After coming up short in his title challenge last season, Tom Ingram is firmly focused on securing the Michelin Ginetta GT Supercup championship this campaign.
The 19 year old enjoyed a stunning debut season in the G55’s in 2012, as he looked to complete a unique Ginetta hat-trick, having won the Ginetta Junior and Ginetta G50 titles in 2010 and 2011 respectively.
While the BRDC Rising Star eventually missed out on the title, he still secured six race wins en-route to third in the championship standings behind Carl Breeze and Tom Sharp.
Ingram is now determined to go two better and secure the championship, however the MSA Academy member knows it won’t be easy with a strong grid forming for the 2013 series.
“It’s always difficult to accurately assess competitiveness at this early stage of proceedings, but there’s no question that the calibre is going to be exceptionally high – there are plenty of very quick drivers in the field, both returnees and newcomers,” said Ingram. “I want to take everything I learned last year and really shift it up another gear. We need to show exactly what we’re capable of right from the word ‘go’, because there’s only one aim in 2013 – the title.”
Ingram heads into the year with both electronic cigarette pioneers SKYCIG and leading energy drinks brand KX continuing their backing for a second season, with Ingram remaining in the latter’s KX Akademy scheme, meaning he will be guided throughout the season by two-time BTCC champion Jason Plato.
As well as continuity with the sponsors, there’s no change in the team running Ingram either, with the MSA Academy member sticking with JHR Developments.
“I’m really happy to be staying with JHR,” Ingram added. “We made a tremendous amount of progress last year, and over the second half of the season, we really stepped it up in terms of the development of the car as well as my knowledge and understanding of how to extract the best from it. It was extremely beneficial for me to be able to control that development and steer it in the direction I wanted it to go, and to be remaining with the same team to reap the rewards of all that effort – for the first time in my car racing career – is fantastic.”
Ingram will be unveiling the new livery of his SKYCIG and KX-backed G55 at the championship’s official media day at Silverstone on 5 March.
