DOWN THE PUB
RICHARD COLEMAN Historic FF2000 newcomer Age: 35 Lives: Northamptonshire
He’s always worked in the sport
“I’ve been in motorsport of all my life, but mainly from the other side and started off in the World Rally Championship. I did my apprenticeship there in the days when Mitsubishi were winning everything. I started off with an engineering apprenticeship and worked my way up from there.”
He had his own team
“When Mitsubishi pulled out of the WRC, I moved into touring cars, mainly the World Touring Car Championship and then I started my own team, Bamboo Engineering, in 2009. We ran a season in BTCC and then moved into World touring cars with Harry Vaulkhard in 2010. We also bought and operated a GP3 team, which won some races. We ran one of the works Aston Martins in the World Endurance Championship in 2014.”
Then tragedy struck
“Sadly, Harry’s father Nigel died in 2014 and he was my business partner and best man at my wedding. He was an absolute top bloke and taught me everything I know about motor racing and red wine. Then I started a small boutique sports management company in 2014 and that grew, mainly brokering sponsorship deals, mainly in Formula 1. So most of my work is in F1 now. I came out of running a team at the very end of 2017.”
He decided to go racing
“I was missing the pitlane. Steve Farrell, who was my technical director in 2013, said he was buying a Formula Ford 2000 because that’s what he ran back in the 1980s. We had a pub lunch and within three days I’d bought a car and here we are.”
This was his first season
“It’s been a bit of a steep learning curve. I’m starting to get there but I’m 5000 laps behind the others! I did some reasonablelevel karting when I was a kid but broke both my legs, so that put an end to my ambitions. So I ended up doing this with Steve and I’ve really enjoyed it. I think I’ll come back next year and, hopefully, with a year under my belt be top six next year.”