| Vital statistics
2004 Holiday Inn SEAT Cupra Champion
- 3 race wins, 9 podiums, 6 fastest
laps and finishing 11 of the 12
rounds in the top four
Autosport British Club Racing Driver of
the Year
2003 5th Holiday Inn SEAT Cupra Championship
3rd Holiday Inn SEAT Super Prix at Brands
Hatch
2002 Worked as Abt Sportline Marketing Manager, whilst developing sponsorship for 2003 season
2001 Very limited race programme
Qualified on pole and finished
1st on his GT debut at Donington
Park
1st and pole - Radical Enduro
Championship race at Spa
2000 11th Formula Renault Sport
Championship
1st in two Formula Honda Championship
races at Knockhill
1999 Contested the Formula Palmer
Audi series
1998 Formula Honda Champion -
winning all 13 races entered
5th Formula Ford race at Oulton
Park, as team-mate to Jenson Button
BRDC McLaren Autosport Young Driver
of the Year Award nominee
1997 Formula Honda Champion
1st Aintree Racing Drivers Scholarship
Final
1996 Works Spirit kart driver
North West Formula TKM Kart Champion
- only driver to win 3 heats and
the final in the same meeting
1995 Northern Kart Racing Formula
TKM Champion
Top 10 finish in the 24hr Le Mans
Endurance Kart Race, out of 70
starters
1994 Racing debut in a 100cc
kart at Three Sisters Race Circuit
First ever test in a 100cc kart
at Clay Pigeon Raceway
The story so far
James always wanted to be a
motorbike racer. Born and
bred in Macclesfield, he grew
up surrounded by motorbikes,
as his father Keith ran motorbike
racing teams at British and International
level, including a works
Honda satellite team in the British
250cc Championship. James
started riding ‘bikes at
the age of five, and shown remarkable
entrepreneurial skill by
buying and refurbishing motorbikes
at 14 and selling them in the
school playground!
His mother
Renate had other
careers lined up for her
son, none of which included racing
on two wheels. Both parents
were, and continue to be, highly
supportive of James’s
racing career, and
when he was 12 they introduced
him to indoor karting. James
was a natural, and several arguments
erupted as men failed to see
the funny side of being regularly
beaten by a child. “I remember
my father getting
into arguments with people I’d
just beaten, as they thought
it wasn’t
fair somebody so
light was allowed to race against
them,” recalls
James. “They were just
jealous, and my father
almost got into one or two
fights over it!”
His
parents bought
James a kart in 1994, but
the start of his racing career
was delayed for six months while
he recovered from a road
accident. He was a passenger
when his friend lost control
of his car and slammed into
a lamp post, badly breaking James’ arm.
James’s first foray into
motorsport was in
1994, when he was introduced
to kart racing by a friend
of his uncle’s
- Ian Mulliner, of
Atol Fuels - and a test in
one of Ian’s
karts at Clay Pigeon
Raceway near Dorchester one
bleak November was organised.
His first race came soon
after at Three Sisters Race
Circuit near Wigan, where James
finished 2nd out of 16 starters.
James
started the 1995
season in an IBM kart, but
very quickly upgraded to a brand
new Wright chassis, in which
he won the Northern Kart Racing
Association Championship. He
and fellow karter Andy Sayle
also took part in the 24hr Le
Mans Endurance Kart Race, finishing
in the top 10 out of a field
of 70 teams.
For 1996 James was
supplied with a works
Kartel machine to
compete in the British and North
West Championships. College work
and exams prevented him from
entering every race, but he nevertheless
succeeded in winning
the North West Championship and
was the only person in his class
to win 3 heats and the final
in the same meeting.
In 1997, James’ father
and Andy Sayle established
Votex Racing – preparing
two single
seaters for
the new Formula Honda (F600)
Championship. James was fastest
in the pre-season test day
and in the first race at Castle
Coombe, he kept his 14 rivals
behind him to set pole position
and romped home to win the
inaugural Formula Honda race.
During the summer, 18-year
old James took up his free
scholarship drive with the
Aintree Racing Drivers Scholarship
and won the final against some
tough opposition. The prize
was four fully-funded races
at Oulton Park in a
Van Dieman
Formula Ford 1600, in which
he never finished lower than
5th.
The second
half
of the 1997 season saw James
race with the likes of Rob Austin
and Gavin Jones and in an exciting
final round at Brands Hatch won
the Formula Honda title by one
point. It was a remarkable achievement,
as it was James’s first
season in single seater racing
and the first season for
a brand new team. When he wasn’t
racing James spent his time
working as a racing instructor,
first at the Aintree Racing Drivers
School and then at Oulton
Park and also helping Tim Sugden
Motorsport with instruction for
its school scholarship. Today,
James is in even more demand
to pass on his racing driving
skills.
In 1998 James successfully
defended his Formula Honda
title, winning all 13 races he
entered. His ability hadn’t
gone unnoticed, and Jim Warren – boss
of the British and European
Championship winning team Haywood
Racing - offered James a drive
in the Formula Ford Slick 50
British Championship. “James
really impressed at his first
test at Snetterton with us,” said
Warren at the time. “He
was fourth quickest against
the cream of Formula Ford, matching
his team-mate Jensen Button
for pace.” Following this
test, James was entered into
a Formula Ford race at Oulton
Park , where he finished 6th
first time out.
At the end of the 1998 season,
James was nominated for the
prestigious BRDC McLaren Autosport
Young Driver of the Year award.
