STUART MIDDLETON
Northumberland’s 22-year-old GT3 star is itching to get back in the saddle after being knocked over by a rival car at Monza
“I was trying to get back up and couldn’t move. It was the worst pain I’ve ever felt”
I’m on the road to recovery after an accident in last month’s season-opening Italian GT Sprint championship race at Monza, when I was hit by a rival car while waiting for my driver change pitstop.
We were leading the race at Monza and my Imperiale Racing team-mate Alberto Di Folco pulled our Lamborghini Huracan GT3 in to do the pitstop and it was just really strange: getting knocked over by another car is one of those things that rarely happens. It totally caught me off guard; as soon as it happened I was trying to get back up and I just couldn’t move. It was the worst pain I’ve ever felt.
But, considering, my injuries are not too bad. My wrist got dislocated, with a small fracture, and I broke my right big toe and have pulled ligaments in the left leg.
It’s definitely getting better each day, I’m feeling well in myself, and I’m hopeful that I can be in the seat again for the next round early next month at Misano. There’s no planned test days until the race so I’ll be straight back into the action.
The Imperiale team did an absolutely cracking job at Monza all weekend. It was looking good for us to get a victory or two or at least a couple of podiums. But after the pitlane accident my team-mate Alberto had to do both races by himself. Unfortunately the incident lost us a bit of time and they gave us a penalty for not changing drivers so we lost a win and got knocked down the order with that penalty.
Then in the second race of Monza’s double header Alberto did everything right and an absolutely mega job to win.
I was watching from the apartment I was staying in at Monza and seeing all the tributes for me that Alberto and the team did, bringing the helmet out on the pitwall and the podium and the little sign they drew up, all those little touches really meant a lot and I’m just lucky to have such an amazing team. We’re like a little family and they’re top guys.
I started racing in go karts from the age of six, it was just something to do as a hobby for me and my dad; we’re not a motor racing family. And like anything you get the bug for it, and I progressed my way up through the ranks and then for 2015 I entered the Ginetta Junior Scholarship.
I went into it thinking it was a bit of an experience in a racing car, but I ended up winning the thing so that kickstarted my motor racing career and I got a fully funded season for the Ginetta Junior championship. So I just progressed on from there and here we are today; it was a bit of a roller coaster but it’s worked out well.
In Ginetta Juniors I won the Winter Series and then was the main championship’s vice champion in just my second year. Then for 2017 I teamed up with Will Tregurtha and HHC Motorsport in British GT’s GT4 championship. The team were rookies as well as the drivers, and we ended up winning everything.
That included getting the Sunoco Whelen Challenge award, and with that I got to race in the Daytona 24 Hours. That was just an out of this world experience, going from a GT4 car into a crazy DPi Cadillac, with a lot of power and aero like nothing I’ve ever felt. I would say it’s still the best experience I’ve ever had in motorsport, and we finished second overall beating the likes of Lando Norris, Fernando Alonso, Juan Pablo Montoya and Simon Pagenaud.
After Daytona I did another year in a Ginetta, finishing vice champion in the European GT4 series. Unfortunately I couldn’t do more Ginetta, but we looked further afield and an opportunity came to test a Lamborghini Super Trofeo car.
I absolutely loved it and I got a full season in the European Super Trofeo series, and won my first race in a Lamborghini at Silverstone in 2019. I got put onto the Lamborghini young driver programme, I worked my way through the Super Trofeo ranks and took an opportunity to go to the GT3 car with Imperiale, plus got put on Lamborghini’s GT3 Junior programme.
Looking forwards, fingers crossed I’m going to be staying with Lamborghini and
I’d love to become a factory driver for them one day. So I’m just trying to keep achieving results and hopefully I’ll get there.