as Plato hails 'world-class' potential

 •‘Mr. BTCC’ tips Bucks racer as ‘future champion’ following superb scrap•22-year-old BRDC SuperStar realises lifelong dream at Rockingham•Speedworks Motorsport ace pays tribute to team’s ‘unbelievable effort’

Tom Ingram has been hailed ‘a world-class driver and future champion’ in the making by the most successful competitor in Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship history following a thrilling wheel-to-wheel duel that yielded his breakthrough podium finish at Rockingham. Having shown scintillating raw speed but been stymied by persistent clutch issues in the previous outing at Knockhill, Ingram travelled to Rockingham – a circuit he loves and one around which he has invariably shone – and immediately laid down a marker by lapping quickest in the opening practice session. The talented Bucks ace proved that was no flash in the pan by backing it up with the second-best time in FP2 – a scant nine thousandths-of-a-second adrift of 2013 BTCC Champion Andrew Jordan. Maintaining his stellar form, Ingram topped the timesheets for a while during qualifying too, featuring up at the sharp end throughout behind the wheel of his Speedworks Motorsport-prepared Toyota Avensis. He ultimately wound up an excellent fourth amongst the 30 high-calibre contenders – a career best – although ever the perfectionist, he admitted to kicking himself for a minor error that he reckoned had cost him a front row slot. Gambling on the faster but less durable soft-compound rubber in race one, the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) SuperStar recovered from a wheelspin-afflicted getaway when the lights went out to battle back from seventh, settling into a multi-car tussle towards the front of the field and taking advantage of a late puncture for Matt Neal to snatch fifth. Controlling his tyre wear superbly as they inevitably faded, he had enough in-hand to fend off Jordan and fellow former title-winner Colin Turkington as they bore down upon him in the closing stages. From 13th on the grid in race two and with 39kg of success ballast diluting his Avensis’ pace, Ingram found himself embroiled in a titanic dogfight in the middle of the order, with some gutsy passes securing him tenth at the chequered flag – right in the slipstream of the scrap over eighth. More significantly, the result earned the Hansford Sensors and RHA-supported MSA Academy member his maiden BTCC pole position for race three, ahead of some of the very best touring car protagonists on the planet. If ever he needed to make a bright start, this was assuredly it – and Ingram absolutely nailed it. Pursued by Jason Plato, Turkington and Neal – multiple champions all – he produced the drive of his life under intense and unrelenting pressure and in the full glare of the ITV4 live television cameras, successfully handling a mid-race safety car period into the bargain. On three separate occasions, Plato managed to sneak by, and each time, his 22-year-old adversary fought back. The third of those moves came at Gracelands – not a conventional overtaking spot – as Ingram bravely went doorhandle-to-doorhandle at high-speed with the BTCC’s record-man to reclaim the lead, causing the packed main grandstand to erupt. Although Plato finally found a way past for good on lap 14, the three-time Ginetta Champion and erstwhile British Karting Champion refused to let him get away and expertly staved off Turkington to the flag to seal the runner-up spoils, sweeping enthusiastically across the line to massive cheers from his team and the crowd. Both his and Speedworks’ first rostrum finish in what is by common consent the world’s most fiercely-disputed tin-top series, few are in any doubt that it will be the first of many. Ingram’s phenomenal performance saw him tally the third-highest points haul of the weekend, consolidating his 12th position in the overall standings and fifth in the Independents’ Trophy during his sophomore BTCC campaign. As he climbed out of his car afterwards, it was clear what the moment meant to him.“This is by far the highlight of my career to-date – something I’ve dreamed about for many years, and today that dream came true,” he enthused. “The BTCC is what I’ve always wanted to do and to finish on the podium in the toughest touring car championship in the world is a lifetime ambition fulfilled.“We’ve had a lot of bad luck come our way both this year and last, but starting from pole in race three was the best opportunity we’ve ever had – I couldn’t believe it when it was my number that was drawn out! I’ve never been as nervous as I was sitting there on the grid, but thankfully I got the start hooked-up perfectly – it gripped and away we went.“When you want something that bad, you will do whatever it takes to fight for it and I gave it everything I had. I don’t think I made a single mistake, and it was hard, fair and clean the whole way through as you would expect when you are racing with a driver of Jason’s calibre – to achieve this result following such an amazing battle with ‘Mr. BTCC’ himself just makes it even more special and rewarding. I honestly don’t know how I held him off for as many laps as I did.“The whole team has put in such an unbelievable effort to get to the stage where we can go directly up against the big boys, and Christian and Amy [Dick – team owners] showed a lot of faith in me last winter when we were struggling to put the budget together and things looked pretty bleak.“I’m such a small cog in this operation and it’s incredible to repay them all like this – when I think about what we’ve done, it’s simply mind-blowing. Speedworks is a real family, and I know how important this result is for everybody involved – it’s a big weight off all of our shoulders.“I spent the entire slowing-down lap in tears – it was such an emotional moment and almost surreal. This podium is for everyone that has helped me along the way, and now we’ve proved we deserve to be here and that we really mean business, we’re already targeting our first win...”Plato was the first to congratulate his former protégé in parc fermé, with the respect between the pair palpably mutual. Describing it as one of the most enjoyable contests in which he had ever been involved, the 93-time BTCC race-winner was effusive in his praise for his young rival.“I’ve worked with Tom as part of the KX Akademy, and we selected him because we knew he was something special,” he revealed. “He has grown with age and that race demonstrated how good he is – he’s on his way to becoming a world-class driver and a future champion for sure.”