Combe’s most successful driver
Gary Prebble has the most outright wins at the Wiltshire circuit, but shows no signs of slowing down. By Stefan Mackley
Sir Stirling Moss, Nigel Mansell, Ayrton Senna and David Coulthard. They are all multiple Formula 1 race winners but they have also, at one stage or another in their distinguished careers, all won a race at Castle Combe.
They remain part of the Wiltshire venue’s illustrious 70-year history and, although there have been hundreds of winners at the track during that time, one man is far and away the most successful in terms of victories.
Gary Prebble has 60 outright wins to his name at the circuit – as well as countless class victories – and that is nearly twice as many Bob Light, his nearest rival in the all-time table.
Light has 36 triumphs.
Unlike Light, though, Prebble is still racing at the circuit where he used to watch his dad Brian compete before he got his first chance behind the wheel in 1990. “The first car that I raced was Dad’s spaceframe Maguire Hillman Imp,” recalls Prebble. “I’d never had a trackday in my life, never driven on a race circuit before and it was a case of sink or swim – and he threw me straight out in qualifying.”
Prebble did swim though as he began to take class wins aboard the Imp, before a crash at Camp “completely totalled the car and almost myself ” in 1993.
Miraculously, he suffered only heavy bruising in the frightening shunt and returned the following season at the wheel of a Rover 220 Coupe, which had previously been used by Tony Pond as a test car for the Rover Tomcat Race Series.
Six more years of class wins followed but it wasn’t until April 1, 2000 – almost a decade since he’d first raced at the circuit – that he took his maiden outright triumph.
“I just remember how ecstatic I was and I think I was literally screaming in my helmet for the entire cooling down lap,” says Prebble. “I think you always remember your first race win.”
The floodgates had finally opened and he went on to claim another 25 wins in the Rover by the end of 2006, by which time he had also won the circuit’s Saloon Car Championship outright in 2002, as well as Class A honours in 2001, ’02, ’04 and ’06. It’s a series he still believes is one of the strongest in the UK.
“The numbers in the Saloons have always been fantastic,” adds Prebble. “It’s a great championship: the people there that you race with, they are good clean racers. The quality and standard of the races is really good and it’s just so popular.
“I have tried other saloon series and the numbers aren’t as good and, the way that they are run, it just doesn’t seem to be as good, to be honest, as Combe.”
With four-wheel-drive cars the weapon of choice in the category by
2007, Prebble made the switch to a Mitsubishi Lancer E7 RS formerly owned by Rob Ballard.
The switch didn’t put a halt to his winning ways as he took 14 wins aboard the Japanese car in the Saloons series as well as the Sports and GT Championship – claiming the outright and class titles for the latter series in both 2012 and ’14.
With the Lancer proving too expensive to maintain, however, Prebble switched to the SEAT Leon Cupra that he still uses today and which was another former Ballard car.
“We put it on pole and actually won the race on my first time ever sitting in the car,” says Prebble.
“I think there are some pictures somewhere when I got out of the car and sort of leapfrogged and jumped into Rob and we ended up having a big embracing moment. It was quite something else,
I’ll always remember that race.”
At the wheel of the Leon Cupra he has taken 17 outright wins at the track so far, as well as further Class A spoils in 2015, ’17 and ’19.
Despite having lived in Southampton his whole life, Prebble considers Combe to be his local circuit and it’s very much a family affair, with dad Brian having taken seven outright wins and, to date, younger brother Adam has 14 to his name.
“What I love about Combe is just the sheer competitiveness of what you’re doing, you’ve got to drive the wheels off the car to stand any chance of winning the race,” says Prebble.
“Combe doesn’t take any prisoners. There’s no big massive crash barriers or gravel traps. If you come off the circuit you’re in the wall and I kind of guess that adds to the excitement of driving there. It’s one of those circuits that
I think sorts the men out from the boys.”
His remaining three wins have come at the wheel of a Peugeot 205 GTI in the popular Hot Hatch Series, which was introduced in 2017, but Prebble has now acquired a Honda Civic EG that is undergoing an engine change and which will make appearances throughout 2020.
And despite racing at Combe for three decades now, Prebble has no plans to stop any time soon and intends to put the outright wins record as far out of reach as possible for his rivals.
“I think motor racing is one of those games that you just keep doing for as long as you’re physically and financially able to do it,” adds Prebble.
“My dad gave the game up when it started scaring him and I think that’s when he sort of said to me ‘the minute you start not enjoying it, or it’s frightening you is the time to hang up your overalls’. Until such time I’m just carrying on.
“My goals really are just to keep doing what I’m doing. I love the circuit. The people there are so friendly and I want to try and put a record there that makes it hard for anyone else to beat. The more wins that I can get the bigger the target and that’s what I intend to do.”