Autosportfoto

Double top: Ingram adds home world win to ERC Junior U27 crown

Chris Ingram completed the "most crucial season" of this career when he added class victory on Britain's round of the world championship on Sunday to the FIA ERC Junior Under 27 crown he secured in Latvia last month.

Co-driven by fellow Briton Ross Whittock, Ingram was fastest in the two-wheel-drive division on 19 out of 21 stages in his Network Q-backed Opel ADAM R2, taking the category win by more than 12 minutes.

"It was probably the most challenging rally I've competed in," Ingram said afterwards. "The conditions were extremely tough for a two-wheel-drive rally car, but the ADAM mastered everything thrown at it. One of my career highlights was definitely the Saturday night stages in the fog. We managed to set our best stage times there against the four-wheel-drive R5 machinery and show the ADAM's massive potential. I must say it was a huge team effort as Ross guided me perfectly through every inch of those stages in the blanket fog, and the team kept us in the rally by changing our gearbox in 20 minutes in the service beforehand."

Ingram's prize for winning the ERC Junior U27 crown is a career progression fund of 100,000 euros to use for an ERC Junior Under 28 campaign in 2018 when he will step up to an R5 car, meaning Rally GB is likely to be Ingram's last outing in an Opel for the time being at least.

"I had mixed emotions at the end of the rally and probably the most crucial season of my career," said Ingram. "It has been an amazing journey with Opel over the last two seasons, they are a passionate team used to winning and have believed in me from the start on every event across the European championship. For them to come together with Network Q to back me to compete and win on my home rally has been a dream come true and the best way of ending this chapter.

"I would like to express my gratitude to the whole team at Opel, Holzer Motorsport and Vauxhall Network Q for their support and also like to say a huge thanks to my personal sponsors Andrews Heat for Hire, 11 Degrees, CarFinance247 and Express Solicitors for making it possible, to my excellent co-driver Ross Whittock for guiding me to the title, and of course all of our passionate supporters on the stages and on social media."

Zdroj: fiaerc.com