slip away unless we turned things around pretty quickly.
“Matthew and I had been in contact with each other for a few months via Facebook, and I know he has been following my career over the last few years – but I never anticipated that it would lead to this! To have that kind of support was absolutely fantastic; for him to say out-of-the-blue that he would fund us to race at Knockhill left me flabbergasted, to be honest – it was just so completely unexpected.
“It was a bit of a novelty and actually quite surreal knowing we would be racing so soon before the meeting – it’s usually such a last-minute panic due to finances – and given how we had done at Knockhill last year with a clean sweep of wins, pole positions and fastest laps, I couldn’t wait to go back!
“It’s a phenomenal circuit – so undulating and flowing – and driving it in a Ginetta G50 was absolutely unreal! I just love it and I know I’m quick round Knockhill, but there were some new kerbs this year, it was my first time around the circuit in a G50 and a lot of the others had been testing there in the build-up, so I was a little bit on the back foot going into the weekend from that perspective.”
Be that as it may, in a wet opening practice session – the kind of treacherous conditions in which he invariably excels – the 18-year-old BRDC Rising Star was quickest straight out-of-the-blocks, and on a similarly sodden track surface in qualifying, he went on to secure his sixth pole position out of seven this year to-date.
“I retained the lead at the start of race one,” he recounted, “but immediately, I found myself struggling to get the car to release from the corners, and Aaron Williamson was able to just drive straight past me as we came out of the first corner on one lap. I felt there was no point in fighting him too hard and risking an accident, because Jody Fannin – who is the closest to me in the championship – was behind, so as long as I stayed ahead of him and didn’t do anything stupid, I knew I would extend my lead.
“I was also experiencing some trouble with the brakes, which meant I couldn’t get the car slowed down as well as it should. Round Knockhill, you really need your brakes, and the problem left me particularly vulnerable into the two heavy-braking zones around the lap – the first corner and last hairpin – and on the last lap, Jake Hill slotted down the inside of me with a good opportunistic move to take second. I didn’t realise it was the last lap at the time, which was my fault for not paying attention to my pit board properly.
“That was a bit disappointing, but you live and learn at the end of the day, and with Jody finishing fourth, I still increased my championship lead, which was the main thing. We really needed that kind of result after all the disasters recently – and I knew that once we solved the issues we had, we could find a lot more speed.”
The bottom step of the podium it might have been, but it was a welcome and popular rostrum return nonetheless for the reigning Ginetta Junior Champion following so long away – and race two would yield an identical result, as Tom found his challenge frustrated by an extremely defensive Williamson and more niggling braking issues, with victory for Fannin meaning he lost the championship lead into the bargain.
He entered race three knowing he needed to battle back straightaway – and confident he had the pace to do just that – but with his title rival unexpectedly being gifted outright pole position on the reversed grid, the Plans Motorsport ace and all of the other G50 competitors found themselves at an immediate disadvantage, with four of the faster G55 machines in-between them and Fannin.
“Jody got the jump at the start and managed to keep the lead for the first couple of laps, but then the safety car came out, which bunched the field right up again,” Tom recalled. “There was gravel across the circuit at the top hairpin from a car that had gone off, and Jody bolted surprisingly early at the re-start, which meant that by the time we reached that part of the track, we were already in fourth gear and he hit the gravel and slid sideways.
“That allowed three G55s as well as Aaron to out-drag him down the straight, and left me right on the back of him. Seeing Jody drop so many places in just 100 yards really motivated me, and I immediately tried to put him under pressure and got past into the final hairpin. I then got my head down and focussed on chasing Aaron, who was about a second further in front.
“It didn’t take me long to catch him, and I tried to force him into a mistake, too. He began missing some apexes, at which point I knew I had the upper hand and I managed to get him up the inside into one of the hairpins. From then on, I pulled away pretty easily and it was plain sailing, really; I was even able to back off towards the end, and I had a bit of fun racing against some recovering G55s who were fighting their way through the pack.
“It was probably one of the best wins I’ve had, on reflection. With Jody starting that much higher up the grid than I was, the pressure had really been on as I knew I had to beat him to reclaim the championship lead. It was just a cracking race and – with him finishing further down – the perfect outcome. I was absolutely ecstatic, and I need to say a big ‘thank you’ to Plans Motorsport and Matthew Kirby for the weekend.”
Indeed, with Fannin dropping away to fifth at the chequered flag – almost ten seconds adrift of Tom – the result has re-instated the former British Karting Champion and Wycombe and Marlow Sports Personality of the Year atop the points table, 11 markers clear and 29 on dropped scores. Having lapped a lot quicker than the other G50 drivers for the majority of the race en route to what was a comfortable triumph in the end, he is now ready to rock on in the next round at Rockingham and really drive that superiority home.
“Everything finally came together and we managed to convert it into a win again,” the highly-rated Bucks speed demon concluded. “I think we proved to everybody that we haven’t dropped off the pace – we’ve still got it and we’re still right in there fighting. We’re back on-track and back to where we were earlier in the season. Normal service is resumed!”
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