Ray Bellm

Last updated

Raymond Anthony Bellm (born 20 May 1950) is a racing driver from the United Kingdom.

Contents

Driving career

He began his racing career in 1980, running in historic racing series and winning the British Historic 2-litre GT class in 1983 and 1984 driving his Chevron B19 sports car. He made the move to modern sports car racing in 1984, driving for Gordon Spice. The pair founded Spice Engineering in 1985 and construct Group C chassis.

As part of the Spice team, Bellm would win the World Sportscar C2 Championship in 1985, 1986 and 1988. He was also able to share a Le Mans win with Gordon Spice in each of those three years, before finally leaving the team in 1990. [1]

In the early 1990s he moved to the British Touring Car Championship, driving for Vic Lee Motorsport, finishing fifth overall in 1991. Following Lee's arrest and imprisonment for drug trafficking, Bellm and Steve Neal co-founded Team Dynamics in 1993, eventually selling his share in the company to Neal. [2] He won the International GT championship in 1994, and the BPR Global GT Series in 1996 driving a McLaren F1 GTR to 11 wins in two years. He also won the 1991 Willhire 24 Hour at Snetterton in a BMW M3 co-driven with Kurt Luby and Will Hoy.

Since then he has returned to historics, including running the Le Mans Classic in 2004 and 2006. He also turned to rallying coming sixth in the 2000 London-Sydney Rally and in 2005 won three rounds of the British Historic Rally Championship in a Mk1 Ford Escort. [3] In 2005 he contested the British round of the World Rally Championship in Group N classed car finishing seventh. In 2006 he finished sixth in Finland and twelfth in Rally Great Britain.

He has served as chairman of the British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC) from 2004 to 2005, and was responsible for negotiations with Formula One Management which resulted in the successful resigning of the British Grand Prix in 2005.

Bellm also owned and ran the Silverstone based motorsport equipment retailer, Grand Prix Racewear, having bought a majority stake in 1994. [4]

In 2011, Bellm started the 106 Drivers Club, an event based company to run social road car tours for owners of the iconic 3 seater Mclaren F1. Celebrating milestone anniversaries, the 20th and 25th anniversaries attracted 22 chassis of the 103 that remain.

Racing record

24 Hours of Le Mans results

(key)

YearTeamCo-DriversCarClassLapsPos.Class
Pos.
1984 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Spice-Tiga Racing Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Gordon Spice
Flag of Australia (converted).svg Neil Crang
Tiga GC84-Ford Cosworth C269DNFDNF
1985 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Spice Engineering Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Gordon Spice
Flag of Ireland.svg Mark Galvin
Spice-Tiga GC85-Ford Cosworth C231214th1st
1986 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Spice Engineering Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Gordon Spice
Flag of Belgium (civil).svg Jean-Michel Martin
Spice SE86C-Ford Cosworth C225719th6th
1988 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Spice Engineering Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Gordon Spice
Flag of France.svg Pierre de Thoisy
Spice SE88C-Ford Cosworth C235113th1st
1989 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Spice Engineering Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Gordon Spice
Flag of the United States.svg Lyn St. James
Spice SE89C-Ford Cosworth C1229DNFDNF
1994 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Bristow Racing
Flag of Norway.svg Erik Henriksen
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Harry Nuttall
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Charles Rickett
Porsche 911 Carrera RSR GT234DNFDNF
1995 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg GTC Gulf Racing Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Mark Blundell
Flag of Brazil.svg Maurizio Sandro Sala
McLaren F1 GTR GT12914th3rd
1996 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Gulf Racing
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg GTC Racing
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg James Weaver
Flag of Finland.svg JJ Lehto
McLaren F1 GTR GT13239th7th
1997 Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Gulf Team Davidoff
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg GTC Racing
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg Andrew Gilbert-Scott
Flag of Japan.svg Masanori Sekiya
McLaren F1 GTR GT1326DNFDNF
Sources: [5] [6]

Complete British Touring Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position – 1990 in class) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

YearTeamCarClass1234567891011121314151617DCPtsClass
1990 Hawaiian Tropic Ford Sierra Sapphire B OUL
10
DON
Ret
THR
DNS
SIL
DNS
OUL SIL
DNP
BRH SNE BRH BIR
DNA
DON
DNS
THR SIL 32nd620th
1991 BMW Team Listerine BMW M3 SIL
6
SNE
2
DON
6
THR
7
SIL
5 1
BRH
7
SIL
4
DON
1

6
DON
2

2
OUL
6
BRH
1

14
BRH
2

Ret
DON
4
THR
5
SIL
6
5th90
1992 M Team Shell Racing with Listerine BMW 318is SIL
9
THR
Ret
OUL
10
SNE
12
BRH
Ret
DON
1

7
DON
2

10
SIL
6
KNO
1

6
KNO
2

8
PEM
DNS
BRH
1
BRH
2
DON SIL 13th15
1993 Team Dynamics BMW 318is SIL DON
Ret
SNE
DNS
DON
18
OUL BRH
1

13
BRH
2

12
PEM
17
SIL
14
KNO
1
KNO
2
OUL BRH THR DON
1
DON
2
SIL 29th0
Sources: [6] [7]
  1. ^ – Race was stopped due to heavy rain. No points were awarded.

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References

  1. "Latest | McLaren Automotive".
  2. "RETROSPECTIVE>>BTCC SUPER TOURING YEARS PT.1 - Speedhunters". Archived from the original on 1 March 2009. Retrieved 13 January 2009.
  3. "For Ray Bellm".
  4. Bio_Fiona Butterfield Archived 16 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  5. "Ray Bellm". Automobile Club de l'Ouest . Retrieved 10 June 2023.
  6. 1 2 "Ray Bellm Results". Motorsport Stats. Retrieved 10 June 2023.
  7. "Ray Bellm race results". TouringCars.net. Retrieved 10 June 2023.
Sporting positions
Preceded by BPR Global GT Series
Champion

1996 with:
James Weaver
Succeeded by