| Career History - Instructor |
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The very first time I did any instructing was at the Jim Russell Racing Driver's School at Silverstone not long after I had finished my own courses there and started racing; it was however only in a reletively minor role. My first proper instructing job came much later.  Around 1986 a racing driver called Andy Ackerly who was originally from the same town in Cheshire as me but at the time lived in, Kent had a corporate entertainment business callled 'Trackwork'; He contacted me and asked if I would like to help him out and instruct for him at Oulton Park on a day he had arranged for one of his clients; I accepted and that became my first proper instructing job.
Malcolm Barfoot of Aintree Racing Driver's School had provided the Formula Ford cars and a couple of other instructors for the event; and when the day was over he asked me if I would like to instruct for him occasionally - which I did, but only occasionally.
In 1994 I began working for my local circuit, Oulton Park (owned by Brands Hatch Leisure at the time); this coincided with the formation of ARDS, the Association of Racing Driver's Schools (of which one of the founder members was Malcolm Barfoot af Aintree Racing Driver's School, which by sheer coincidence has the same initials!) and I got my first ARDS Instructor Licence.
 In 1995 I also started working at Bruntingthorpe Aerodrome for Jonathan Palmer's (current owner of Motorsport Vision - Brands Hatch, Cadwell Park, Oulton Park and Snetterton, and Bedford Autodrome) 'Palmer Promosport' corporate entertainment business.
A new business venture in 1998 caused me to leave instructing for a while; however, the new business brought me into contact with a racing team owner and after initally securing a sponsorship deal with my main supplier towards the team running a Dodge Viper in the 1998 British Grand Prx support race for GT cars, I became involved in assisting the team owner to run his team. In 2000 I secured a £250,000 sponsorship deal for the team to do British GT. Unfortunatley I couldn't do the driving because I had let my International Racing Licence (required for British GT) lapse for more than five years, so I couldn't renew it at that stage. The regular driver we took on was Dave Clark (now co-owner/founder of Road Angel) who was partnered at different times by John Cleland, Mike Wilds, Neil Cunningham and finally Tiff Needell.
In 2003 Brookspeed, having had a rocky ride for the last couple of years losing a substantial amount of money with the demise of the 'Interactive GT Championship' in 2001 and doing the Daytona 24 Hour race in 2002 at a substantial loss, decided to start offering cars for hire for track days and bought some Porsche 944's; that led me back into instructing and regaining my ARDS Instructor Licence.
 From then to 2006 I worked for Silverstone and Rockingham circuits as well as doing freelance work for track day organisers such as Gold Track, and and directly, on a one-to-one basis for private individuals. For the last two years up to and including 2008 I have concentrated 100% on working with private customers, either track day enthusiasts or competitors.
I instruct in everything from standard roadgoing hatchbacks to full race GT, Touring and sports cars such as Porsche GT3RSRs, Caterhams and Radicals. |
