After a fantastic weekend at Brands Hatch we would like to say a huge congratulations to our clients Tom Ingram and EXCELR8 motorsport for winning the prestigious British Touring Car Championship in 2022!
So, who is Tom Ingram?
Tom’s story is truly one of hard work and dedication. Like many before him, Tom started his career in Karting but quickly proved to have such talent that he soon graduated to racing cars in the 2009 Ginetta Junior Championship. By the following year, Tom’s hard work, dedication and excellent teamwork had earned himself the Ginetta Junior Crown.
The following few years saw Tom’s back-to-back success continue, claiming glory in the 2011 Ginetta G50 Cup before moving up another class in 2012 to Ginetta GT Supercup. It was in the GT Supercup that Tom really started to stand out and marked him out as a front-runner; he claimed an astounding six wins resulting in a title challenge. Tom completed his SuperCup mission in 2013 with a spectacular 22-podium streak, including 11 triumphs. This remarkable and consistent success landed him a driver’s seat in the Speedwork’s Motorsport’s Toyota Avensis and Tom ended the season as top rookie.
In 2015 Tom managed to earn himself and Speedwork’s Motorsport first place at Rockingham for the first time in the British Touring Car Championship. In the following few years Tom developed as a driver and was showing an unrivalled dedication to his career and Team; with various upgraded/modernised versions of the Toyota Avensis Tom and Speedwork’s acquired an impressive count of points, numerous podium finishes and several wins. Despite this success Tom unfortunately missed out on the overall Drivers Crown in 2018 by just 12 points.
Not to be deterred, in 2019 Speedwork’s Motorsport managed to earn itself Toyota factory backing and a brand-new Toyota Corolla, becoming Toyota GB with Ginsters with Tom leading the Team. Tom and his team earned another impressive number of podium finishes under the Toyota Gazoo Racing UK with Ginsters banner. This incredible stream of success’s continued into 2020 with Tom ending the year fourth overall, a huge achievement after so many changes .
It was in 2021 that Tom made the fantastic move to Ginsters EXCELR8 where he piloted the team’s Hyundai i30N and led him and his team to a phenomenal three victories.
After years of success, it seems 2022 to date has been the best year yet for Tom, Bristol Street Motors and EXCELR8 TradePriceCards.com where he and his team have finished as champions, a true reflection of the dedication of the Team.
Tom Ingram, Driver, Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 TradePriceCars.com, said:
“I can’t believe it – this is a lifelong dream come true. I’ve been thinking about this moment for literally my entire life. The BTCC is what I always wanted to do. It’s what I always wanted to win. I’ve had a few years of coming into the finale with a chance and it not quite working out, so I honestly can’t put into words what this means and what an incredible feeling it is.”
How does StuLane.com fit in?
In a nutshell- Championship winning websites
Now we need to be clear, we are not taking any credit for the incredible hard work of Tom and his Team over the years but we are proud to have been a part of it.
Building a successful racing team comes at a significant cost, the list of expenses can sometimes seem endless. The relentless nature of these expenses highlights the importance of attracting big sponsors and the right kind of support. In the not-too-distant past an eye-catching livery on the car and branding on the driver would suffice but it’s a different story in 2022.
We now live in a digital world and this provides endless opportunities in the world of motorsport, both to the drivers and teams but also to the sponsors.
If you are an aspiring Champion there are many benefits of embracing digital, we will visit a few in more detail below.
Attracting new sponsors
Unless you are self-funding your racing campaign, having sponsorship is crucial to your success. Your branding and corporate image are paramount if you are hoping to attract the higher value sponsorship contracts. You need to present yourself as a dedicated racing driver, with consistent branding across all platforms. It needs to look professional and you need to provide enough information to entice a potential sponsor.
You need to demonste the value to them in funding the campaign, the contract needs to work both ways; include case studies or testimonials to add ‘social proof’ and ask yourself, “does this give them an opportunity to grow their business?”.
A website for a racing driver or team should include well-chosen, professional quality visuals but also must include race statistics, driver’s profile, upcoming events and anything else important to you and your brand. Many drivers are apprehensive in exploring a merchandising store on their site but we can help and support you with the options open to you. The opportunities are endless when it comes to the digital world and we can make them happen.
Historically, feedback regarding online ‘traffic’ was unobtainable but we can now track what happens behind the scenes including the number of website visitors, where they came from, what interested them and much more. This is a fantastic set of data to approach potential sponsors with that been unavailable before and is changing how sponsorship in the motorsport’s world is viewed.
As a racing driver, a digital presence is a long-term investment that cannot be overlooked as you will be looking for team sponsorship as well as personal sponsorship. An impressionable, professional, responsive website is crucial if you are to secure the lucrative contracts that will get you to the top.
A modern website design gives a fantastic opportunity to include all of your sponsors, in a value-added way. The process is interactive – talk about their business, how they have helped you and how their business could help your supporters. A big part of this includes sharing news or updates from sponsors across all your platforms at appropriate times, be enthusiastic, be positive but above all, be sincere.
It also gives you an opportunity to engage with fans, talk about the driver, the car and the team behind it all. Creating a rounded view of a friendly, personable, yet professional team will help your racing career tremendeously.
We are delighted to have put all of this into practice for Tom Ingram and EXCELR8. Not only does our team help with the branding and design of a website/ web presence but we also look at the website ‘mechanics’. Compare it to a car, you would not use out-dated parts when driving to win on the track, so why do it when building a website? We want our websites to completely reflect our drivers, making sure they are not only eye-catching but also as fast as possible; from our point of view, the podium is the search engine position – the only way to be first is to be the best.
Social media
Social media is essential for any racing driver, love it or hate it, but it is crucial in securing sponsorship deals. It also helps tremendously with presenting your personality which therefore builds trust with your growing fan base. Not only are you able to quickly communicate key messages to your followers but this is also incredibly valuable for sponsorship.
When we look at helping racing drivers, we often look to ensure that the social media channels are also in-line with key messages and core values of the sponsors. Large organisations look to protect their brand and will ensure that their brand image is not put at risk through any unprofessional social media posts/comments. We understand that words can be read in many different ways and understand that, on occasion, words can be taken out of context; as much as we appreciate that this is a personal choice, you wouldn’t want it to cost you a podium position. We work with both drivers and sponsors so that everyone is considered on these platforms.
As time consuming as it is, we recommend racing drivers use multiple platforms. This builds up a following from each of these platforms and therefore entices a varied demographic fan base. Here are some of the platforms we would recommend:
- TikTok
Each platform has its own objectives and purpose so a “one size fits all” simply cannot be applied to social media. Remember the objective of each post, know your audience, and always take time to consider what your sponsors might think. Something that is appropriate on TikTok may not be on LinkedIn, so be mindful – spelling and grammar checks are a must too!
Although we have included a lot of information above, these are only a few examples of the benefits of embracing the digital world and maximising any opportunities you get. We know that future success is dependent on tracking any users or enquiries so that they can be used in later marketing campaigns or big announcements; building up a contact database can be incredible useful – and invaluable when presented to sponsors. At the end of the day, they will be looking to maximise their reach – so help them.
We are absolutely delighted for Tom, EXCELR8 and their fantastic team – a massive congratulations from your digital support team at Stu Lane, we are proud to support you in your continuing success
