DOWN THE PUB
Age: 21 Lives: Cheltenham Historic FF contender He’s wants a full season
“The plan is to try and win as many Historic Formula Ford races as possible this season. We’ll do the two non-championship races at the Silverstone Classic as well. It’s going to be mega competitive. We’ve got Nelson Rowe coming back and people like Callum Grant, Benn Tilley and all the usual front-runners from last year.”
He won the title before
“I won the championship in 2013 and in the first half of 2014 I was doing exams so my parents made it clear that there would be no racing. I did Cadwell in June and won both races and was leading at Brands in July when I got taken out by a backmarker. That wrote off the car so that was the end of 2014. I took a year out in 2015 to go travelling around the world and then did a few races last season. I was rusty and was probably over-driving.”
It is a family team
“I’ll be racing the family Merlyn Mk20 that my dad Westie and my elder brother Ben have also raced. We did have two Mk20s at one stage, but Tony Helliwell has the other car now. We always run the car ourselves and we’re just doing an engine rebuild at the moment.”
There is a new livery
“It’s going to be in a different livery this year. We’re supporting Race Against Dementia and I’ve spoken to Sir Jackie Stewart about it and he was very encouraging. I want to give it as much exposure as possible and it is a great cause. My great grandmother suffered it for 10 years so it is close to our family.”
Story behind the colours
“In 1967, Sir Jackie Stewart was meant to be racing for Ferrari. His stipulation was that if he was going to race in Formula 2, he would be run by Ken Tyrrell and would have to have Scottish blue on the car. But the deal fell over and Jacky Ickx raced the car, so we’re going to run the blue on the bottom half.”