Hillspeed consistently plays a key role in the formative careers of drivers who are striving to establish professional careers. Countless young stars have gone on to enjoy great success thanks to the skills learned with Hillspeed…find out more about just some of the team’s sparkling alumni below:
Seb Morris
One of the very best racing drivers to emerge from the UK in recent years, Seb Morris’ car racing career began with Hillspeed – testing Ginetta Junior and Formula Renault cars while still competing in karting, before then graduating to the Ginetta Junior Championship in 2010. Winning that year’s Winter Series crown with Hillspeed, aged just 14-years-old, the Welsh youngster added the main Ginetta Junior title in 2011 to firmly announce his arrival. After a year away from the team, he rejoined Hillspeed in 2013 to compete in the brand new BRDC Formula 4 series. Racing to the Vice-Champion’s position, with one race victory and nine other podiums, a superb year brought a great end to his time with the Derbyshire squad. Morris went on to climb the single-seater ladder to GP3 `{`FIA Formula 3`}`, at one point a member of the Caterham F1 Team Academy, before transitioning to GT racing – winning the British GT title in 2017 and becoming a Bentley works driver.
Tom Ingram
For fans of touring car racing, Tom Ingram is a very familiar name – twice an Independents Trophy Champion in the British Touring Car Championship and a multiple race winner in the UK’s premier race category. Having debuted in car racing in 2009 in Ginetta Junior driving a Ginetta G20, Ingram joined Hillspeed for the 2010 season and he took a fantastic title win during the maiden season for the new Ginetta G40 car with five race victories and 13 podiums. He progressed to touring cars in 2014, driving a Toyota Avensis, and has been a fixture in the BTCC ever since. Alongside his two Independents Trophy crowns, Ingram was overall Vice-Champion in the category in 2018.
Alice Powell
Oxfordshire racing driver Alice Powell truly ignited her career as part of the Hillspeed team in 2010 when winning the Formula Renault BARC Championship title – in doing so making history as the first female to win a Formula Renault category anywhere in the world. Starting out in cars in Ginetta Junior in 2008, Powell then switched to single-seaters in Formula Renault UK before signing for Hillspeed to contest the sister BARC series in 2010. After winning her first championship, she returned to Formula Renault UK and then graduated to GP3 and British F3. Winning the Asian Formula Renault Series in 2014, several years later in 2019 Powell raced in the inaugural season of the women-only W Series in which she was third in the championship with one race victory.
Ahmad Al Harthy
Oman’s number one racing driver Ahmad Al Harthy is another driver whose sparkling career is very much a product of Hillspeed’s driver development during his formative years with the team in Formula Renault racing in the UK. After debuting in cars in the Bahrain-based Thunder Arabia series in 2006, Al Harthy travelled to Britain to enhance his experience and after signing with Hillspeed for the 2007 Formula Renault BARC campaign he remained with the squad for three full seasons. His best year was the last in 2009, becoming Vice-Champion with six podiums. Switching from single-seaters in 2010, he raced in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB Championship and won the Pro-Am1 class title in 2012. Going on to race in British GT, Al Harthy’s Oman Racing squad won the Team Championship in 2014 and he won the Silver Cup crown in 2015. In the Blancpain Endurance Cup, he has since won the Pro-Am crown on two occasions – 2017 and 2019.
Sean Walkinshaw
The youngest member of the world-famous Walkinshaw motorsport dynasty, Sean Walkinshaw has risen through the ranks to become a race-winning driver in the renowned Super GT Championship in the Far East. Growing up in motorsport as the son of the legendary Tom Walkinshaw of TWR fame, Walkinshaw Jnr made his motorsport bow relatively late at the age of 17-years-old in 2011. Joining Hillspeed to begin his career in Formula Renault, Walkinshaw benefited from the team’s key driver development. Moving up the ranks to Formula 3, he made his GT debut in 2015 and raced in the Blancpain GT Series in a Nissan before becoming a NISMO Athlete for the following year as part of the works Nissan GT Academy squad. He headed to Japan in 2017 to open the Super GT chapter of his career, becoming GT300 Vice-Champion in 2018 with team-mate Shinichi Takagi in a BMW M6.
Struan Moore
Jersey racer Struan Moore began his journey in cars in 2011 with Hillspeed in Ginetta Junior, ending his maiden season 12th in the standings with three podiums, before moving to single-seaters with the squad’s Formula Renault team. Staying with Hillspeed for a third year in 2013, Moore took on the challenge of the new BRDC F4 series and was a race winner en-route to ninth in the championship. After dabbling in Formula 3 in Japan, he switched his attention to GT racing from 2016 onwards. In 2017, Moore made a real breakthrough in international GT competition by joining the works Nissan squad to race a Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 in the Blancpain GT Series. More recently, he has been part of FIA Formula World Champion Jenson Button’s ‘Team Rocket’ McLaren squad.
Pepe Massot
Always spectacular to watch, Spanish sensation Pepe Massot made his car racing debut with Hillspeed in 2012 in Ginetta Junior and after a very successful start he committed to completing the full season. Taking … wins, he ended the campaign a highly impressive fourth in the championship and was listed as one of Autosport magazine’s ‘drivers of the season’. Staying with Hillspeed for his, and the team’s, graduation into the Ginetta GT Supercup, Massot took the partnership’s maiden race victory on its debut weekend in the series at Brands Hatch – a stunning achievement. He graduated into Porsche Carrera Cup GB for 2014, also debuting in the Formula One-supporting Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup, and raced in the German national series as well until a back injury cut short his campaign mid-season. After recovering, he returned to action in the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup in 2016.
Ameya Vaidyanathan
India’s Ameya Vaidyanathan started out his car racing adventure in 2015, driving for Hillspeed in the BRDC Formula 4 Championship. Developing strongly throughout the year, he ended the season 12th in the standings with three podiums – a best finish of second place at Rockingham. Moving up to Formula 3 the following year, Vaidyanathan raced in Britain and Europe – the latter in the EuroFormula Open series where he did become a race winner and multiple podium finisher at the wheel of a Dallara F312. In 2017, after starting the season in the Toyota Racing Series in New Zealand he stepped-up to the blue riband FIA Formula 3 European Championship. More recently, Vaidyanathan has raced in the Japanese Formula 3 Championship
Sasakorn Chaimongkol
Aiming to become the first Thai-born driver to race in Formula One since Prince Bira in the 1950s, Sasakorn ‘Cutter’ Chaimongkol has spent his entire car racing career to-date with Hillspeed. After initially starting out with a test programme in BRDC British Formula 3, he made his race debut with the team in the 2016 Autumn Trophy. His full-season bow in British F3 came in 2018 and he took two podium finishes during his maiden main season campaign, en-route to ninth in the points. In 2019, Chaimongkol claimed a hugely popular first British F3 race win at Silverstone and went on to end the season eighth in the championship. In 2020, an eleventh hour deal enabled him to return for a third year and he was seventh in the standings with more podium silverware too.
Oliver Clarke
Arriving fresh in BRDC British F3 in 2020 with just a couple of car races in the USA under his belt, British youngster Oliver Clarke progressed brilliantly under the guidance of Hillspeed and was very unlucky not to become a race winner in his debut season. Taking his first podium in only his second race meeting as a British F3 driver, at Hillspeed’s home track Donington Park, Clarke added another at Donington later in the season and went on to end the campaign eighth in the championship – ahead of a number of much more experienced racers. His raw speed and ability were nurtured well by Hillspeed, ensuring Clarke has the necessary tools at his disposal to progress up the motorsport ladder over the coming years.