Revived by a move back to Holden and Supercheap Auto Racing for the 2008 V8 Supercar season, there is still plenty of life left in ‘The Enforcer’ of V8 racing Russell Ingall as he enters his third year with the team.

The 2005 V8 Supercar champion, Ingall will have a Triple Eight Commodore to compete with in 2010, keen to build upon a 2009 where he was only able to reach the podium on two occasions but again finished in the top 10 in the championship – making it the 13th time from his 14 V8 Supercar seasons that he has achieved the feat.

Ingall’s motor racing career is long and distinguished, after winning an Australian junior and several senior karting championships he headed overseas to race karts in Europe before making the transition into Formula Ford. He proved to be a force, runner-up in the Australian FF Championship, before claiming the crown in 1990.

After almost claiming the British FF Championship in 1991, Ingall headed to Europe in 1992 to drive for Opel Team Schubel in the German F3 Championship. Ingall also competed at the Asian Macau Grand Prix finishing fifth, and won the New Zealand Dunlop FF series, winning easily with 10 victories from 12 races.

He made history in 1993 by returning to Britain to win 13 out of the 16 races in the British FF Championship, in the process recording the highest number of wins in a single season, before winning the prestigious Formula Ford Festival and World Cup at Brands Hatch.

After spending the first half of 1994 in Japanese F3, Ingall signed to drive with Wayne Gardner’s team at Sandown and Bathurst. Ingall and Win Percy led at Bathurst for some time before finishing fifth.

In 1995 Ingall won the British FRenault Championship before joining Larry Perkins for his team’s enduro campaign and figuring prominently in its epic last-to-first victory at Bathurst.

Scoring a permanent drive with Perkins’ squad in 1996, Ingall claimed his maiden victory at Calder Park and went on to win the Bathurst 1000 for the second time in 1997. In his seven years with Perkins, Ingall finished runner-up in the championship three times.

Ingall moved to Stone Brothers Racing at the start of 2003 finishing seventh outright, before recording his fourth second-place V8 championship finish the following year.

In 2005 he went one better, shelving his natural attacking style to use a strategy based around consistency to win his first V8 Supercar title.

2006 saw him eventually finish eighth, while a DNF at Bathurst in 2007 and poor returns over the final two rounds of the championship saw him tipped from the season-ending top 10 for the first time in his career (11th).

Against all expectations, the elder statesman of the sport returned to the top 10 in 2008 upon his return to Holden and is ready and raring to go again this year for Supercheap Auto Racing.