Russell Ingall, the Enforcer who won Bathurst twice and took the 2005 title

Russell Ingall was a full-time Australian V8 Supercars driver who was nicknamed the Enforcer for his hard style. He won the Bathurst 1000 in 1995 and 1997, finished runner-up in the championship four times and took the title in 2005. Before that he had won a British Formula Ford season with a record number of victories, and his later career ran through endurance racing.

How did Ingall reach Europe?

Ingall started karting at twelve on a track in Whyalla, South Australia, and went on to win a string of national karting championships. Born in London, he had moved to Port Adelaide with his parents at the age of three, and the karting spell in Europe was the next step after his Australian titles.

From karts he moved into Formula Ford. A third place in a support race at Adelaide's 1988 Australian Grand Prix came in only his second Formula Ford start. The Motorcraft Formula Ford Driver to Europe Series then became his proving ground, where he was runner-up before taking the 1990 crown. That year he also shared a Commodore VL run by Bob Forbes Racing with Kevin Bartlett at Bathurst.

In 1991 he went to Europe, where he came close to the British Formula Ford Championship and made a promising debut in the GM-Lotus formula. He then moved to Germany to drive for Team Schubel in the German Formula Three Championship. He also raced at the Macau Grand Prix for Peter Wearing Smith's team, starting 23rd and overtaking David Coulthard to finish fifth.

The northern winter was spent in New Zealand, where he raced in the Formula Ford series and won easily, with ten victories from 12 races.

A career built on hard racing, one planned championship and two Bathurst wins that came in very different eras.

Why was Ingall's 1993 Formula Ford season so notable?

In 1993 Ingall returned to Britain to drive for the factory Van Diemen team in the British Formula Ford Championship. He won 13 of the 16 races, the highest number of wins in a single season in the category's history. He finished the year by winning the Formula Ford Festival and World Cup at Brands Hatch.

The European years never delivered his full potential. Lack of funding limited what he could do there, a pattern common among Australian drivers of the period, and he eventually returned home. In 1995 he also won the British Formula Renault Championship, before joining Perkins Engineering in Australia.

How did Ingall's Bathurst wins come about?

Ingall won the Bathurst 1000 in 1995 with Perkins Engineering, after a last-to-first recovery that the team completed in the race, and he won it again in 1997 with the same team. The two wins came in different eras of the category, and both were built on his steady racecraft.

He had returned to touring cars in 1994, after a spell in the Japanese Formula 3 Championship. He drove for Wayne Gardner Racing at Sandown and Bathurst, and at Bathurst he and Win Percy led for some time before a fifth place finish.

He then joined Perkins for its endurance campaign and became a permanent face of the V8 Supercar Championship from 1996. That year he claimed his maiden win at Calder Park, and the 1997 Bathurst 1000 gave him his second win in the race. He finished that season third in the championship.

How many times was Ingall runner-up?

Ingall finished second in the championship in 1998, 1999, 2001 and 2004. Three of those came during his seven years with Perkins, and the 2004 finish came after his move to Stone Brothers Racing.

His seven years at Perkins brought a steady string of good seasons. In 2004 at Stone Brothers Racing he finished third in the final round at Eastern Creek, moving from fourth to second in the championship. That result gave the team a 1-2 finish, with teammate Marcos Ambrose taking the title.

How did the 2005 title come together?

Ingall took the 2005 title by following a plan through to the final race at Phillip Island. He raced smarter than he ever had before, working his strategy around the points system to finish ahead of Craig Lowndes and Marcos Ambrose.

He had joined Stone Brothers Racing at the start of 2003 after seven years with Perkins, and his first season there began with a win in the support races at the Australian Grand Prix. Further wins came at the Queensland 300 and the Gillette V8 Supercar Challenge on the Gold Coast, and he finished seventh in the championship that year.

In 2004 he won a round at Symmons Plains, the twelfth round of the season, which was the highlight of an otherwise consistent campaign.

Why did he move to Holden and Paul Morris Motorsport?

The 2006 championship slipped from his grasp because the car was not performing, and he finished eighth. Before the 2007 season finale he announced that he was going to Holden, leaving Stone Brothers and Ford after five years. He finished that season outside the top ten for the first time, placing eleventh.

For 2008 he joined Paul Morris Motorsport, which was sponsored by Supercheap Auto. The debut meeting was hard. He finished 14th in the first leg of the Clipsal 500, then a wall contact in the warm-up damaged the car. Repairs were made in time for race two, but the car was not the same, and he retired after two laps with an ignition failure. He later said the distributor drive would probably have failed in the warm-up, which would have exposed the problem before the race.

In 2010 Greg Murphy joined him at the team. Ingall stayed with Paul Morris Motorsport until the end of 2011.

What did the Walkinshaw and Lucas Dumbrell years bring?

Ingall moved to Walkinshaw Racing in 2012, keeping the Supercheap Auto backing. In 2013 he set a record at Townsville with his 226th race start, beating John Bowe's total of 225. The same year he teamed with IndyCar driver Ryan Briscoe in the endurance events.

After toying with retirement, he returned to V8 Supercars in 2014 with Lucas Dumbrell Motorsport. That year he retired from full-time driving and agreed to continue as a co-driver in the three endurance races.

Did Ingall keep racing after 2014?

He did, mainly in endurance events and wildcard drives. In 2015 Holden Racing Team signed him for the endurance series after James Courtney was injured, and he raced the Sandown 500 and the Bathurst 1000 with the team. When Courtney returned for the Gold Coast 600, Prodrive Racing Australia signed Ingall to replace Chaz Mostert, who was out with injuries from his Bathurst crash.

In 2016 he joined Rick Kelly at Nissan Motorsport for the Pirtek Enduro Cup, driving the number 15 Nissan Altima. In 2021 he made a Bathurst 1000 wildcard appearance for Triple Eight Race Engineering alongside Broc Feeney, in a Supercheap Auto backed Holden Commodore ZB.

What else did Ingall do outside the car?

In 2015 Ingall was appointed a co-host of Fox Sports' Supercars coverage alongside five-time champion Mark Skaife, a former rival. He also hosted an online video series called Enforcer and The Dude with Paul Morris.

Outside Supercars he raced in Stadium Super Trucks. He made his debut at Sydney Motorsport Park in October 2018, finishing seventh and fifth in the two races, and returned for the Gold Coast round the following year. In April 2021 he stepped in for the injured Nash Morris, covering the last two Symmons Plains races.

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