| Vital statistics
2005 British Touring Car Championship
with SEAT Sport UK.
2004 British Touring Car Championship
with VX Racing - 2 race wins.
2003 British Touring Car Championship
Production Class Champion - 6
wins, 8 poles, 9 fastest laps
in a Barwell Motorsport Honda
Civic R.
2002 Southern Formula Ford
Champion - 10 wins, 10 poles,
10 fastest laps. Tested GA Motorsport
Alfa Romeo touring car.
2001 4th in the Spa Euro Formula
Ford Championships.
2000 Raced in Formula Ford
Championship with Haywood
Racing.
1999 Raced in 18 World and
European events and finished
4th in the Australasian Championship.
1998 Won the CIK European Championship
event held at Imola in Italy
and finished 6th in the FIA
European FA Championship.
1997 Youngest driver to receive
a CIK International ‘A’ licence,
allowing him to race in the senior
World and European FIA Championship
at just 15.
1996 Top Kart factory driver.
2nd FIA European Junior Championships.
4th FIA World Junior Championships.
4th FIA Monaco Kart Grand
Prix.
1995 British Junior Yamaha
Champion. Yamaha Super Prix Champion.
1994 2nd Cadet Kart Championship.
ITV Anglia Junior Champion.
Vice British Cadet Champion.
1993 Cadet Kart racing with
Zip Young Guns Racing Team.
1992 Kart race debut at Buckmore
Park as a Zip Young Guns Black
plate learner.
The story so far
Luke Hines has packed so much
into his life that it’s
hard to believe that he’s
still only in his early 20s.
British Touring Car Production
Class Champion, catwalk model,
surfer, accomplished golfer,
Funky House DJ and joke teller
extraordinaire, Luke’s
appetite for life is inspiring.
A young man with spiky hair and
many talents, Luke is also impossible
to categorise – although
if you were to put him in a box
you would not be wrong to label
it ‘lucky to be alive’.
At the age of two Luke was
diagnosed with severe glue
ear, and he was saved from brain
damage by emergency surgery to
remove two pints of fluid. As
he was born with the condition
nobody realized the extent of
his disabilities, and it wasn’t
until after the operation that
Luke regained 60% of his hearing
and had to be taught to speak
from scratch again.
Having overcome one life-threatening
experience, an accident on
September 4th, 1988 was to
test Luke’s
fortitude for survival to
the limit. Using a sit-on mower
to cut the lawn he climbed off
the machine to move an obstruction,
leaving the engine going.
He slipped, fell into its path
and before he could escape the
blades ran over him, nearly taking
his lower left leg clean off.
Still in motion, the machine
had started to turn locked in
a circular movement and was heading
directly back towards Luke’s
head when his screams alerted
his father, who just in time
ran over and took control
of the machine.
Luke lost two and a half litres
of blood – an enormous
amount for a six-year old – and
almost died on his way to
hospital. It initially looked
like all the nerves and veins
in his left leg had been severed
and amputation would be the only
option, but one remaining nerve
and one vein were found intact.
The leg was saved, just, but
it was feared that he would never
be able to fully use it, certainly
never be able to run and play
football again, and there was
still an underlying possibility
that his left foot may have to
be amputated at a later date.
But after 16 operations and several
months in hospital Luke returned
home.
Through Luke’s determination
and hyperactivity it wasn’t
long before he was finding
ways to overcome his disability
and by 1991 his shattered leg,
by some miracle of science, was
almost as strong as his other
leg. His surgeon gave him
the all clear to do what he wanted,
so in 1992 Luke had his first
kart race at Buckmore Park,
a circuit co-owned by John
Surtees from which he runs a
school of excellence for young
drivers.
He won his first race aged
9, quickly gaining a reputation
as a highly determined and
competitive driver. Accidents
are all part of the learning
process for a wannabe professional
racing driver, and as in everything
he does in life, Luke doesn’t
have half-hearted accidents either.
He still remembers the accident
he had as an 11-year old
at Buckmore Park in the Renault
Super Prix. Whilst dicing for
the lead on the fastest part
of the circuit, Luke locked wheels
with the kart driven by Daniel
Welch. Luke flew 20 feet into
the air and landed between the
tyre barriers and the bank some
40 feet away. He was rushed to
hospital but released a few hours
later, although heavily bandaged
from head to toe. He returned
to the circuit where he was welcomed
on to the prize rostrum to wild
applause from onlookers by formula
Young Gun David Coulthard, then
of McLaren F1, who was presenting
the awards. A bruised Luke
in true grit style returned two
weeks later to Buckmore Park
and won!
A glistening motorsport career
looked on the cards – but
as far as health was concerned,
Luke wasn’t out of the
woods just yet. At the age of
12, Luke had a couple of viral-type
illnesses similar to ‘flu,
consisting of high temperatures,
aches and pains. He seemed to
recover but one day he just could
not get out of bed. Skiving,
bullying and laziness seemed
a possible cause, but Luke had
always been a hyper-active child
and the family’s local
G.P. finally diagnosed Chronic
Fatigue Syndrome –otherwise
known as Myalgic Encephalitis
(ME). It appeared that all
the trauma that had happened
in his past had now caught up
with him. Luke had to miss lots
of school as more specialist
treatment slowly cured his illness,
although the side effect today
is that he is intolerant to certain
foods.
Luke still considers himself
lucky. His step-sister Kelly
died of cancer when she was
just 13-years old and his father
has overcome stomach cancer.
Luke doesn’t see much point
in having a pension scheme and
lives every day to the full.
