It seems odd to describe a racing driver who has yet to hit 40 years old as a veteran of the British Touring Car Championship, but that is the crown that Tom Chilton wears proudly.
The 38-year-old was the then-youngest driver when he made his debut in the UK’s highest profile tin-top category in 2002, just days after his 17th birthday. He has branched out into sportscar racing and a successful six-year stint in the World Touring Car Championship as well as ETCR and VLN, but the UK is his bread and butter. He has been back on the domestic scene full time since 2018 and has already been a race winner this term in his Excelr8 Motorsport Hyundai i30 N.
But far from having his eyes on a more relaxed future, one of the most likeable drivers in the paddock is looking much longer term. He wants to become the BTCC’s most experienced driver ever and is a strong candidate to achieve that. It is a long way from his formative years thrashing a Ford Escort Mk2 around a field next to his house.
He took time out from his busy preparations for this weekend’s third British Touring Car Championship meeting of the season at Snetterton to tackle the Motorsport News readers’ questions and we are grateful.
Question: What got you interested in motorsport in the first place? Did it come from your family?
Ian Elsey
Via email
Tom Chilton: “It did come from my family, yes. My dad Grahame is a massive petrolhead. When I was growing up, I don’t think dad ever missed a Formula 1 race on a Sunday. I was always sitting and watching it with him, but we always used to fall asleep halfway through! Dad has always loved cars and had the need for speed.
“I think that comes from his dad Peter, who we always used to call ‘late-brake Pete’ because unless he was on the anti-lock braking system to the white line of a T-junction, for example, he knew he had braked too early. That has gone through those two generations and onto the third with my brother [ex-F1 and IndyCar driver] Max and myself.
“I took my boys to the Daytona karting track at Sandown Park the other day. It’s funny, because I am the guy featuring in the safety briefing video before it all starts – I replaced Martin Brundle. I am in all of the Daytona tracks around the country. My eldest boy, Freddie, was very, very good. It got to the point where I thought I shouldn’t take him anymore and tempt him with motorsport, because he was ridiculously good for his first time. Annoyingly, he is a natural at everything. So there could well be a fourth generation on the way.”
MN: What about you competing then? How did all that start?
TC: “My first races were in the BRSCC T-Cars Championship in 1999. I did three years of that and I should have won the championship in 2001, but the clerk of the course took my licence away. I literally just rubbed a door mirror with someone – there was no damage. Those cars were made of fibreglass, so any real impact would have been apparent, but I just glanced against someone. Nothing was broken. It was Ryan Lewis I brushed with and he went crying to the clerk. I was leading the championship at the time and I think they made an example of me: there was far worse going on with some of the other drivers.
“I finished third in the points as I was out of the last few rounds, which was gutting. I should have won that.”
MN: Why didn’t you do any karting?
“Because I was what the medics had defined as morbidly obese when I was younger. I was under the care of doctors and they provided me with three dietitians. I was so big.
