Laurence Alan Bristow (born 18 July 1952) is a British racing driver and businessman, best known for his time in the

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. It was established in 1958 as the British Saloon Car Championship and was renamed a ...

. He is son of helicopter magnate

Alan Bristow Alan Edgar Bristow, (3 September 1923 – 26 April 2009) founded one of the world's largest helicopter service companies, Bristow Helicopters Ltd, which prospered primarily in the international oil and mineral exploration and extraction indus ...

Racing career

Laurence Bristow Labatts team Sierra RS500

He first started racing in 1985 when he entered the

MG Metro MG, Mg, or mg and variants may refer to: Organizations * MG Cars, an automotive marque of the now defunct MG Car Company * MG Motor, a present-day car manufacturing company * MG JW Automobile, a Pakistani automobile manufacturer * Champion Air ...

Challenge. In 1987 he raced in the Uniroyal Production Car Championship driving a

Ford Sierra RS500 The Ford Sierra RS Cosworth is a high-performance version of the Ford Sierra that was built by Ford Europe from 1986 to 1992. It was the result of a Ford Motorsport project with the purpose of producing an outright winner for Group A racing in ...

where he finished second in class. A year later he stepped up to the BTCC, again driving a class A Ford Sierra RS500. In 1989 he drove for the Labatts team along with team mate

Tim Harvey Tim Harvey (born 20 November 1961) is a British racing driver, best known for being the 1992 British Touring Car Champion, and the 2008 and 2010 Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain champion. A household name in the 1990s, Harvey won sixteen race ...

. This year he got his only BTCC win along with Tiff Needell at the

Donington Park Donington Park is a motorsport circuit located near Castle Donington in Leicestershire, England. The circuit business is now owned by Jonathan Palmer's MotorSport Vision organisation, and the surrounding Donington Park Estate, still owned b ...

1 hour endurance race. Bristow got his highest championship finish of 9th in 1990. When the BTCC switched to the single

Super Touring Super Touring, Class 2 or Class II was a motor racing Touring Cars category defined by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) for national touring car racing in 1993. It was based on the "2 litre Touring Car Formula" created ...

class in 1991, the Labatts team changed to a BMW M3 for two more years with Bristow. Other racing in 1989 included the British Sportscar Championship and the 24 hours of Le Mans. The 1991 season was sit between the BTCC and the Thundersaloon championship, which Bristow won. In 1993 he left the BTCC and raced in the Thundersaloons full time, back in a Ford Sierra

He is now director of

Bristow Helicopters Bristow Helicopters Limited is a British civil helicopter operator originally based at Aberdeen Airport, Scotland, which is currently a part of the U.S.-based Bristow Group (, S&P 600 component) which in turn has its corporate headquarters in ...

, following in his father's footsteps.

Racing record

Complete British Touring Car Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position – 1988–1990 in class) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap – 1 point awarded ?–1989 in class) # – Race was stopped due to heavy rain. No points were awarded.

Complete European Touring Car Championship results

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

References

External links

Official BTCC 1990 Standings
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bristow, Laurence 1952 births Living people British Touring Car Championship drivers English racing drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers BMW M drivers