Celebrities & Famous people who have raced

[ChevronB19]

Sure they’ve already been mentioned, but in the past I’ve raced against (excluding ex F1/BTCC/GT racers):

Chris Rea (really nice guy)
Chris Hoy
Rowan Atkinson
Brain Johnson (really nice guy)
James Martin
Nick Mason

[AlexRS2782]

Carl Cox - legendary DJ, music producer / remixer, who's had his own motorsport team / brand since 2013 and done a bit of road racing himself.

[thegreenhell]

John Oates (of Hall & Oates) raced in IMSA. He's just popped up on the latest Smoking Tire podcast to talk about cars and racing.

[QuadCamCapri]

Ian Botham - Had a go in Production Saloons in a Cosworth Sierra, early 90's.

[thebigmacmoomin]

Paul Hollywood

[anonymous-user]

My race Sylva was built for my by my mates brother in Yorkshire, he was building 3 race cars at that time, Mine, a type 14 Elite for Mark Knoffler and Mk2 Jag for Daley Thompson. i know the cars were paid for and collected but never heared how they got on at the track

[Drumroll]

Has anyone mentioned Barry McGuigan? he did a bit of rallycross.

[Morris12s3]

The late (and truly great) John Geils.

[mfmman]

Drumroll said:

Has anyone mentioned Barry McGuigan? he did a bit of rallycross.

And rallying, fast but accident prone

[grumpy52]

mfmman said:

Drumroll said:

Has anyone mentioned Barry McGuigan? he did a bit of rallycross.

And rallying, fast but accident prone

He was rather volatile if the crowd gave him verbal ,which they did when he crashed ,which he did rather regularly.
I seem to remember him wrecking cars at successive meetings at Lydden .

[CanAm]

Eric Mc said:

Billy Cotton was a regular at Brooklands pre-war. He was a very famous band leader.

And post-war he even raced in F1, with a (shared) 4th place in the 1949 British GP.
Yes, 1949 - Formula 1 didn’t start in 1950 as some sources would have you believe.

[Plus8]

A few years ago I was racing in The Morgan Challenge Series in a Plus 8 and the factory arranged for a Morgan Celebrity Race raising money for the Bobby Moore Cancer Charity and a number of regular drivers were asked to provide their car for a celebrity to drive. Luther Blissett (Ex Footballer)) managed to roll his car during the race, resulting in the Morgan Factory offering a new race car at a huge discount to the owner. I think the resulting publicity did the factory no harm. Also in that race was Paul Hirst who at the time played a Fireman in Coronation Street, (Eileen Grimshaw’s Boyfriend), and does voiceovers on a number of car related TV programmes. He still races in that series. Also participating was Patrick Stewart, who was very competitive. I think Brendan Cole (Strickly Come Dancing) won.

[Plus8]

Correction to above post, it’s Tony not Paul Hirst!

[Gregor Marshall]

My late Dad coached quite a few of the above (Paul Newman, Noel Edmonds, Mike Smith, Mark Thatcher, Davina Galicia, Nick Mason, Andrew Ridgley, Luther Blisset, Rowan Atkinson, Chris Rea) and took a lot of celebrities out on track (Joanna Lumley probably his favourite!!), but two missing he helped racing are Falklands hero Simon Weston (he did Production Saloons and the Willhire 24 hour race) and Charles Brockett (every year at Brands Hatch there was a House of Lords versus House of Commons race).
Steve O'Rourke who was Pink Floyd's Manager raced too
I've probably missed some too.

[Drumroll]

Gregor Marshall said:

My late Dad coached quite a few of the above (Paul Newman, Noel Edmonds, Mike Smith, Mark Thatcher, Davina Galicia, Nick Mason, Andrew Ridgley, Luther Blisset, Rowan Atkinson, Chris Rea) and took a lot of celebrities out on track (Joanna Lumley probably his favourite!!), but two missing he helped racing are Falklands hero Simon Weston (he did Production Saloons and the Willhire 24 hour race) and Charles Brockett (every year at Brands Hatch there was a House of Lords versus House of Commons race).
Steve O'Rourke who was Pink Floyd's Manager raced too
I've probably missed some too.

Now why doesn't it surprise me that your dad's favorite was Joanna Lumley.

[ChevronB19]

Gregor Marshall said:

My late Dad coached quite a few of the above (Paul Newman, Noel Edmonds, Mike Smith, Mark Thatcher, Davina Galicia, Nick Mason, Andrew Ridgley, Luther Blisset, Rowan Atkinson, Chris Rea) and took a lot of celebrities out on track (Joanna Lumley probably his favourite!!), but two missing he helped racing are Falklands hero Simon Weston (he did Production Saloons and the Willhire 24 hour race) and Charles Brockett (every year at Brands Hatch there was a House of Lords versus House of Commons race).
Steve O'Rourke who was Pink Floyd's Manager raced too
I've probably missed some too.

I’m guessing your dad was Gerry? I raced against him a few times. And lost, massively.

We were good mates with Tony Lanfranchi who often entertained us with stories both of himself and Gerry. Both lovely guys, as was the third musketeer, Barrie.

[Eric Mc]

Lord Brockett?

A bit of a cad, if I recall.

[Pflanzgarten]

ChevronB19 said:

Gregor Marshall said:

My late Dad coached quite a few of the above (Paul Newman, Noel Edmonds, Mike Smith, Mark Thatcher, Davina Galicia, Nick Mason, Andrew Ridgley, Luther Blisset, Rowan Atkinson, Chris Rea) and took a lot of celebrities out on track (Joanna Lumley probably his favourite!!), but two missing he helped racing are Falklands hero Simon Weston (he did Production Saloons and the Willhire 24 hour race) and Charles Brockett (every year at Brands Hatch there was a House of Lords versus House of Commons race).
Steve O'Rourke who was Pink Floyd's Manager raced too
I've probably missed some too.

I’m guessing your dad was Gerry?

Has to be.

[Milkyway]

Ooh....I can just remember watching Gerry throwing ‘Big Bertha’ around.
I had his autobiography ‘Only here for the beer’.
Still got a VHS tape... In car prod saloons, You can imagine the GM & TL commentaries.

GM in a Opel Monza.
TL: Vauxhall Nova
BW: Escort Turbo...
& x3.

Edited by Milkyway on Tuesday 19th July 21:48

[CanAm]

Eric Mc said:

Lord Brockett?

A bit of a cad, if I recall.

A bit of a cad??
A major insurance fraud involving the wilful destruction of various expensive classic cars!