Selected as one of the six finalists,
which also included Jenson
Button and Justin Wilson, it
was a huge honour for such a
young driver with only two years
racing experience. He showed
great promise during the trials
at Silverstone – not
only setting the fastest
time in a touring car, but beating
the benchmark time set by
David Leslie. “It was the
first time I’d ever driven
a touring car, but it seemed
like the most natural thing in
the world,” says James. “It
was a defining moment in
my career, because from that
moment on I knew I wanted a career
in saloon car racing.”
In
1999, James entered
the all-new Formula Palmer
Audi series, driving a 350PS
single seater. He set the best
pre-season test time at Snetterton,
beating ex-Formula 1 driver Ralph
Firman. With no team partner
to compare data with it was difficult
for James to maximise
his potential and his race
season didn’t
pan out the way he’d
hoped. It was certainly a great
learning year.
“James
has been
stifled by the fixed format of
Formula Palmer Audi,” says
Tim Sugden,
who was James’ driver
coach at the time. “He
is a very talented
driver but needs the experienced
engineer/driver relationship
to develop his ability. A more
intensive testing programme
was required along with instant
access to data, but this was
not forthcoming.”
In
2000 James
competed in the newly revamped
Formula Renault Sport Championship,
with Haywood Racing. This
was to be both a mental and physical
challenge
for James, who although he
had no team partner (unlike most
other drivers) to compare
data with, he did well, finishing
in the top 10 in the majority
of races. The season
finished with James in 11th
place amid a Championship
fielding 30 drivers. His
testing times were also excellent – and
on several occasions
they eclipsed those of Kimi Raikkonen.
James also
out-qualified the McLaren Formula
1 driver in the first race of
the season, and regularly beat
him in the wet. James also made
a guest appearance in the Formula
Honda Championship at a double
header race meeting at Knockhill,
winning both
races.
James competed in selected
rounds of the Radical
Enduro Championship, both
in the UK and Europe, in
2001, winning two races at
Spa in Belgium. He finished
in the top three in each
race entered and held the
outright Radical Lap record
at Spa.
James
made his GT debut
in 2001, driving a CSG Motorsport
Lister Storm in the inaugural
Interactive Sportscar Championship
race at Donington Park.
As one of the youngest drivers
on the track, James qualified
on pole – but
then an engine fire
forced him and co-driver David
Warnock to start from the back
of the grid in a spare car. During
the race James lapped two seconds
quicker than any
other driver to score a sensational
victory.
In 2002 James took an
enforced year out
from racing to concentrate
on finding sponsorship to continue
his motorsport career. With
support from Abt, sweet manufacturer
Haribo and Vivaldi Potatoes,
James competed in the inaugural
Holiday Inn SEAT Cupra Championship
in 2003. It was designed
as a two year plan – the
first season was
to learn the 250PS front-wheel
drive Leon Cupra R race car and
the second was to win the title.
Despite not racing at all in
2002, James scored
his first of three podiums
in only his third SEAT race – finishing
3rd at Silverstone.
He quickly established himself
as a potential race winner at
each meeting and eventually finished
5th in the series.
James also finished 3 rd in the
end of season SEAT Super Prix
at Brands Hatch, despite starting
at the back of the grid.
The
plan for 2004 was
to win the Holiday Inn SEAT
Cupra Championship, but with
18 talented aspiring young touring
car drivers aiming for exactly
the same thing, it wasn’t
going to be an easy task. It
was therefore surprising that
James dominated the first race
meeting so convincingly – recording
pole for both races,
setting fastest lap in both races
and only being denied
two race wins with an ambitious
overtaking manoeuvre for the
lead in the second race which
he was immediately to regret.
That incident at Druids turned
what should have
been a clear Championship
lead into a less invincible
5th place in the series, 14 points
behind the leader (and Round
2 race winner) Gavin Smith.
The next six races proved
crucial in not only re-establishing
James’s
SEAT Cupra Championship
lead, but also his air of
invincibility. At the three double-header
race meetings at
Silverstone, Oulton Park
and Croft, James scored six straight
podium results, which included
two wins, and four fastest
laps.
Indeed, the turning point in
the Championship
came at Croft. Heading to
North Yorkshire, James was
third in the series behind Tom
Boardman and Gavin Smith. Two
visits to the gravel trap at
Clervaux put paid to Gavin’s
title aspirations, while Boardman’s
first corner collision in
the second race saw James romp
away to an eight second
race victory.
Two more podiums
at Knockhill saw
James travel to the final
two rounds at Donington Park
with a 20 point lead. Even a
torrential shower of rain one
hour before the final race didn’t
faze him, as James
calmly did exactly what he needed
to do by finishing 4th in both
races to win the
title – and
a works drive with
SEAT Sport UK in the 2005 Green
Flag MSA British Touring Car
Championship.
In many ways the
statistics speak
for themselves. Three race
wins, nine podiums, six fastest
laps, six poles and finishing
11 out of the 12 rounds in the
top four ensured James was a
worthy 2004 SEAT Cupra Champion.
“When
I was nominated for the McLaren
Autosport Award in 1998 I didn’t
think I’d win it and I
didn’t,
but when I started the SEAT
Cupra Championship in 2004 I
knew I’d
win and I did,” says James. “I
hope that doesn’t sound
arrogant, but it’s just
the way it was. I feel that
it was the right year for me
to win the SEAT Cupra Championship
and now is the right time
to move into the BTCC. I’m
really ready for it.”
|
