 |
 | |
| 24 Hours of Le Mans career | |
|---|---|
| Years | 1998, 2003 – 2004, 2006, 2008 –2011 |
| Teams | Gulf Team Davidoff, DeWalt Racesport Salisbury, Thierry Perrier, Russian Age Racing, Virgo Motorsport, JMW Motorsport |
| Best finish | 4th (1998) |
| Class wins | 0 |
Timothy Philip Sugden (born 26 April 1964, in Bradford) is a British racing driver. He is both driver and manager for his own racing team, Tim Sugden Motorsport.
Sugden started racing in karting, where he became British champion. He soon moved up to Formula Ford 1600, winning the Star of Mallory series in 1987. Despite working on a small budget, he gained top place finishes at senior level FF1600 driving the works Swift "Tredaire" car for Frank Bradley. He also drove in the Honda CRX challenge and British Formula 3000. In 1990 he finished third in the Formula Renault Championship, with one race victory along the way.
His first racing in the British Touring Car Championship came in 1990. He entered selected rounds for the Prodrive ran Junior BMW Team in the 2.0litre class. An impressive performance for the team in 1991 saw him win at Brands Hatch, finishing the year in tenth place, despite only competing in five rounds. [1] This led to a full season in 1992 for the works BMW team, where he ended the year eighth on points. Prodrive's contract with BMW ended but Sugden was retained for 1993 by Prodrive for an abortive Mercedes entry and Sugden then returned to the series again in 1994. He entered selected rounds for the Toyota works team as a third driver alongside 1991 champion Will Hoy and former F1 driver Julian Bailey in a Toyota Carina. The team were not front runners in the championship, and another disappointing season followed in 1995, which was both Toyota's and Sugden's final year racing in the BTCC but he worked as test driver for Vauxhall in 1996 as they developed the Vectra.
Sugden's sports car racing career began in 1997 with an entry in the British GT Championship. [2] In his first year, he won the GT2 title, alongside Steve O'Rourke in a Porsche 911 GT2. He then went on to win the GT1 titles in both 1998 and 1999, in a McLaren F1 GTR and a Lister Storm GTL, respectively. After already competing in the 24 Hours of Le Mans race (where he finished fourth overall in 1998 in the EMKA McLaren), he moved to full-time International GT racing in 2000 with the FIA GT Championship where he has 9 wins and was runner-up in the GT2 class in 2005. He was winner of the Porsche Cup in 2005, awarded by Porsche to the driver of any privately entered Porsche car in selected racing or rally championships worldwide where points are scored through the season according to the ranking of the series. He is only the second British driver ever to win that Cup. He has also competed in the American Le Mans Series in a Porsche, finishing second in GT2 in the Sebring 12 hours, the Daytona 24 Hours race, the Le Mans Series, and made a return to the British GT championship. In 2007, he was the Asian Porsche Carrera Cup champion, finished third in 2008 and finished second by 1 point in 2009. [3] In 2011 he finished 2nd in GT in the Daytona 24 hours driving a Porsche for Paul Miller Racing.
On 9 October 2010 Tim won his debut F2 final in an evening race meeting at Skegness Stadium after working at Brands Hatch earlier that day getting an immediate upgrade to Yellow Top. He is competing in selected F2 Stock car rounds this year(2010) and won the Grand National final at Birmingham in November. In 2011 he entered the Northampton meeting on 13 March again winning the GN final and then the Birmingham meeting on the 19th when he won the Final and so was again upgraded to Blue Top. In his first 6 meetings he has two overall wins and two GN wins but meetings limited due to other commitments. Hednesford on 10 April saw another win in a heat this time.
