As Tom Ingram reflects upon a ‘perfect season’ in the 2013 Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup – one that yielded a third car racing crown in the space of just four years – his mentor and team principal have paid tribute to his ‘exemplary’ and ‘exceptional’ effort.Competing for JHR Developments in the ITV4-televised, British Touring Car Championship-supporting Ginetta GT Supercup, Ingram wrapped up the laurels one round early at Silverstone in late September, with an impressive final tally of 11 victories – equalling the series record – five pole positions, 15 fastest laps and an astonishing 22 consecutive podium finishes behind the wheel of his Ginetta G55.That saw the gifted young High Wycombe ace add another title to a burgeoning résumé that already included the Ginetta G50 Championship, Ginetta Junior Championship and British Karting Championship – and as he looks back over the campaign, he admits that he could not have asked for much more.“I’m over-the-moon with the way the season went,” he confessed. “To come away with our third car racing championship in four years was an amazing achievement and an incredible feeling, and it made all the hard work so worthwhile.“The key – as with our previous titles – was consistency. When we had the pace to win, we won, and when we didn’t, we collected the points instead. People have occasionally accused me of just driving around picking up points, but I think 11 race wins silenced that argument. It was the perfect season.“There are so many happy memories. To dominate all three races at Croft was obviously a major highlight, and the final race at Thruxton was pretty special, too, fighting back to take the win from sixth place and four seconds behind the leader, Carl Breeze. Halfway through, I honestly never believed we would be able to close the gap to Carl sufficiently, let alone get past him given his reputation as the best defender in the business – it was always going to be a massively tall order, but we pulled it off, which was tremendously satisfying.“Race three at Knockhill was a similar story, and clearly the greatest moment of all was Silverstone – to win a championship in any situation is hugely rewarding, but to do so at the ‘Home of British Motor Racing’ really was the icing on the cake.”Ingram’s startling success in 2013 also earned him the inaugural KX Akademy ‘Yellow Jersey’ accolade, awarded to the member of the talent development scheme deemed to have shone the most at each race weekend. The 20-year-old SKYCIG and Hansford Sensors-backed protégé prevailed on four occasions to secure the coveted end-of-season financial reward. His KX Akademy mentor Jason Plato acknowledges that it was extremely well-deserved.“It was of no surprise to me that Tom was the winner of the Yellow Jersey competition,” commented the two-time British Touring Car Champion. “He has performed consistently throughout the year and is a very worthy Ginetta GT Supercup Champion. KX Akademy has been proud to support Tom for the past two years and we are delighted that he is our first champion – on and off the track, his performance has been exemplary.”Those sentiments are echoed by JHR Developments founder and team principal Steven Hunter, after Ingram spearheaded the Derbyshire-based outfit’s charge towards the Ginetta GT Supercup teams’ trophy.“It’s obviously been an exceptional and record-breaking season for Tom,” Hunter acclaimed. “The groundwork that we laid down last year as a team really set us up well to come out fighting in 2013.“Looking at his dominance on paper, it would be easy to think that the opposition wasn’t up to much – but nothing could be further from the truth. Everybody knows how strong the defending champion Carl Breeze can be, and there were other drivers out there too that were more than capable of winning races – it’s just that Tom was on another level to them all.“The secret is not necessarily to win every race, but to score more points than anybody else – and Tom’s consistency in that respect has been remarkable, as you could see with his incredible unbroken podium run. We mustn’t discount, either, the hard work of all team members in perfecting the set-up of the G55 and making sure he had a reliable car for every race – it really has been a superb team effort across the board.”“I can’t stress enough how much of a team success this has been,” concurred Ingram, equally effusive in his praise for the group of people that he describes as his ‘best friends’. “Every last member of JHR Developments has played such a significant role. Everybody has worked so hard over the past couple of seasons to lay down the foundations for our title challenge, and that paid dividends. In every race, my G55 was spot-on and we didn’t suffer a single mechanical failure all year – which is testament to all the boys’ expertise and graft.”The British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) Rising Star, MSA Academy member and KENNETT brand ambassador is similarly quick to underline the indispensable support of his sponsors, conceding that he owes ‘a huge debt of gratitude to SKYCIG, KX and Hansford Sensors for continuing to believe in me’. As he sets his sights even higher for 2014, those sponsors will be absolutely pivotal to the next step.“The British Touring Car Championship is where I’ve always wanted to be,” Ingram asserts. “It’s what gave me the motorsport bug in the first place and what has driven my ambition every step of the way. It has been my main goal from the start, and we’ve held some positive discussions with a number of leading teams.“The target now is to raise sufficient budget to be able to join the grid next year. We’re not talking just a small jump, we’re talking a massive leap – four-to-five times more than we had to find for 2013 – but we’re working hard to source it, and I guarantee 100 per cent that we won’t give up until we get there.”