HOW CLUTTON HAS WORKED TO BECOME MR VERSATILE
Marcus Clutton may not be a household name, but in motorsport circles he’s known as one of the most versatile drivers around.
After starting in karts, he made his car race debut aged 16. “At the time it was fashionable for teenagers to do T Cars, but we couldn’t afford that and I did two Porsche Club races with ABG, while still at school,” Clutton explains. “I debuted at Snetterton and did a couple rounds, but was fast or crashed and almost bankrupted my dad.”
He had a one-off race in Britcar in a Marcos Mantis in 2006, before turning his hand to Formula Renault. “I did the BARC Championship in the class for older cars – I didn’t win but got some podiums with a Mygale, but money was always an issue,” Clutton adds.
He made his British GT debut in 2009, paired with Phil Keen in an Abg-run KTM, and the following year met Peter Belshaw, who had a great influence on his career.
“I was working for ABG when I met Peter, and in 2010 I did the foggy European Fun Cup race at Donington with him, then we were GT4 champions with the KTM in British GT [in 2011],” he says.
It didn’t prove to be a career launchpad though, and for the next two years he engineered for United Autosports on the Mark Patterson/matt Bell Audi.
Clutton started to have a regular drive again in the Fun Cup in 2014, and raced for Chevron in the GT Cup and European GT4. “I had learned a lot working for the teams, setting cars up, driving the truck too, but I always wanted to be the driver,” he says.
When Chevron decided to stop its racing programme in 2016 it came as another blow to his hopes: “After that
I had nothing, but some one-off drives came along and I started coaching Esmee Hawkey. Of course I wanted to be a pro driver and be paid to race, but I had to make a living too.”
More and more opportunities have since materialised, such as racing with John Seale in his Lamborghini and, after Belshaw stopped his Fun Cup campaigns, Clutton has moved to
Andy Bicknell’s Despatchbay team.
“I can do the whole package now – I run Track Focused’s Radical SR1 Cup car, as well as racing regularly with John,
Andy and the Valour Radical, plus setting up cars and the coaching of course,” Clutton says. “Two weeks ago it was
British GT with John in the Lamborghini at Donington, last week Snetterton and the Fun Cup with Andy, and then I drove the JMH truck to Silverstone on Thursday.”
On his arrival at Silverstone he helped set up and worked with Seale for most of the day, but managed to fit in two sessions in the Valour Radical SR3.
It was an impressive weekend for Clutton as he contested three Radical races, with two wins and a second, three poles and two fastest laps, and also won one GT Cup race with fastest lap.
And then, when racing was finished, all he had to do was drive the truck home again and get to bed at around 1am, thinking about this weekend’s Fun
Cup race at Thruxton.