Ingram triumphs in four-way thriller

Rising karting star Tom Ingram may, with characteristic understatement, have classed his latest triumph as ‘not too bad’, but for those who witnessed it first-hand, it was that and a whole lot more.

By prevailing in a frantic tussle for glory in the Brazilian Cup at Whilton Mill – an annual charity race that this year raised £2,500 for street children in Brazil – the High Wycombe ace not only made it a second success in the prestigious event after previously collecting the trophy in 2006, he also cemented his status as one of the UK’s very finest young motorsport talents.

Tom entered the meeting not expecting a great deal after encountering all sorts of issues with his Junior Max kart in the previous BRDC Stars of Tomorrow round at Rowrah – the 14-year-old being a front-runner in the same series that first set his hero, a certain Lewis Hamilton, on the fast track to future Formula 1 glory – but with the fast, flowing nature of Whilton invariably to his liking and the merciless kerbs benefitting those who race with inch-perfect precision, he was rapidly on the leading pace.

“The competition was pretty tough,” he acknowledged of an elite field comprising a number of Stars and Super 1 regulars including such as Ollie Varney, Michael Epps and Dean Hale, “but I was confident because I knew I was quicker and could probably out-race them too.

“Whilton is an all-round good track; I love it. It’s a real drivers’ circuit, where if you make even the slightest mistake it will get punished.

“We were quickest on-and-off in practice, and when we weren’t fastest we were only a couple of tenths away. That’s not much, and especially when it comes to race situations you can find a tenth-and-a-half in the tow. The kart was a big improvement compared to what it had it had been like at Rowrah, though it was still lacking that extra bit of punch.”

Confusion over tyres in Sunday morning practice left the Monodraught-backed star fired-up for timed qualifying, and he promptly stuck the #80 kart on pole position to the tune of almost three tenths of a second, out-pointing Epps, Hale and Varney and giving little hint that he was suffering with a migraine and had been violently sick only minutes beforehand.

“I just strapped my helmet on and off I went,” he admitted matter-of-factly, letting the adrenaline and his unquestionable commitment do the rest. “I didn’t expect to be quite so far ahead. The kart felt really good – the best it had done for a while – and I was very pleased with that.”

Though he was beginning from the top spot for the first of two gruelling 28-lap races, Tom was not on the grippier side of the grid for the start, which allowed Epps to steal a march on him when the lights went out in the pre-final and leave the reigning Wycombe and Marlow Sports Personality of the Year playing catch-up. And catch him up he soon did.

“I followed him for a lap before getting into his tow at the top of the hill and getting past,” Tom related. “He caught me up again and got back through two laps from the end, after which I followed him for a bit again to see where I was strong and where he was weak. I looked over my shoulder, and Hale was fairly close behind, but not close enough to challenge.

“On the last lap Epps was defending all the way up the hill, and though I got a sling-shot at him I couldn’t get past. As he was continually defending, I knew I would be carrying about an extra 1mph on the straight heading back towards the pits, and in the last corner he went wide and I dived through to win by two hundredths of a second – we were three-abreast and rubbing sidepods going over the line, but I had just managed to get that extra bit of speed coming out of the corner to take it.”

It was a magnificent move – and one that drew gasps of admiration from the crowd and plaudits from his rivals – with fastest lap to his name providing the icing on the cake and the result guaranteeing Tom pole position once more for the all-important grand final.

“This time I was thinking ‘I can’t let Epps get the jump on me off the start-line again’,” he recalled, “and sitting on the grid I was thinking about what to do. Michael got slightly ahead with the better line, but in the first corner I thought ‘it’s a one-off meeting, I’m going to try and go around the outside of him’. That gave me the inside line for turn two, and by holding him out wide I was able to open up a bit of a gap.

“After that I kept my head down and led for the next ten or 15 laps, pushing the kart as quickly as it would go, before looking over my shoulder and seeing that the others were starting to catch me. Michael got me back again at the top of the hill, then going through a right-hander the engine just cut out which allowed Dean to get by too.

“At that point I was thinking ‘I’ve got to keep my head together’, and I kept pushing and eventually caught them back up again. Going up the hill I managed to get past Michael on the inside and hung him out to dry a bit. That allowed Dean to get past him too, and I knew if I could do that it would leave them scrapping and it gave me the breathing space I needed.”

It was another sublime performance, but one that very nearly ended in tears as a backmarker panicked and strayed into his path on the very last lap, turning in on the race leader and sending the back of his kart flying up in the air – in much the same way as had happened in Tom’s previous outing at Whilton, when he had been denied victory almost within sight of the chequered flag when he was clattered into in similar fashion. Though history threatened to repeat itself four months on, this time at least there was a happier ending.

“I honestly thought that was going to be it,” he confessed. “My rear wheels were both up in the air on full lock – God knows how I held it.”

In a spectacular race in which any of the top four could have triumphed – and one described by Tom’s dad Bruce as ‘not a battle, but a war’ – the fact that the winner’s lap time was the slowest of the leading quartet was testament to the fact that whilst he may not had had the fastest kart beneath him on the day, he had certainly made the best use of it.

“My mechanic told me afterwards that I had driven absolutely amazingly,” he concluded as he now gets set to return to Whilton for the next round on the Stars’ schedule, admitting that he ‘needs’ points there following a frustrating start to the campaign. “I didn’t make a single mistake throughout the race, didn’t clip a single kerb or miss a single apex.

“I was really pleased. After Rowrah I hadn’t gone to Whilton expecting to win, so it was definitely a confidence boost, and it’s always good to win the weekend before a national meeting, especially when it’s at the same track.”

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