Me and my shadow...

Never far from each other on the BTCC track, the rivalry between Tom Ingram and Jake Hill has history, going all the way back to the Ginetta Junior Championship in 2010

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Tom Ingram's rivalry with Jake Hill will be no more in 2026.

That's because Hill, the 2024 BTCC champion, is heading into the world of international endurance racing. Their proximity to each other on track has been a recurring theme since 2010, when both were 16 years old, and Ingram beat Hill to the title in the BTCC-supporting Ginetta Junior series. And it even featured at the 2024 Goodwood Revival, when the TVR Griffith-mounted Ingram pipped the AC Cobra of Hill to the flag in the RAC TT Celebration - one of the best races seen at the event.

"Jake has been a thorn in my side as long I have his," reflects Ingram. "He's the person you would always somehow be on circuit with, no matter what happens.

In Ginetta Junior, a GT Supercup car, in a historic car at Goodwood, whatever it might be, somehow we're always magnets, and end up having a battle. It'll be a big change not to have that." What does Ingram remember of that 2010 Ginetta season? "I don't think either of us realised what we were signing up for. We were both just mad-keen to go and win races. Jake's approach was totally different to mine.

My approach has always remained the same, to just stay fairly level-headed and bank the points, whereas Jake was always 'go for it'.

"That Ginetta Junior season he won more races than me [Hill 10, Ingram five].

But if he won, the next race would be a non-finish, whereas I'd finish secondsecond... It's quite funny how it's been the same with us over the years. Jake would always be slightly quicker here, but fall foul there. I think Jake and I have brought each other on. It's that classic thing.