BTCC ace Ingram to race Sierra RS500 at Brands Hatch

British Touring Car Championship star Tom Ingram is to compete for the first time at the Super Touring Power event at Brands Hatch.

But Ingram, the 2022 BTCC champion and currently second in the 2025 standings, will not compete in the Super Touring races – instead, he will campaign a Ford Sierra Cosworth RS500 in the Group A events.

The Coventry-domiciled High Wycombe man has been given the opportunity to race the Jeremy Sutton-owned Sierra, which sports the Benson & Hedges livery made famous in the Australian Touring Car Championship.

Ironically, Ingram will therefore race a car that usually has ‘Sutton’ in the rear window on a weekend off from battling against his big BTCC rival Ash Sutton.

In the same way as fellow BTCC champion Colin Turkington’s races in a Super Touring Vauxhall Vectra at the same event will allow the Northern Irishman to tick a box in his tin-top experience, Ingram has never had a taste of Group A machinery.

The opportunity was made possible because one of the crew members of Ingram’s BTCC team Excelr8 Motorsport also works on the Sierra.

“I won’t have driven it before the race, so I’ll go straight into the race weekend fairly blind with it,” Ingram told Autosport.

“I’m looking forward to it. It’s come through Max, who’s one of the mechanics on Tom Chilton’s car, and he runs the car with Jeremy Sutton.

“It’ll be good fun. I think it’s a fairly good car. I’ve driven stuff from prior eras at Goodwood and stuff like that, but this will be the first time I’ve filled the gap in.

“I’d like to jump into a Super Tourer as well, but an RS500 is going to be quite an eye-opening experience.”

The finest hour for Benson & Hedges-liveried Sierras came in 1988 when Tony Longhurst and Tomas Mezera combined to win the Bathurst 1000 at Mount Panorama.

Apart from star drivers competing on the track, the 28-29 June Super Touring Power event features special guests from the halcyon 1990s era.

One of the latest to confirm his attendance is Australian Charlie Cox, who raced as an Independent in 1995 in a Ford Mondeo before becoming the late 1990s voice of the series through his commentary for the BBC highlights packages.