James Pickford (born 30 April 1979 in

Macclesfield Macclesfield is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Bollin in the east of the county, on the edge of the Cheshire Plain, with Macclesfield Forest to its east ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

) is a British race car driver. As a child his interest was in motorbikes; his father

Keith Keith may refer to: People and fictional characters * Keith (given name), includes a list of people and fictional characters * Keith (surname) * Keith (singer), American singer James Keefer (born 1949) * Baron Keith, a line of Scottish barons ...

ran bike racing teams. James started at the beginning in karts in 1994. For a while he was coached by former BTCC racer

Tim Sugden Tim 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. Early career Sugden started racing in karting, where he became British champion. He soon mov ...

. His interest in saloon and sportscars began when he lost a test in a BTCC car after being nominated for the BRDC McLaren Autosport Young Driver of the Year award in 1998. His start in motor racing was in 1997, in the Formula Honda series. He won this 2 years in a row, and also did a single Formula Ford race in 1998. After a year working on marketing within the prestigious Abt Sportsline team in the DTM, he returned to full-time racing in 2003, in the

SEAT Cupra Championship The SEAT Cupra Championship was a one-make series that ran for six years between 2003 and 2008, the last five of which ran as a support package to the British Touring Car Championship. Originally the prize for winning the championship was a driv ...

. He was fifth overall, but improved to win the title in 2004, with 11 top-four finishes in the 12 races including 3 wins. This earned him a factory

British Touring Car Championship The Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom, currently organised and administered by TOCA TOCA, formally trading as BARC (TOCA) Ltd, is an organiser of motorsport events in ...

SEAT drive in 2005. He came ninth in the series, with a podium at

Snetterton Snetterton is a village and civil parish in Norfolk, England. The village is about east-northeast of Thetford and southwest of Norwich. The civil parish has an area of . The United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 Census recorded a parish population o ...

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but did not retain the drive for 2006. For 2007 he contested the full

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see #Pronunciation, below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany ...

Carrera Cup GB, having done the later races in 2006, starting at Knockhill

This means he has contested three of the five championships which support the BTCC and feature on

ITV ITV or iTV may refer to: ITV *Independent Television (ITV), a British television network, consisting of: ** ITV (TV network), a free-to-air national commercial television network covering the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man, and the Channel Islan ...

Motorsport UK Motorsport UK, formerly known as the Motor Sports Association (MSA), is a national membership organisation and governing body for four-wheel motorsport in the United Kingdom. Legally, it is a not-for-profit private company limited by guarantee. ...

programme, as well as the BTCC itself.

Racing record

Complete British Touring Car Championship results

(

key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

) (Races in bold indicate pole position – 1 point awarded just in first race) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap – 1 point awarded all races) (* signifies that driver lead race for at least one lap – 1 point awarded all races)

Complete British GT Championship results

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position in class) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap in class)

External links

James Pickford official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pickford, James British Touring Car Championship drivers English racing drivers 1979 births Living people Formula Palmer Audi drivers Sportspeople from Macclesfield Porsche Supercup drivers Porsche Carrera Cup GB drivers Cupra Racing drivers