My Background
Racing Career
I began motor sport at 18 as a relatively late starter when I started Kart Racing in 1991. As a Banbury lad we started locally at my track at Shenington as a complete Novice, with no one in my family having any motorsports experience apart from my Uncle’s Steven & Clifford who were Schoolboy Scramble (now known as Motorcross or MotorX) bike riders.
It was a steep learning curve! I had lots of spins and crashes at first, but I was always quick. By my second year I started winning & I went on to dominate the local championships, winning a couple of the National rounds and competing for a National Championship. It was a busy time of life but classic years for karting; I was racing two to three weekends every month and watching from trackside youngsters including Lewis Hamilton and Jensen Button cut their teeth in the Cadet and Juniors classes.
In 1996 we made the decision to graduate to single seater car racing with our family run team into Formula Vauxhall Junior. It was a difficult time initially which did not meet expectations, but through tenacity I finally achieved a breakthrough class win and then an outright podium the next year against a field full of future professional drivers and Formula One, Le Mans and Indycar stars.
I challenged for a Formula Renault National Championship the following year with a professional team & engineer, taking 4 wins and narrowly finishing second. It was a year when I finally began to mature in car racing.
I had to take a sabbatical from a full racing season for a few years from 1999 due to lack of funds. Despite this I continued to develop my instructing & coaching career and did select races including the mighty Nürburgring Nordschliefe 24 hour race, some international celebrity 24 hour kart races in the United Arab Emirates and some sports prototype and saloon car races.
In 2006 I had an opportunity to return to racing in the fabulous Radical Sports Prototypes alongside a client Barry Gates who I coached. I grabbed it with both hands and on my debut in the SR3 class at Croft, I qualified on the front row and in the race went on to set a new lap record!
This led to 3 full racing seasons in Sports Prototypes which culminated in winning the British Radical Championship including a record 9 Pole Positions, 4 Wins, and a number Fastest Laps and Lap Records, some of which still stand to date. We followed this up with a 2nd place in the British VdeV/SPEED series and a title win in the European Series.
From 2012 to 2016 I raced in both select Radical races and Lotus Cup UK, successfully partnering and coaching client Stuart Ratcliff. He went from being my pupil who I met as his examiner on his race licence to win the Lotus Cup UK Championship in 2016.
Since then, I have kept myself sharp with outings mainly in Sports Prototypes and GTs as the opportunities present themselves and remain as competitive as ever both as a driver and coach.
Instructing & Coaching Career
I started my freelance performance driving instructor career at Silverstone in 1997 and a coach since 2000, expanding my role that has led to coaching throughout the UK, Europe, UAE, USA and Asia.
I am lucky enough to have worked with the best industry professionals and car manufacturers in the world and for international driving programs including Ferrari, McLaren and Aston Martin and with many other recognised industry leading organisations and racing teams.
I have taught in all disciplines from single seaters to historics, road cars to GTs in hundreds of cars from MGB to McLaren Senna with clients from ranging from 7 years old to 78!
As an ARDS (Association of Racing Drivers Schools ARDS.co.uk) Grade A licenced instructor, I specialise in offering personal tuition to cater for all levels of experience; from those wishing to experience feeling a road car on the limit of adhesion for the first time, to kart racers starting car racing and experienced competitors wishing to fine hone their driving techniques.
From 2019 to 2021 I achieved the position as Senior Driver (AKA Chief Instructor) for the Aston Martin Racing Drivers’ Club, organising & running events throughout the UK & Europe as well as coaching alongside the fantastic team of some of the best coaches & instructors in the industry.
I am also proud to put something back into the industry as a founder of the Association of Performance Driving Instructors (TheAPDI.co.uk).
Learning the hard way was my route, but I can help you recognise and avoid many mistakes before they are made and be a quicker driver.
Working on a one-to-one basis to help develop on track technique & discipline and improve car knowledge and control for many repeat clients is hugely enjoyable.
I get great fulfilment in seeing clients from cadet kart novices to experienced drivers move forwards and have fun along the way. It’s also extremely satisfying seeing competitors progress their skills to achieve their full potential.
I enjoy my chosen profession and aspire to be the very best in the field I work in.