THIS MONTH… • TOM INGRAM’S NEW CHALLENGE • ARON TAYLOR-SMITH ON HIS RETURN • STEPHEN JELLEY GOES BACK TO THE BEGINNING • WHAT’S IN A NUMBER? • THE LATEST BTCC NEWS
FEBRUARY 2021 EDITION
NEW HORIZONS FOR TINGRAM IT’S ALL CHANGE FOR TOM INGRAM FOR 2021 AS HE MOVES AWAY FROM SPEEDWORKS FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HIS BTCC CAREER
announcement that T he Tom Ingram was to leave Speedworks was arguably one of the biggest surprises of what has proved to be a busy winter period for the BTCC paddock.
News of a split broke just before New Year, with the announcement being one that few would have seen coming -
given the fact that it was a relationship that had been ongoing from the moment Ingram moved up into the series in 2014.
Speedworks progress from being a solid midfield outfit to one more than capable of challenging for the championship title.
Driver and team had appeared to be the closest thing to being a family team without actually being a family team for a number of years, with the 27-year-old having helped
However, as Speedworks looked to expand to run a second car for 2021, it became clear that differing commercial requirements for team and driver would prevent
a deal being done for another year.
That left the double Independents champion to explore his options elsewhere on the grid - with the need to find a package that would work commercially, but that would also provide him with the chance to fight for race wins and to challenge for a first championship title.
Ingram, a driver who sits inside the top 20 on the alltime winners list and who has been a serious championship contender for three of the last four years, was understandably in demand, with a number of teams expressing an interest in securing his services.
As it was, third-year oufit EXCELR8 was the one that was able to offer the most attractive deal, with Ingram
putting pen to paper on a multi-year agreement with the Hyundai team.
But having become part of the furniture with Speedworks, how does he now feel about moving on to pastures new?
"I’ve been with Speedworks for my whole career in the BTCC so far, so I have never known any different," he reflects.
"The situation we found ourselves in was a bit like one Andrew Jordan faced in the past with his Pirtek backing, and I had to put my sponsors first.
"Any deal I did was one that had to work commercially for them, and unfortunately that just wasn’t possible with Speedworks for 2021.
"There were no hard feelings from anyone about it, and when it became clear that we wouldn’t be able to agree a deal, there were a lot of offers on the table.
"I’d say probably 90 per cent of the grid were interested in doing something but in the end, moving to EXCELR8 was an easy to decision to make.
"As a team, they have done well in the past in the MINI Challenge, they understand the commercial side of things and what I need from a deal, and I just like the way they go about their business.
"When I had the first call with Justina [Williams - team owner], we were able to discuss a possible deal but then ended up on the phone for an hour just chatting about life in general.
TIME FOR A NEW CHAPTER WITH A STORY TO TELL FROM EACH BTCC SEASON TO DATE, ARON TAYLOR-SMITH TURNS A NEW PAGE FOR 2021
O season that exceeded all n the back of a 2016
expectations, Aron TaylorSmith headed into 2017 confident of fighting towards the front of the BTCC field.
Returning to the Triple Eight team that had given him his series debut, the Irish racer was seeking to impress at the wheel of the teams MG6 GT, with the target being to add to the four wins he had secured by that point in his career
What followed however was arguably one of the toughest seasons of his career.
The year would provide just one top ten finish, and also saw Taylor-Smith involved in one of the biggest accidents seen in the series in recent memory during qualifying at Croft.
After a turbulent year, TaylorSmith elected to walk away to try his hands at sportscar racing, spending a part season in Europe at the wheel of a GT3-spec Bentley before a year competing in the GT4 class of the British GT Championship.
Having spent 2020 on the sidelines after his planned programme was derailed by COVID-19, the now 31-yearold is back on the BTCC grid for 2021 having inked a deal with Team HARD.
Set to drive one of the new Cupra Leons currently in build, the former Motorbase and BMR driver will be keen to try and add more silverware to his collection during the year ahead, but why is now the right time for a return after three years away?
"The year with Triple Eight in the MG was hard, and I think it's fair to say that I didn’t enjoy every aspect of it," he reflects.
"At the end of the year, myself and [wife] Lauren decided to go down a different route and try GT racing, and whilst I enjoyed the experience, I still found myself checking into TSL to see how practice was going in the BTCC.
"That kind of thing makes you realise that your heart is still in touring cars, and that maybe it’s where you should really be.
"Last year, I was due to race in Europe in GTs but then my team-mate dropped out as a result of COVID, and I found myself with more time on my hands.
"Like other people who found themselves suddenly stuck at
BACK TO THE START HAVING MADE HIS BTCC DEBUT WITH WEST SURREY RACING BACK IN 2008, STEPHEN JELLEY RETURNS TO WHERE IT ALL STARTED FOR THE 2021 SEASON… has been plenty said T here through the years about the fact that, having won the BTCC title for the first time in 2009, Colin Turkington was unable to return and defend his crown the following season.
The end of West Surrey Racing’s title sponsorship deal with the RAC led to the Northern Irishman leaving the series on the back of his title win.
Forced to look elsewhere to keep his career on track, Turkington would only return in 2013 when he was signed
up to drive one of the three eBay Motors-backed cars being entered that year.
What many people fail to remember however is that Turkington wasn’t the only driver who was forced to leave WSR on the back of the RAC sponsorship deal coming to an end.
Team-mate Stephen Jelley was in a similar position as he took found himself leaving the BMW squad at the end of what was only his second year in the series.
Jelley would go on to more to the Porsche Carrera Cup GB with Team Parker Racing, and would compete in a range of sportscar series before eventually returning to touring cars with the same team in 2017 at the wheel of a Ford Focus.
Having been at the wheel of an ex-WSR BMW 125i M Sport for the last three years, Jelley will see his touring car career go full circle for the 2021 campaign when he heads back to the team that gave him his series debut as part of an expanded three-car Team BMW programme.