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After eight years, no fewer than 13 major titles and countless memories that will never leave him, Tom Ingram has hung up his karting helmet – as he prepares to accelerate his promising career up a gear by moving into cars for 2009.

Though still only 15, Tom began karting professionally back in 2001 – and it soon became clear that here was a very special talent indeed.

“My first recollection is of watching my dad racing a couple of times,” the young High Wycombe ace reminisced. “When the kart was in the garage – nice and clean as my dad always insists – I would sit in it and pretend to be driving over the finish line in first place.

“When I was just five, my mum and dad bought me a kart for Christmas, and on Boxing Day I sat in it on a brick with my dad revving the engine up. He then agreed that he would push me down the drive, and if I could stop as close to the garage door as possible he would let me go out to a local kart track the next day. It wasn’t really what you might call an efficient test, but it proved to him that I knew what to do!”

Three titles in his first full season of competition – in Formula 6 Open Cadet and local circuit Bayford Meadows’ Open Cadet Summer and Winter Series’ – more than confirmed that Tom knew what he was doing, and there would be further laurels the following year, in the Lydd Honda Cadet Summer Series, as well as runner-up spots at both Bayford and Buckmore Park.

Three more championship successes would follow over the following two campaigns – including the prestigious and hotly-fought Renault UK Champion of Champions outing at Buckmore – before the undisputed crowning glory of the reigning Wycombe and Marlow Sports Personality of the Year’s karting career, victory in BRDC Stars of Tomorrow’s Mini Max class in 2006, following in the wheeltracks of no less than his racing hero and 2008 Formula 1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton…and leading to him being rated as one of seven exciting young drivers to keep an eye on in a special Hamilton-focussed magazine.

What’s more, Tom did so with just the support of his family-run Ingram Racing outfit behind him, up against drivers and teams with infinitely more funds at their disposal. It was a true David vs Goliath triumph, and proof that talent, unstinting commitment and dedication and sheer hard work can sometimes win out even when the chips are down.

“One of the biggest highlights was obviously winning Stars,” he acknowledged. “I feel that was my greatest achievement. To win the championship with only a small budget and just my mum and dad did make it all-the-more satisfying. It sounds selfish, but it meant we couldn’t pass the success onto someone else – we didn’t have a big team of people behind us; it was just the three of us and we did it all by ourselves.

“We were on a shoestring budget and up against all these drivers who had maybe four or five times as much money as we had and a new chassis every other weekend. We had to work a lot harder for it, but I would prefer to have to work for it and win it in the last round by just a point than be handed it easily on a plate. That’s what a championship should be about – all coming down to the last lap of the last race of the season.

“Winning Renault Champion of Champions was really big for me too. That was one of the biggest single race meetings on the UK karting calendar, with some huge prizes. Off-track, exhibiting at the British Grand Prix and racing in the Live Action Arena at the Autosport International show were both great opportunities too.

“Going to the Autosport Awards – the Oscars of motorsport – after winning Stars is also a memory that will stick with me forever. Myself, my mum and my dad had been working so hard all year, and all of a sudden there we were at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London with Lewis Hamilton, David Coulthard, Jenson Button and Andy Priaulx next to us.”

Despite his success, Tom almost wound up not competing at all in 2007 after his family nearly

paid the price for investing all they had into his racing by coming close to losing their house. Happily, though, a saviour arrived in the form of ventilation company Monodraught which, encouraged by the two-time Brazilian Cup winner’s potential, signed up to sponsor him in an agreement which continues today.

Following two successful years spent in Junior Max, the decision was taken to make the leap into cars this year, with a deal to compete in the British Touring Car Championship-supporting, televised Ginetta Junior Championship – what Tom describes as ‘a huge step forward in my career’.

“We’re going into a new world,” the touring car fan admitted. “Obviously karting is a platform, and as such it tends to teach you all-round racecraft – about overtaking, the lines you should be taking on the track, where to position yourself, what to do when this happens and so on.

“From Stars I’ve also learned how to handle myself in front of TV cameras. Touring cars are broadcast on live TV, and obviously you don’t want to be stumbling over your words in that type of situation, so that kind of training has been a big bonus for me alongside the driving benefits.

“I think what I’ll miss most of all about karting are the people and the frenetic buzz of it all; there’s always something going on. I’ve been in karting for most of my life and have made a lot of friends over the years. I know I won’t lose them now because I’m leaving, but it will be different. At the end of the day, though, I’m not there to make friends – I’m there to race.

“I’d like to say a huge thank you to Carolynn Hoy and all the team at the Stars for organising such a good championship – I have enjoyed racing there for the last three years. Also, without Monodraught we wouldn’t be where we are now, so we are extremely grateful to them.

“Ginettas are a new challenge, and I don’t want to put any pressure on myself to do well. Obviously I would like to do well, but it’s definitely going to be a learning year. I certainly don’t expect to be up at the front straightaway.

“I’m with a good team and all the facilities there and group of people involved will help a great deal. Halfway through the season I think we might be able to get a bit closer to the front, and I will certainly put everything I have into it and will be trying my best. I’m nervous about what lies ahead, but excited too.”