Lightfoot gunning for title

Photo: Michael Barrett

Andrew Lightfoot is aiming to continue in the 750 Motor Club's Classic Hatch series and is looking to fight for the championship this season.

Lightfoot told us "Money isn't something there has been a lot of in my family so the dream of go-karting from the age of five remained just that.  In fact I've done very little go-karting at all. Just the odd arrive and drive with my mates." Despite this he made sure that his dreams could come try and race a car. "Year 2000 was my first attempt to start racing.  I had come across the 750MC stock hatch championship will searching for low cost circuit racing that offered great value: one class, big grid and thus close racing up and down the field.  I got as far as buying a road going XR2 and stripping out the interior before reality kicked in. I was still at Uni with an appropriate Uni sized debt after all!"

Lightfoot returned to the series in 2010 " In the middle of 2009 I came across 'pinky' and for £1100, I just couldn't say no.  She was an ex-Stock Hatch car built and last raced in 2004 by Jim Musker. I could tell, even though the paint had faded that she had good pedigree. I spent the rest of 2009 preparing her for the 2010 championship." His first race came at Brands Hatch, "All I could think of was Paddock Hill bend and all the cars that had rolled there in the past!  Fortunately the weekend went pretty smoothly and I finished both races fourth in class. The rest of the season followed with some more good results, lots of experience gained mechanically which came with plenty of frustration. The season finished perfectly though with 3rd in the inaugural classic hatch race at Silverstone."

Lightfoot picked off a couple of wins in 2011 but had to pull out of the season as his daughter Amelia was born. He brought a Ford Fiesta XR2 from Jason Nind and returned to full time racing in 2012, "2012 turned out to be quite a frustrating year. 'Ninja' just didn't quite have the pace. This forced me to overdrive and resulted in some silly mistakes and one too many damaged bumpers.  During the summer break I rebuilt an engine (£40 from eBay!) to get back to +1mm pistons. This seemed to do the trick as I subsequently won round 10 and at my favourite circuit Donnington too!"

Lightfoot is now looking to get the funds for this season "My first objective for 2013 is to generate enough commission at work to afford the full season, that or find a good sponsor!" But he is still looking for a good season in the championship "My second objective is to win the Classic Hatch Title. I'm pretty confident that I'm not the only one with that objective so anticipate a very close, hard fought championship that will once again go down to the wire. The quality of the field in Classic Hatch is such that a top ten finish is extremely respectable but having a few race wins under my belt now, it's the championship I have my sights on!  Importantly for everyone else that means, consistency and no more broken front bumpers!"

Written by Joshua Barrett (Twitter: @JoshCommentator)