DOWN THE PUB

Age: 41 Lives: Cheltenham Porsche 924 racer

He followed his dad into racing “My dad John raced in the 1970s, mainly in Lotuses. He raced a Lotus 23 with Brian Cocks in the early years of the HSCC. So it was in the family as I went racing with him and it just went from there. He’s normally around helping us out, being a mechanic and still getting his hands dirty.”

His brother also races “I’m the younger brother of Andrew who races a Palliser in Classic Racing Cars. Now we get on and enjoy the racing, and 20 years ago it was the other way round and dad was doing the racing. If I had more time and money I’d like to run a Lotus Elan in Road Sports but they are expensive cars.”

The 924 has served him well “I’ve been racing eight years now; always in the Porsche 924 in ’70s Road Sports. It is the only car I’ve raced so far. It’s a great championship and I’ve had a lot of fun. Until Cadwell in June, when a wheel came loose on the warming up lap, I’d only lost the class once in three seasons. So it has been going really well.”

The Porsche is a good value car “It is a Porsche, so it works really well and I think it is probably the cheapest car on the grid. It is probably worth around £9000 and it holds its value pretty well. It is a reliable car; the gearbox works, the engine goes on forever and so it is about as cheap motor racing as you can get.”

He helps his brother “We help each other out at race meetings with things like pit boards and slave batteries. We both live in Cheltenham and Andrew now has two singleseaters as he’s also got a one-litre F3 March.”

He has family commitments “I’ll carry on racing and at the moment I’ve got a young family so the budget won’t stretch any further. I’ve got three boys, twins aged five and a two-year-old, and they all come to the race meetings in the motor home. I run the car and spend time with the family and that’s about it; I’m an accountant by profession.”