“I never felt it wouldn't be possible to win,” Tom stressed, after being mobbed by his new team as soon as he stepped out of the kart. “If you do think that you're never going to push as hard. I just kept my head down and kept pushing. The kart was awesome, and it was really good to win on my Athenium debut. I know Mike (Kyriakides – Athenium Racing managing director) and the rest of the team were all absolutely over the moon.
“This is a huge opportunity for me. The atmosphere inside the team is quite laidback, but at the same time really focussed – they work hard but know how to have a laugh along the way too. The chassis is already good, and I know we can get a lot more out of it yet with little tweaks here and there. There's plenty of time.
“Once the team has evolved a bit more maybe we can get an engine person on-board as well. That would allow Darron and Jamie [Allen, a man who has in the past helped to engineer such as Formula Renault UK race-winner Adam Christodoulou] to simply concentrate on the chassis rather than having to worry about the engines too.
“It's definitely an advantage being with the team. In the second heat, for example, Darron lowered the tyre pressures and bolted on wets, when most people mistakenly went for slicks. If we had been on our own that's a mistake we would probably have made as well.”
Indeed, both Gibbs and Allen possess a wealth of experience within the sport, allowing Tom to quite literally hit the ground running every time he takes to the track. What's more, Kyriakides finished fifth in the 1980 World Karting Championship 250cc gearbox class, with the number 80 on his kart – the same number his new young charge has used since the beginning of his career, and one that has taken the Monodraught-backed star to a staggering nine championship titles already.
![BRDC Stars of Tomorrow Junior Max front-runner Tom Ingram leading the field on his Athenium Racing debut at Whilton Mill [pic credit: Pixelero]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/399515.jpg)
