Autosport Top 50 of 2024: #47 Tom Ingram

All of it seemed so good again in April. Tom Ingram radiated confidence, Excelr8 Motorsport’s winter work to its Hyundai i30 N Fastback all properly validated throughout a three-day take a look at within the dry – at Anglesey!

He then burst out of the blocks with pole and two wins on the Donington opener. In every other yr he would have taken the title regardless of his Knockhill slip-up and the pierced radiator that stopped him on the Donington GP in August.

He was good all season, and that Hyundai was excellent too – but a mysterious lack of tempo in greasy-wet situations in Snetterton qualifying and the Manufacturers GP finale stymied him. 

Rival’s view: Jake Hill on Ingram 

When Tom Ingram wins titles, Jake Hill is often someplace shut. Have a look at Ginetta Junior in 2010 (Hill second), Ginetta G50s in 2011 (Hill fourth), the BTCC in 2022 (Hill third)… And, after all, the RAC TT Celebration on the Goodwood Revival simply final September (Hill second). 

So it stands to motive that the reverse will even be true. And, certainly, Ingram was simply eight factors – equal to an eighth-place end – shy of latest champion Hill within the 2024 BTCC standings. Hill’s tackle his rival is that familiarity breeds contentment.  

“There’s at all times going to be niggly bits alongside the way in which – it’s touring automobile racing,” he says of the Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai star. “The Tom relationship, we’ve recognized one another for years, we’ve raced towards one another since we have been 15, and 15 years later we’re nonetheless doing it.  

“We all know the place we stand, however in the end there’s at all times been good respect between me and Tom. I’ve at all times tried to not beat him up an excessive amount of and provides him the room, and I feel vice versa. We’re by no means going to be greatest mates, however we get on and we race effectively collectively.” 

Hardly ever was this higher illustrated than by Ingram’s sportsmanship in not working Hill off the highway in what was successfully the title-winning cross within the ultimate race at Manufacturers Hatch. 

“It was fairly fascinating actually, as a result of in 2022 when he received the title he handed me doing the very same factor, and I gave him the respect that he deserved,” factors out Hill. “Certain, I left him solely a automobile’s width, however so did Tom. However you’re completely proper – it was respectful.  

“There is a little bit of door-banging happening that again straight in the direction of Hawthorn’s, however in the end… It is a part of that relationship that me and Tom have. It’s extraordinarily onerous, however it’s honest.” 

Will Ingram proceed his rivalry with Hill in 2025?

Photograph by: JEP / Motorsport Pictures