(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position – 1990 in class) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap – 1990 in class)
| Year | Team | Car | Class | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | Overall Pos | Pts | Class Pos |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | BMW Team Finance | BMW M3 | B | OUL | DON | THR | SIL 9 | OUL 9 | SIL | BRH 5 | SNE 8 | BRH | BIR | DON 8 | THR | SIL | 12th | 67 | 6th | ||||||||||||
| 1991 | BMW Team Finance | BMW M3 | SIL | SNE Ret | DON | THR | SIL 12 1 | BRH 1 | SIL | DON 1 | DON 2 | OUL | BRH 1 | BRH 2 | DON 5 | THR | SIL Ret | 10th | 32 | ||||||||||||
| 1992 | M Team Mobil | BMW 318is | SIL 5 | THR 14 | OUL 9 | SNE 9 | BRH 4 | DON 1 8 | DON 2 7 | SIL 11 | KNO 1 Ret | KNO 2 DNS | PEM 3 | BRH 1 9 | BRH 2 13 | DON Ret | SIL 6 | 8th | 43 | ||||||||||||
| 1994 | Toyota Castrol Team | Toyota Carina E | THR | BRH 1 20 | BRH 2 12 | SNE Ret | SIL 1 9 | SIL 2 7 | OUL 12 | DON 1 15 | DON 2 14 | BRH 1 | BRH 2 | SIL Ret | KNO 1 | KNO 2 | OUL | BRH 1 | BRH 2 | SIL 1 9 | SIL 2 10 | DON 1 19 | DON 2 14 | 19th | 9 | ||||||
| 1995 | Team Toyota GB | Toyota Carina E | DON 1 9 | DON 2 Ret | BRH 1 14 | BRH 2 10 | THR 1 4 | THR 2 Ret | SIL 1 Ret | SIL 2 6 | OUL 1 Ret | OUL 2 11 | BRH 1 Ret | BRH 2 DNS | DON 1 8 | DON 2 13 | SIL 8 | KNO 1 7 | KNO 2 10 | BRH 1 12 | BRH 2 9 | SNE 1 6 | SNE 2 7 | OUL 1 Ret | OUL 2 Ret | SIL 1 13 | SIL 2 6 | 14th | 48 |
| Year | Team | Co-Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Pos. | Class Pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 |  Gulf Team Davidoff EMKA Racing | Steve O'Rourke  Bill Auberlen | McLaren F1 GTR | GT1 | 343 | 4th | 4th |
| 2003 | DeWalt Racesports Salisbury | Mike Jordan Michael Caine | TVR Tuscan T400R | GT | 93 | DNF | DNF |
| 2004 |  Thierry Perrier Perspective Racing | Ian Khan Nigel Smith | Porsche 911 GT3-RS | GT | 283 | 23rd | 10th |
| 2006 |  Russian Age Racing Cirtek Motorsport | Nigel Smith Christian Vann | Ferrari 550-GTS Maranello | GT1 | 124 | DNF | DNF |
| 2008 | Virgo Motorsport | Rob Bell Tim Mullen | Ferrari F430 GT2 | GT2 | 289 | DNF | DNF |
| 2009 | JMW Motorsport | Rob Bell Andrew Kirkaldy | Ferrari F430 GT2 | GT2 | 320 | 23rd | 4th |
| 2010 | JMW Motorsport | Rob Bell Bryce Miller | Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT2 | GT2 | 71 | DNF | DNF |
| 2011 | JMW Motorsport | Rob Bell  Xavier Maassen | Ferrari 458 Italia GTC | GTE Pro | 290 | 24th | 9th |
| Year | Team | Car | Class | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | DC | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | ThunderAsia Racing | Mosler MT900M | GT300 | SUZ | OKA Ret | FUJ Ret | SEP Ret | SUG Ret | SUZ | FUJ C | MOT | NC | 0 |
| Year | Team | Co-Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Pos. | Class Pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 |  Toyota Racing | Philip Verellen François Chatriot | Toyota Carina E | ST | 86/Belt of distribution | DNF | DNF |
| 1999 | Foss-Tech Racing | Mark Lemmer Stephen Day | Honda Integra Type R | SP | 452 | 12th | 12th |
| 2001 | EMKA Racing | Steve O'Rourke | Porsche 996 GT3-R | N-GT | N/A | Did not arrive | Did not arrive |
| 2003 | EMKA Racing | Emmanuel Collard Chris Goodwin | Porsche 996 GT3-R | N-GT | 301/Gearbox | DNF | DNF |
| 2004 | Gruppe M | Jonathan Cocker Warren Hughes Tim Mullen | Porsche 996 GT3-RSR | N-GT | 268/Gearbox | DNF | DNF |
| 2005 | Gruppe M | Emmanuel Collard Stephane Ortelli | Porsche 996 GT3-RSR | GT2 | 477 | 19th | 4th |
| 2006 |  JMB Racing |  Iradj Alexander Jean-Michel Martin Stephane Daoudi | Ferrari F430 GTC | GT2 | 133 | DNF | DNF |
| 2007 | Scuderia Ecosse | Andrew Kirkaldy Chris Niarchos | Ferrari F430 GTC | GT2 | 474 | 15th | 6th |
| 2008 | Trackspeed Racing | Richard Williams David Ashburn Xavier Pompidou | Porsche 997 GT3-RSR | GT2 | 382/DNF | DNF | DNF |
| 2009 | Trackspeed Racing | David Ashburn Stephane Ortelli Jorg Bergmeister | Porsche 997 GT3-RSR | GT2 | 486 | 18th | 7th |
David Pender Richards is the chairman of Prodrive, chairman of Motorsport UK, former chairman of Aston Martin, a former team principal of the BAR and Benetton Formula One motor racing teams and as a co-driver, World Rally Champion in 1981. He lives with his wife, Karen, in Warwickshire and has three children. In the 2005 New Year Honours List Richards was appointed a CBE for his services to motorsport and in 2017 was inducted into the Motor Sport Hall of Fame and received the Spirit of Le Mans award from the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO). In 2019 he received the Autocar Outstanding Leader Award.
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