Catching up with Martin Brown Racing
During the Covid-19 Lockdown period we caught up with Scottish Racing Driver Martin Brown Racing, Martin took some time out of his busy schedule of coffee drinking to give us an insight into his background. See Below
Hi Martin, How are you keeping & have you been busy throughout ‘lockdown’?
Hi Guys, it's good to catch up - I’m good thank you, fortunately I’ve been able to work from home throughout lockdown, which on the plus side has helped with keeping a routine, the downside being I’ve not had as much free time to work on the car as I might have had lol. Sadly I have done very little to my car over winter and with Covid-19 making an appearance access to the car was difficult so I put everything on hold.
With the first round of Superlap Scotland on the 1st of August, like all true motorsport fanatics, I will spent the next 2-3 weeks living in the garage to get prepared in time! I have stocked up on plenty of coffee…
What's Your background – when did it start and how did you get into racing?
When I was 14 years old my father introduced me into Autotesting at the South of Scotland Car club, an against the clock time trial event, with a mixture of handbrake turns, J turns, and complex manoeuvres, that follow an exact mapped out route. There are time penalties for incorrect turns, hitting cones/markers or course errors. I definitely recommend Autotesting at a local car club, it is a great way to get into motorsport and learn car handling skills which will benefit you both on and off the track. I had 3 successful years competing before I left for University to Study Mechanical Engineering. After returning from University and finding my feet I was keen to get involved with some form of motorsport again. Initially I looked at Autotesting, followed by Time Attack, all things considered I decided to compete in Superlap Scotland at Knockhill, my first year being 2017. The format sounded great and having a stock Subaru Impreza WRX road car, at first all I had to was throw on some sticky tyres and uprated brake pads to get stuck in and be competitive.
We see on your social media platforms that you're constantly collecting trophies! What's your achievements, what have you won?
2017 Super Scotland – 3rd in Class F, 1st in class F Road car
2018 Super Scotland – King of the Hill (Overall winner of all cars over every class), Class F Champion, Overall Road Car Champion
2019 Super Scotland – Class E Champion, Team Trophy Champion
It’s been an incredible 3 years with a Podium finish in all of the 22 events I’ve entered, 13 of which were 1st place finishes.
I drove to and from each event over 3 years, including a trip down to Rockingham for a Time attack RWYB event. A real road legal race car! Not to mention still on the standard 5 speed gearbox, with over 100k miles on it… All of the above has been achieved by preparing and building the car myself along with my father. This proves that competing on a budget is achievable.
A question that always gets asked, What's the Best car you’ve ever driven?
That would probably be the Lamborghini LP 640 I had the pleasure of driving round Croft. (Closely followed by an Aston Martin Vantage S)
So what's your future plans?
My main aim currently is to remove as much weight from the car as possible, less weight means less power to meet specific class power limit, hopefully that translates to prolonged reliability…
Making a more quickly removable front splitter is high on the list, along with some better brake cooling. Long term, 6 speed drivetrain, more power, wider wheels. The main focus is to keep things fun and not jump off the deep end, at least not yet…
And finally a quick word from Martin..
Thanks for taking the time to have a chat with me. And a big thanks to BC Racing for their excellent coilovers and advice.
Follow Martins progress on social media by following him on instagram and Facebook..
FB: @MBR88
About the Author
