Ratcliffe calls time on stellar racing career
SUCCESSFUL Neath racing driver Ryan Ratcliffe has called time on his career.
He made the decision after many years of track action that saw him at the wheel of some great competition machinery, including BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Ginetta and a Bentley GT.
He ended his career in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB Championship, which he won in 2021 with Team Parker Racing.
He has driven in the European Benelux Cup series, taken a class win at Le Mans last year, and survived a huge crash at the Knockhill circuit in Scotland when his Carrera GT collided with a car stalled over a blind crest as the field blasted off the start.
He said: “I never started racing to make a career out of it. When my father started the family business, he’d be in work from six in the morning until 10 at night, so I would seldom see him during the week.
“My racing started as a way for the whole family to spend the weekend together, and they attended every race I drove in for a long time.
“Now I am married with a young son, and I need to concentrate on them and I am becoming more involved in the family business.”
Although he will be missed, Wales has another Porsche racer on the scene, also at the wheel of a Team Parker Racing Porsche in this year’s Carrera Cup in the shape of 18-year-old Matt Rees.
His first race in the Carrera Cup GB was at a cold and wet Donington Park where he qualified well and finished just outside the top 10.
He heads to Brands Hatch this weekend for the next round in the championship.
More Welsh success came at the British GT Championship’s blue riband Silverstone 500 race, with torrential rain also blighting the circuit and its capacity grid for the three-hour race.
The race start took place behind the safety car in dreadful conditions with the order changing several times in the opening half of the event.
The race took a dramatic turn later on as cars slid off track, needing a safety car intervention.
At the restart the Team RJN Mclaren GT3 EVO of Welsh star Jann Mardenborough – making his return to sports car racing in the UK – passed the two cars ahead, before another incident delayed his GT3.
But he was still able to get his car, shared with Chris Buncombe, to finish third overall and first in the GT3 Pro-am class.
The Swansea Bus Museum and Transport Heritage Centre presents its 2024 Sporting Cars Showcase at the Viking Way venue on June 23, with all manner of cars welcome, including competition, custom, classic, supercars, vintage, veteran, four-wheelers and tree-wheelers.
The show is free to enter for exhibitors, who can contact the museum via secretary@sbm.wales
Another top Welsh racing driver has also re-evaluated his track intentions for 2024. Seb Morris initially intended that this year would be a learning one teamed with Charles Dawson in the Team Parker Mercedes GT4 category of the British Championship.
That change came about after the 2017 British GT3 champion and Dawson took a win and a second place at the opening round of the 2024 series at Oulton Park in April, and as a result also took the lead in the category.
Morris said: “I’m looking forward to doing a full championship, and my first since 2020 when I was with Bentley, so it’ll be nice to get to get the season under way.
“I think we’ll hit the ground running as Charles is doing a winter series to prepare and get some seat-time, as well as to help him continue to progress with his race craft.
“The first person to win both GT3 and GT4 was my former team-mate, so it would be funny to do it the other way around. However, to be honest, GT4 is just as hard, if not harder, than GT3 to win a race in.
“It’s so incredibly competitive and we’re going to be up against a lot of quick cars and drivers and some very good, established Proam pairings. The good thing is I’ve won the championship overall with Team Parker and it’s going to basically be the same team around us.
“The building blocks are there, I know how good the team will be, I know how good the car will be, and I know how good we’ll be. If we get everything right, learn throughout the season, and have no big mistakes, there’s no reason why we can’t do all over again.”