DOWN THE PUB
He’s from a racing family
“I grew up with my dad Barry driving three-wheeled Morgans and racing them. But I did a different competitive sport and did clay pigeon shooting to world and Olympic level, so I had no time for racing.”
He started racing four years ago “I talked to my dad about doing some events with him, which we did at Donington Park four years ago in his Lotus Elite. That was the first time I’d ever been in a car on a track, which was all a bit surprising. We won our class and I got hooked from there, so we got the Lotus Elan 26R from Sean Walker.”
It has been a good season
“It’s taken me a while to learn how to drive properly and I’ve had some help along the way. I’ve done a number of races with Ed Morris and had some help from Eugene O’brien and I’ve steadily improved. In the first Guards Trophy race this season we were second and in every other race we won our class. Then at Oulton I was comfortably ahead and we had the oil pump fall off the engine and I spun on my own oil. At Silverstone last weekend we had major electrical dramas.”
He’s got two Elans “I’ve got a Road Sports Elan as well, which we raced last year. That car won with Nick Adams many years ago and we’ve had a steady year with that. We’ve had some close races with Peter Shaw and Kevin Kivlochan, which is just a lot of fun. That’s why I do it.”
Dad will be back next season “We’ll have a think about what was fun this year and we’ll probably do that next year. My dad is going to race the Road Sports Elan and we’re preparing another Road Sports car so we can both race at the same time, which will be pretty cool. My son, who is 11, is normally at every race and he loves it as well so it is a family thing. I’m teaching my daughter to shoot because she wants to go the Olympics.”
Racing is relaxation “I have a business that takes up a lot of time, working with companies that get into trouble across Europe. We help them to turn around and it is quite stressful at times and involves a lot of travel, so racing is a very nice way to relax.”