BTCC The Contenders- Tom Ingram

After just missing out in 2024 on a second BTCC title, the 2022 Drivers champion Tom Ingram had an excellent season in 2024, but after another season of going into the final race weekend with an opportunity at the championship and remaining the runner-up, can Ingram climb one step higher in 2025?

Ingram has been a champion all the way up the ladder to the BTCC having claimed a titles in 2010 Ginetta Juniors after a year of excellent consistency against title rival Jake Hill, immediately taking the Ginetta GT Supercup- G50 title the following year and then taking the G55 Supercup in 2013 with eleven race wins before signing for Speedworks Motorsport for the 2014 BTCC Season.

After a few steady years with steady progress across 2014 and 2015 where his car was one of the first under the NGTC regulations, 2016 began strong for Ingram with a pole in the opening round at Brands Hatch Indy followed up by his first race win in the opening round of the season. He would claim one more win later that season at Silverstone, but it was 2017 and 2018 where he really became a forced to be reckoned with.

2017 saw him have his breakout year in the BTCC taking four wins that season including another win at the opening round at Brands Hatch. After taking nine podiums, he finished 3rd in the standings before one upping himself in 2018. Remaining with Speedworks he would claim another three wins to finish 2nd place in the standings behind Colin Turkington. 2019 saw Speedowrks evolve into a manufacturer entry with Toyota and Ingram became the team’s sole entry for the season. While he would take another four wins in the season only beaten by Andrew Jordan and Colin Turkington, a late season disappointment at the final race at Silverstone and the opening two races at the final event in Brands left him sixth in the standings. Ingram took another three wins in 2020 where he would claim fourth in the standings and was only sat 24 points off the top off the championship.

After a switch to Hyundai for the 2021 season where he took a further three wins and fourth place in the standings for the second year running, Ingram finally took the BTCC title in 2022 in dramatic fashion against Sutton and Hill in the final round of the season. He claimed the most race wins of the season with six to his name and twelve podiums across the year. After a dominant season by Ash Sutton in 2023, Ingram seemed like his only challenger despite only having two wins to Suttons twelve keeping his championship hopes alive and hanging on by a thread heading into the final three races at Brands Hatch but had missed out come seasons end.

Last season, Ingram once more challenged for the title against long-time rivals Hill, Sutton and Turkington. Taking six wins and fifthteen podiums across the year, Ingram finished runner-up once more he looked strong all year with races like a last to second place drive in round 24 at Donighton Park and a comeback through the top half the grid after being caught up in a first lap incident with Sutton and Cook at the Brands Hatch finale.

Heading into the 2025 he sticks with the Hyundai outfit which has now transformed from Bristol Street Motors to Team Vertu after the parent company merges it’s three brands under Vertu to keep brand continuity.

Ingram speaking after losing out on the 2024 title is already looking forward to the new season stated, “Sometimes, it doesn’t go your way, but we’ll just have to make sure we return even stronger in 2025 so we can take the title back.”

Hyundai, despite being highly competitive since joining the BTCC as a manufacturer entry, are yet to beat BMW and Ford for the title despite winning the drivers’ championship back in 2022. Ingram looking to bring the team forward heading into 2025 and get back to the top of the pecking order.

A key strength for Ingram has been his solid qualifying performances on Saturdays claiming four poles throughout the season, tied with four-time champion Colin Turkington this season. The pace of the Hyundai seems immense in the hands of Ingram whether it is qualifying or race pace making him a tough competitor to beat heading into 2025 and the only weakness the car has showed all year was during the final race at Brands where the car lost pace significantly in the second half of the race in light rain conditions.

On the cars pace in that final race, he stated “We’d done everything we needed to do and were where we needed to be, and then all of a sudden, it was like somebody flicked the ‘off’ switch and that was that. I was three seconds off the pace over the last five laps and an absolute sitting duck, which was massively frustrating, so we’ve clearly got some head-scratching to do as to why it went wrong and where we need to improve.”

Despite this, the Hyundai will certainly remain a contender for 2025 with Ingram at the helm where they seem to make the car stronger in all aspects of performance.