Life has already taught him to
enjoy each day. His Christian
faith is important and Luke always
wears a Cross around his neck
when he races. He’s even
turned the lawn-mower accident
into a positive, impressing girls
by showing him his ‘shark
bite’ and spinning yarns
of a death-defying Great
White encounter off the coast
of Australia!
As you can imagine, accidents
and illness hardly helped
his early motorsport career.
In fact, when he couldn’t race,
he took up other sports – mostly
for relaxation, but with
great success nonetheless. He
won an amateur surfing championship
in Newquay one year and the
pro at his local golf club said
that, as a budding 14-year old,
he had the potential to go on
and play golf professionally.
But when your father is Martin
Hines, the three times World,
five times European and six
times British Kart Champion,
motor racing was always going
to play a big part in Luke’s life.
It was clear Luke had inherited
his father’s skill and
he soon became part of the Zip
Young Guns Racing Team - a team
founded by his father ‘to
allow talented young kart drivers
to realise their potential by
providing them with the best
racing equipment and support
available - ’ and following
in the footsteps of drivers
such as David Coulthard, Anthony
Davidson, Jason Plato, Gary
Paffett and Lewis Hamilton.
In 1994, Luke finished runner-up
in the Cadet Kart Championship,
winning the final round of the
series but losing out to Nicky
Richardson by just two points.
The following year Luke moved
up to the British Junior Yamaha
Championship, beating the likes
of Colin Brown (who went on to
become World Karting Champion
in 2000) to win the title. Luke
also won the Yamaha Super Prix.
Out of an entry of 150, two
drivers emerged as the pace
setters at the FIA European Junior
Championship – Luke
and a Spanish youngster called
Fernando Alonso. In the final,
Alonso qualified on pole with
Luke alongside in second. In
the race, Alonso’s engine
blew and Luke was forced
off the track, yet he raced back
to finish second in a Top
Kart factory machine. On a high,
Luke went to the FIA World Junior
Championships in Italy.
Having qualified 25th, he finished
4th in the final. Luke also
finished 4th in the FIA
Monaco Kart Grand Prix.
In 1997 Luke became the youngest
driver to receive a CIK International ‘A’ licence,
allowing him to race in the senior
World and European FIA Championship
at just 15. The following season
was another milestone in Luke’s
career, as he won the CIK
European Championship event held
at the famous Imola circuit in
Italy, and after another great
year Luke ended up 6th in the
FIA European FA Championship.
His travels continued in 1999,
racing in 18 World and European
events as far a field as
Australia, Japan, USA and of
course all over Europe. Competition
at this level with 140 of the
world’s
top kart drivers is the best
training ground you could ever
imagine. As so often in motorsport
the results did not justify the
fantastic performances, with
Luke’s best result coming
with 4th in the Australasian
Championship.
In 2000 Luke moved from karts
to race single seaters. Even
then, Luke knew his future
was in touring car racing, but
he wisely took the advice of
his father and raced in Formula
Ford to gain experience. 2000
was a learning year, but it didn’t
take long before Luke was winning
races. It was whilst driving
a Haywood Racing Formula Ford
that Luke met James Pickford – who
was driving for the same
team, but in the Formula Renault
Sport Championship. Now, five
years later, they are team-mates
once again, although this time
driving identical cars in the
British Touring Car Championship!
Luke finished 4th in the 2001
Spa Euro Championship, recording
numerous poles, podiums and fastest
laps, before dominating the 2002
Southern Formula Ford Champion
with 10 race wins, 10 poles and
10 fastest laps.
At the end of 2002, Luke was
invited to test a GA Motorsport
Alfa Romeo touring car and
was quickly on the pace. There
was no going back to single seaters
after that, and in 2003 Luke
made his British Touring
Car Championship debut, driving
a Production Class Honda Civic
R. His team-mate at Barwell
Motorsport was Alan Blencowe,
and together they dominated the
series – with
Luke becoming Champion in
his first season of racing tin
tops, with 18 straight podiums
results!
Such raw talent in the TOCA
support races doesn’t go
unnoticed by BTCC team managers,
and just 10 months after making
his touring car debut he was
approached by VX Racing to drive
a works Astra Coupe in the 2004
BTCC. His team-mates were James
Thompson and Yvan Muller – childhood
heroes of Luke. A few years before
Luke had queued to buy the first
touring car Sony PlayStation
game with Thompson and Muller
on the cover and now, not only
was he now racing with them,
but at Brands Hatch and Snetterton
he beat them – winning
two touring car races outright
in his first season racing
in the BTCC.
Today, Luke plays golf to relax,
does some Funky House DJ-ing
for fun, hits the waves when
the surf’s up and rarely
cuts the lawn. He has his own
style – and it won’t
come as a surprise to learn he
likes to buy his clothes from
charity shops and “rips
them up and plays about to make
them look like designer jeans.” For
a style-conscious youngster,
buying expensive designer
labels are of little importance
when it comes to looking and
feeling good, although Luke is
no stranger to the catwalk. Having
modelled for designer William
Hunt, and is keen on developing
his modelling CV.
But his priority in 2005 is
to help SEAT win the BTCC
Manufacturers’ title – and
as many races himself along
the way.
“I’ve had a lot
of criticism over the years because
of who my father is, but I think
it’s great to have a famous
dad who has achieved so much
and we are good mates,” says
Luke. “I’ve had a
lot of accidents and illness,
I’ve been in pain a lot
of my life and I’ve lost
several close members of
my family, but you have to get
on with it and live life the
best you can. The last two years
have been the happiest of my
life so far, and being with SEAT
in 2005 really is a dream come
true.”
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