Tom Boardman (racing driver)

Tom Boardman is a British auto racing driver born in Forton, Lancashire on the 15 October 1983. His greatest achievement to date is winning the 2005 Seat Cupra Championship for the Triple R team which he runs with father, John, who was previously a rallycross driver in the 1970s.

The Early Years

Tom first started driving cars at a very young age on the farmland where his father's recovery business was based. After a chance visit to a local 1/4 mile oval track he and his dad were taken with the idea of entering a car and so Tom's first experience of competitive motorsport was in 1993, in Ministox. Four seasons and four championships later he moved on to autograss where he took two further championships in two seasons.

After these early successes he moved in to the brand new T-Car Series for 1999 where he took seven wins from eight races to come out on top of a field of promising youngsters. A fast-pass to motorsport success seemed assured.

In 2000 he acquired a Peugeot 306 which, having waited patiently for his 16th birthday in order to comply with the rules, he entered in selected rounds of the National Saloons Championship. This was just one small step away from the British Touring Car Championship and his arrival on the scene at such a young age sparked many people to question whether or not he was too young.

The British Touring Car Championship

Tom would become the youngest driver in the history of the BTCC when he joined the Production Class of the 2001 with his family-run Tom Boardman Racing team.

The following season he joined Peter Briggs' Edenbridge Racing team, finishing 6th in a BMW (well behind team-mate Norman Simon, before joining John Batchelor's colourful Team Varta in 2003. Both years were trying with 2002 seeing him struggle with rear wheel drive and his 2003 blighted by his teams mistakes towards the end of the season which meant that, despite winning more races than any other driver, he would finish only fourth in the final championship positions.

Tom has always looked to compete in a large variety of machinery and took to the rally stages towards the end of 2003, with some success, and this led to the formation of Special Tuning (UK) Ltd. He has also competed in the Renault Clio Winter Series with TCR and has tested a number of BTCC cars including the VLR Peugeot 307 and the Seat Leon.

Seat Cupra and Triple R

A late deal saw him enter the 2004 SEAT Cupra Challenge with backing from his father's Special Tuning operation. At this time the series consisted of identical cars prepared by a single team and, despite a total lack of any pre-season testing, Tom impressed many observers by shrugging off his previous reputation and demonstrating a new-found maturity. He would score a podium result first time out and a win at the second meeting. He was always up against it as many of the drivers were in their second season in the championship but he managed to stay in with a shout of championship victory right up to the final meeting of the year when a 'do or die' gamble on tyre choice saw him drop down to third position in the final standings.

2005 saw a rule change in the championship allowing independent teams to enter cars and the Boardman family, having enjoyed success on the rally stages, took the decision to reform the family team which had entered as Tom Boardman Racing back in 2001 and who had provided the infrastructure for the now defunct Team Varta operation. It was an impressive return to competition with Tom taking the championship crown and a cheque for £100,000. The team would also run a second car for Jonathon Young for the second half of the season with Tom taking on a 'mentor' role.

With the champion driver barred from returning to the championship, a strange situation engineered by Seat Sport UK, Tom decided to concentrate on managing the team for 2006. Triple R would also enter a car in the Spanish series for Tom himself to keep him 'match fit' and to give them experience of the new model that would not be used in the British championship until 2007. However, Boardman remained in the Spanish series for 2007.

For 2008, Boardman is competing in the SEAT Leon Eurocup. He will make his World Touring Car Championship début in June at the Estoril round of the series as a reward for his performances in the Eurocup. [cite news| title =Boardman to make WTCC debut| publisher =autosport.com| url =http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/67981| date =2008-06-05| accessdate =2008-06-05]

References

External links

* [http://www.tomboardmanmotorsport.com/ tomboardmanmotorsport.com - current site]
* [http://www.craigantill.com/websites/tbr/ tomboardmanracing.com - archive from 2003]
* [http://www.specialtuninguk.co.uk/ Special Tuning (UK) Ltd]