He also has massively more followers than home driver Mareš.
Ingram has worked really hard to raise his profile and now it might pay off...
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Just hearing Ingram's recent interview it explains how much (financial) pressure he has been under.
He stated that he couldnt afford to crash as the repair costs would be the end.
Imagine trying to drive flat-out with that knowledge...
If you don't count few top teams and some rich gentleman drivers that is a reality of majority of the entry field on most of the events.
How about Mares as a comparison - what is his funding situation with him having the backing of his country’s national federation, the Autoklub of the Czech Republic ?
Would his season be over if he had one crash ?
For your information Mareš used to drive an old Škoda Favorit in small amateur events few years back. He was lucky that two guys selected for the ASN junior program one after another failed to even start it so they had to pick someone quickly to fullfil their deals with sponsors. He was quite old to start a career in 25 years or so but he proved to be a lucky shot for them. Ingram even drove Barum more times than Mareš...
I have nothing against Ingram and I have even donated something for his campaign but please stop crying.
Crying ? It's showing some empathy and understanding.
When you read this maybe you'll accept why I feel strongly about Ingram and what he has been through and make no apologies for showing my support:
"With the financial struggles on top of the pressures of competing at the top of his sport, Ingram admits this season has been "extremely tough" on his mental health.
"I've always had the pressure that this could be taken away so easily, and when you add that I'm so passionate about it, it's had a massive effect on me," he added.
"It has taken a massive toll on me mentally. I can't just go into it and not care about the outcome.
"It's made me so anxious about everything because I can't let this slip away."
And how Barum ended couldn't have been worse for someone so fragile:
"Then, after 220 flat out kilometres at the Barum Czech Rally Zlín, he missed out on the Junior ERC title, and its Ł100,000 prize fund by just 0.3 seconds.
In any setting that's the smallest of margins, but in rallying terms, with so many variables, it's miniscule.
"It was probably the best performance of my life," said the Toksport WRT driver. "To lose out by 0.3 seconds after three days rallying is just absolutely mental.
"But then we were up against the Czech Federation backed driver on the Czech Federation backed rally, so it was always going to be tough.
"I'd been on the absolute limit throughout the final stage and when I got to the end and saw the margin it was gutting."
If Mareš didn't win he would not drive Cyprus and Hungary at all. The ASN program had budget for exactly four events. That's even two less than what Ingram did. If Ingram won I'd congratulate him and won't write walls of text about how it was unfair to Mareš that he could drive only four events.