Russell Ingall
| Supercars Championship career | |
|---|---|
| Nationality |  Australian |
| Car number | 39 |
| Current team | Paul Morris Motorsport |
| Championships | 1 (2005) |
| Races | 156 |
| Wins | 12 |
| Podiums | 36 |
| Pole positions | 1 |
Russell Ingall (born February 24, 1964, in the United Kingdom) is an Australian V8 Supercar driver. Ingall won the V8 Supercar Championship for the first time in 2005, he was also the Championship runner up in 1998, 1999 and 2001. Ingall has also won the iconic Bathurst 1000 motor race twice, in 1995 and 1997. His particular driving style earned him the nickname "Enforcer".
Early years
Ingall began his motor racing career at age 12 competing at the Whyalla go-kart track in South Australia. After winning an Australian Junior and several Senior karting Championships he moved overseas to race karts in Europe before making the transition into Formula Ford. During his karting career he lost the tip of his index finger in an accident.
Competing in only his second Formula Ford event, Ingall finished third in a support race at the 1988 Australian Grand Prix in Adelaide.
Over the next few years Ingall proved to be a force in the Australian Formula Ford Championship finishing runner-up before claiming the crown in the 1990.
After almost claiming the British Formula Ford Championship in 1991, Ingall headed to Europe in 1992 to drive for Opel Team Schiubel in the prestigious German Formula 3 Championship. Ingall also had the opportunity to compete at the Macau Grand Prix and surprised many people by starting 23rd and being in a position by mid-way through the race to overtake David Coulthard for fifth position.
Over the northern winter Ingall competed in the New Zealand Dunlop Formula Ford series, winning easily with 10 victories from 12 races.
Ingall made history in 1993 returning to Britain to drive for the factory Van Diemen team to win 13 out of the 16 races in the British Formula Ford Championship and in the process recording the highest number of wins in a single season in the history of Formula Ford.
The season was finished off by winning one of the most prestigious single-seater events - the Formula Ford Festival and World Cup at Brands Hatch in Britain.
V8 Supercar
Part Time Drives
After spending the first half of 1994 in the Japanese Formula 3 Championship Ingall made his return to Touring Cars, having previously driven for the Bob Forbes Holden team in 1990, driving for Wayne Gardner’s team at the Sandown 500 and Bathurst 1000. Ingall and Win Percy led at Bathurst for some time before finishing fifth.
Perkins Engineering
Ingall went on to win the 1995 British Formula Renault Championship before joining Perkins Engineering for its campaign for the endurance races back in Australia. Ingall figured prominently in the team’s epic last to first victory at Bathurst. He would then become a permanent face of the V8 Supercar Championship throughout 1996 season.
During his first year, Ingall claimed his maiden victory at Calder Park and then went on to win the Bathurst 1000 for the second time in 1997.
In his seven years with Perkins Engineering, Ingall finish runner-up in the championship three times (1998, 1999 and 2001) and was third in 1997.
Stone Brothers Racing
Following seven years with the Perkins team Ingall moved to Stone Brothers Racing at the start of 2003 in winning style taking out the support races at the Australian Grand Prix.
He also went on to win rounds at the Queensland 300 and the Gillette V8 Supercar Challenge at the Lexmark Indy 300 on the Gold Coast, Queensland before eventually finishing seventh outright in the championship.
In 2004 Ingall was again consistent with the highlight of the season coming with a round win at Symmons Plains in round 12. In the final round at Eastern Creek Raceway, he finished third overall to jump from fourth to second in the championship in his Caltex Ford Falcon and give Stone Brothers Racing an historic 1-2 finish as his teammate Marcos Ambrose won the championship.
In 2005 Ingall went one better, collecting his first V8 Supercar championship after having been runner-up four times. Ingall went into the season with a plan and he followed it to the final race of the season, which was held at the Phillip Island circuit. He raced “smarter” than he ever had before and worked out his strategy around the V8 Supercars points system to collect the title ahead of Craig Lowndes and Marcos Ambrose.
In 2006 Ingall saw the championship slip from his grasp due to poor performance from his car which saw him finish the championship in eighth place.
In the lead-up to the 2007 season finale, Ingall announced he was Holden bound, thus leaving Stone Brothers Racing and Ford after five years. He finished the championship for the first time outside the top 10, placing a disappointing eleventh. For 2008 Ingall will race at Paul Morris Motorsport and will be racing under the brand SuperCheap Auto Racing.
SuperCheap Auto Racing
Returning to the Holden fray in 2008 with Paul Morris Motorsport, Ingall's debut race meeting for his new team proved less than ideal. Finishing in 14th place in the first leg of the Clipsal 500, contact with the wall at Turn 8 during the morning warmup saw steering and suspension damage to the #39 car. Repairs were made in time for the start of Race 2, but the car was not the same, and he retired after just two laps, with failure in the ignition system.
“If I didn’t stick it in (during) the warm up, the distributor drive would have probably gone in the warm-up so we would have found the problem before the race, so one thing led to another,” said Ingall. “At the end of the day it was all related to the shunt.”
Career Results
External links
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