Battered and bruised Ingram looking for lucky 13

Tom Ingram fought hard for little ultimate reward in his latest BRDC Stars of Tomorrow meeting, but the young High Wycombe ace nevertheless impressed with his grit and determination in the face of adversity as he gets set to return to a happy hunting ground for round four.

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Having been unceremoniously punted out of the action from fifth on the grid at the start of the final in the opening Stars round of 2008 at PF International, Tom travelled up to the challenging Rowrah circuit in Cumbria – a track he acknowledges as one of his favourites – sitting tenth in the drivers’ table out of some 52 Junior Max competitors, and bidding to overcome the 20-point gap separating him from sixth place. From the word ‘go’, however, it became apparent that things would be far from that straightforward.

“We were throwing everything we had at the kart on the Friday – different wheels, tyres, jets, carbs, engines, exhausts – everything,” he explained of his practice woes. “I don’t think there was anything we didn’t change to be honest, but still nothing worked.

“It was near enough doing the same thing all weekend. The handling was fine, but on power the others were pulling 20 feet out on me on the straights. It was just one of those weekends where you could do everything but nothing would happen.”

It would prove to be exactly the same story on the Saturday, but what appeared to be a minor breakthrough on race day morning saw Tom make a superb start to his opening heat race – again from fifth on the grid – to briefly lead the opening lap. He later went on to settle in third spot, pulling away from the battling group behind him despite suffering with a broken clutch that left his engine stuttering coming out of the corners.

Just the 12th-quickest lap time – more than half a second off the outright pace, an eternity in karting terms – paid tribute to the 14-year-old’s supreme talent as he dragged far more performance out of his kart than it was willing to give. Given what had happened the last time he had begun a race from fifth on the grid, it was also something of a relief to see the chequered flag at all…

“In practice the kart felt a lot better,” stated the reigning Wycombe and Marlow Sports Personality of the Year. “I felt happier and thought we might have cured the problem, but of course that turned out not to be the case.

“In the first heat the kart felt really good to begin with. I got up into the lead and thought I had a chance of winning it, then after five or six laps the kart went off. It was just giving me nothing of anything. I was pleased to finish third considering that.”

That, though, was pretty much where the good news would end, as a multi-kart pile-up in front of him in the second heat left Tom with nowhere to go as he ended up the innocent victim of an accident in which he had played no part, sandwiched uncomfortably between two other karts – one underneath him and one on top – and with considerable damage to both man and machine.

“Coming out of the first hairpin, about three or four karts had got tangled up ahead,” he recounted, “and everyone was trying to get around it. Somebody then made a lunge and forced me wide towards the accident. I swerved to avoid it, leaving a huge gap on the inside, which another driver then went for…”

With damage to his Xtreme Racing team chassis, steering wheel, steering column, wheels and stub axles and two snapped track rods, there was much work to be done before heat three – and that was to say nothing of the cuts, grazes and bruises to the driver.

Concerned about not making it through to the all-important ‘A’ final, however, the fact that Tom not only bravely raced, but played it cool to finish 12th despite being in some pain, with a badly bent kart – making right-handers a particular struggle – and under strict instructions to bring it home in one piece, was highly commendable. That he subsequently missed out on getting through to the ‘A’ final by a sole point after all of his efforts was extremely rough justice indeed.

“I wasn’t going to make it obvious that I was in pain,” he admitted, “because then they wouldn’t have let me race in the third heat. I think it was more shock than anything, to be honest. I got out of the kart and was just shaking. In more than two years that’s the first DNF I’ve ever had in Stars.”

That alone is testament to the Monodraught-backed star’s remarkable consistency, and with a number of fellow front-runners also in the ‘B’ final and only four of the 25 drivers receiving promotion to the ‘A’ final, he knew that a good start from pole position would be absolutely crucial. And a good start is precisely what he got.

“There were a lot of good drivers in the ‘B’ final,” Tom acknowledged, “and starting from pole I knew I would just have to keep my head together. My mechanic Stuart told me to ‘drive the absolute nuts off it!’

“I just had to go for it flat-out and nail it off the line. That was really important – otherwise I would not have been able to make the break that I did. Just having that initial gap was enough to stop anyone behind from getting a tow and making a stupid lunge at me or anything. I pushed for about seven laps, then looked over my shoulder and saw that I had a huge lead so I slowed down a bit to save the kart and the tyres.”

Inch-perfect every lap, it was a brilliant performance, with only the sixth-fastest lap time again proving that whilst Tom may not have had the quickest machinery at his disposal, he more than made up for it with flawless skill and precision. Pulling away by as much as 3.4 seconds at one point, he completed the job to absolute perfection in what was a far from perfect kart – proving beyond doubt that he should never have been in the ‘B’ final in the first place.

That notwithstanding, to be in the ‘A’ final at all after all of his travails was something of a triumph in itself, and from 27th on the grid – with two rivals who should have been beginning behind him going unpunished for jump starts – Tom rose as high as 14th position before he once more became a sitting duck, fighting a rearguard action from thereon in en route to 17th at the chequered flag, with only one driver in the 28-kart field ending up with a slower lap time.

“The first five laps went well and it looked like we might have actually sorted the kart,” the British #8 said, “but then it started to go off again like it had done throughout all the heats. I just didn’t have the power; I might as well have been driving a Mini Max…

“Matt Parry [who set fastest lap in the Mini Max class, in which Tom triumphed in 2006] was five hundredths off my lap time in the final, when Junior Max should be a second quicker.”

That, indeed, says it all really, and now lying 13th in the points standings, he has put Rowrah firmly behind him and is keen to get back on-track again at Whilton Mill, where he was on course for victory in his latest outing earlier this year only to be sideswiped by a backmarker on the very last lap.

“I love it there,” he enthused. “It’s a really good track, a proper drivers’ circuit. I’ve usually had pretty good results there, and have won the Brazilian Cup at Whilton a couple of times.

“Whenever I start 13th I always do really well. I won the Renault Champion of Champions title from 13th on the grid – it seems to be my lucky number.”

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