BTCC Champion Tom Ingram: “It’s a very weird feeling for me, I’ve never defended a Championship before”

The 2022 British Touring Car Champion revealed at Autosport International that he would like to remain with the number 80 on his car as he defends his first title win.

“I want to stick with 80 I think, I’d like to stick with it. 80 is the journey, I’ve had the number on a car or kart that I’ve raced in since I was 8 years old, and it would feel wrong to leave that away because I have won a championship.

Although the temptation of the number 1 on his car could sway things for him.

“I feel like that’s the sensible thing, and it feels like that’s the right thing to do, but we’ll see maybe my mind will be changed as we get closer to it. I can see it because it does look cool with a number one on of course.”

This season will be the first time that Ingram will come back to a series as the reigning champion, a new feeling for him.

“It’s a very weird feeling for me, I’ve never defended a Championship before. When I won the Ginetta Championship, I won the title and then moved on the following year, so this will be the first time I’ve ever come back to defend a title, and I don’t really know what to expect if I’m honest with you, I don’t know how I am going to feel, because I think there is certainly a lot of pressure because I was feeling it I’ll be honest.”

After writing his name in the history books by being crowned Champion, Ingram is hoping to add his name in different places this season.

“I’m genuinely very excited to come back and do it again, see if we can’t go one better, and get more wins or can lead more laps or the other stats we all look at. We all keep a bit of an eye on them, start to climb up that list of driver wins, who’s got the most wins and start to claw into that, it would be fantastic if we could climb it more.”

Speaking directly to The Apex Motorsport, Ingram shared his thoughts about racing on the Grand Prix layout at Donington Park this season.

“It’s going to be exciting to go back to, It’s a circuit we haven’t done much on of course because we don’t race on it, we don’t do any testing, we’ve got no idea, so very similar when we were proposed to do a different Silverstone layout,

“It just changes it, it means we all have something slightly different to think about from gear ratios, to set up, to all sorts of bits and pieces that come with it.

“There is also the other added complication that Donington’s been completely resurfaced, so again that adds another who knows to the mix, but like you say a new circuit, a new layout to the calendar is fantastic.

“I think it’s a good thing personally, it means it’s something a little bit different, I’m looking forward to the challenge of it, it’s going to be interesting to see how it works out.”

Ingram also has interests in other series he’d like to race in, like Australian Supercars:

“I do like the old V8s, the old supercar, the Aussie V8, weirdly I actually would fancy Formula E.

“I like the idea of like of really close racing with cars that are similar, not the same, but similar, where the teams and drivers, and engineers can work together to make a difference, so if you look at it like BTCCs a good example of that.

“The cars are similar but the driver, the team, the engineer we can all work together to find a little advantage, find the speed out of it, I love that, and that’s where if you look at the Australian supercar series where they are very similar, also with Formula E where it is very very close, very tight, something that where the driving is just part of it that makes it tick.”