CIAN CAREY
MULTIPLE SINGLE-SEATER CHAMPION SEEKING SPORTSCAR FUTURE
Disrupted plans are a common theme of the last 12 months. And Cian Carey can attest. Having claimed the 2018 and ’19 F3 Cup titles, he intended in 2020 to advance to European single-seater competition in Drexler Formula Cup, and purchased a car for it. But then a combination of Covid and Brexit hit.
“We ended up bringing the car home [to Ireland] to just be safe,” Carey tells Motorsport News.
“Our only option was to keep sharp, [and] just to race in the BOSS Ireland series. I hadn’t planned on taking it too seriously, I was just going to do the odd [round], but we won the first couple of races and then I was like ‘we’re in this far, might as well keep going’.” And he took the title.
Yet the 26-year-old is used to taking an unorthodox route. Although always a motorsport fan and a willing driver of various machinery, he was a late starter in competition, at age 15 after a friend took him to Mondello Park. “It was just a bug straight away from me,” Carey recalls.
He did two years in saloons then was convinced by a neighbour, who also raced, to try single-seaters.
“We bought a Formula Renault,” Carey says, “and jumped in the deep end into BOSS Ireland. And I ended up being on pole for my first ever race! Then my family looked at it going ‘you have to start taking this seriously!’”
In 2016 he took the BOSS title and the Motorsport Ireland Young Racing Driver of The Year award. Then it was F3 Cup where he got title honours in his second and third seasons.
Now Carey’s sights have shifted to GT or LMP3 racing, and since Christmas he has been managed by Ferrari GT ace Matt Griffin, which has opened doors.
Carey’s had two early 2021 tests with Speedworks Motorsport in its GT4 Toyota Supra, and he gave a strong account of himself. “At Oulton Park the test went brilliantly, I ended the first run a little bit quicker than James [Kell, 2020 driver] in the wet and then I ended the day in the dry not far off,” Carey says.
“Christian [Dick, Speedworks boss] invited me to Snetterton two weeks later, and that went really well again. I think the car is capable of winning British GT.
“I actually did find my driving style suited the GT4 very well. I wasn’t pushing to my full limits, but even at that I was quite close to the pace of a pole time. When I really need to get the last bit out of this car I feel like it’s comfortable to.
“Matt’s seriously experienced, so knows a lot of people and teams. What I want to do is make it a good career out of being a professional driver, hopefully 2022, 2023 we can be looking back saying it was all worthwhile.”
And Carey last week confirmed he’s signed his first professional contract, to race in the European Le Mans Cup with TS Corse.
“The GT4 suits my driving style well”
Cian Carey