PADMORE NOT SLOWING DOWN
Nick Padmore’s name recently hit the headlines when he lapped way under his own outright circuit record at Goodwood in an Arrows A11 Formula 1 car as part of the Sussex venue’s Speedweek event. But he was out in something slightly slower at Thruxton last weekend, as he shared a car with father Keith in the Mini Miglia contests.
Padmore has competed in a whole variety of machinery over the years, after graduating from karts to cars in
1994. “I did the Formula First Winter
Series a couple of times, before a full season in 1997 when I finished runner-up to Robbie Kerr,” he says.
He was then struck down with meningitis and had to learn to walk again, before spending a year in Eurocar V6s and the Kent County Formula Ford Championship, plus a one-off drive in British GT in 1999.
“I did two years in the Ford Fiestas too when they supported the touring cars, before becoming a Radical factory driver, doing the championship with Austin Reynolds and driving all of the chassis they built at the time,” he says.
After six years with Radical, Padmore spent the next five racing a Norma in Europe in the Vdev Championship, finishing third in the Proto class in 2011.
It was when he started to make a name in historic racing that his career really began to take off.
“My first historic drive was in Grant Tromans’s Osella,” Padmore recalls.
“That gave me a big break and then I shared Phil Hall’s Lola T212.”
During his time at Radical he had also worked with Max Smith-hilliard, who then moved into historic racing himself: “I drove Max’s March 783 in 2014, then that led to the Wolf-williams FW05, my first grand prix car in 2015, before
I won the Historic F1 title in the Lotus 77 and then again with the Williams FW07 in both 2016 and ’18.”
He raced at the Monaco Historique with the FW05 in 2015, had two second places in 2018 with a Lotus 16 and Shadow DN9, and became a
Williams Heritage driver.
“I never dreamed I would ever race any cars like these, so count myself as very lucky,” he adds. “But I have also raced with Jean-luc Rihon recently in a BMW 635, Chevron B21 and Porsche GT3 RSR as well as sharing the Mini with my Dad.”
At Goodwood earlier this month he raced and demonstrated a Mini, BMW
530i, MGB, Euro NASCAR, AC Cobra, a 700bhp Porsche 935 and the recordbreaking Arrows A11.
“Since going into the F1 cars it’s all become a blur,” he says. “I kept winning to make sure I did the next race. The
FW07 is probably my favourite of all – winning in that was unbelievable. I have also driven two of the Williams FW19 Renaults, but never raced them.”
Padmore’s passionate about his cars and racing, whether it’s his ex-grand prix machines or his Mini Miglia. And just to add to his and father Keith’s interest, they have also bought a Citroen C1, which they hope to share in next year’s C1 Challenge.