Mike Newton (born 14 April 1960 in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

) is a British businessman and racing driver. He is the founder and CEO of th
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of companies, which includes its solution ar
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He raced in the

Le Mans Series The European Le Mans Series (abbreviated as ELMS) is a European sports car racing endurance series inspired by the 24 Hours of Le Mans race and organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO). The European Le Mans Series is similar to the fo ...

and

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, 24 Heures du Mans) is an endurance-focused sports car race held annually near the town of Le Mans, France. It is the world's oldest active endurance racing event. Unlike fixed-distance races whose ...

in cars prepared by the

RML Group Ray Mallock Ltd., also known as RML Group, is a motorsports and high performance engineering company, based in Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, United Kingdom. Early history Ray Mallock began building racing cars, alongside his brother Richar ...

. Newton was named Britain's Top Entrepreneur by ''Management Today'' magazine in 2005.

Racing career

Newton began in motorsport as a marshal in 1977. In 1985, he took part in his first circuit race in

Formula Ford Formula Ford, also known as F1600 and Formula F, is an entry-level class of single seater, open-wheel formula racing. The various championships held across the world form an important step for many prospective Formula One drivers. Formula For ...

. He was a regular competitor in Champion of

Oulton Park Oulton Park is a hard surfaced track used for motor racing, close to the village of Little Budworth, Cheshire, England. It is about from Winsford, from Chester city centre, from Northwich and from Warrington, with a nearby rail connection al ...

Formula Ford series from 1985 through 1997, and had top three championship finishes between 1995 and 1997. In 1999, he finished sixth in the

Bathurst 500 The Bathurst 1000 (formally known as the Repco Bathurst 1000) is a touring car race held annually on the Mount Panorama Circuit in Bathurst, New South Wales, Australia. It is currently run as part of the Supercars Championship, the most rec ...

. In 2001 he finished first in class at the 6hr Langstreckenpokal ( VLN) at the Nurburgring on the Nordschliefe in an ex-Dick Johnson ATCC Falcon EL, and repeated that feat at the 2002 Grand Am Finale GTS Class in a Saleen S7R at Daytona. In 2002 Newton made his GT debut at both the

Daytona 24 Hours The 24 Hours of Daytona, also known as the Rolex 24 At Daytona for sponsorship reasons, is a 24-hour sports car endurance race held annually at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. It is run on the Sports Car Course layou ...

and

British GT The British GT Championship is a sports car racing series based predominantly in the United Kingdom. The series was originally created by the British Racing Drivers' Club in 1993 and, for its first two seasons, was known as the National Sports GT ...

in a Porsche 996 GTR with Graham Nash Motorsport. In 2003 he made his debut in the

, racing a Saleen S7-R for Graham Nash Motorsport alongside

Thomas Erdos Thomas "Tommy" Erdos (born 30 October 1963) is a Brazilian auto racing driver. He has raced for most of his career in Great Britain and Europe, where he currently resides in Buckinghamshire England with his partner Sheila. He has three childre ...

and

Pedro Chaves Pedro António Matos Chaves (; born 27 February 1965) is a Portuguese racing driver. Chaves was the second Portuguese Formula Ford Champion, in 1986, starting an international career in 1987 in the British Formula Ford Championship. In 1990 ...

, the car being sponsored by some of Newton's companies. The team finished sixth in the GTS class. Newton and Erdos also raced the car in the

FIA GT Championship The FIA GT Championship was a sports car racing series organized by the Stéphane Ratel Organisation (SRO) at the behest of the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The championship was mostly concentrated in Europe, but throughout ...

. For 2004 Newton and Erdos continued to race the Saleen in FIA GT for RML. They also raced in the

for the team in an

MG-Lola EX257 The MG-Lola EX257 (sometimes referred to as simply MG EX257) is a Le Mans Prototype built by Lola for the MG car company for their attempt to compete again at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in . The car has had many years of mixed success since its in ...

. They also raced the car at Le Mans, but retired from the race. In 2005 the team moved from the

LMP1 A Le Mans Prototype (LMP) is the type of sports prototype race car used in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, FIA World Endurance Championship, IMSA SportsCar Championship, European Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Series. Le Mans Prototypes were crea ...

category to the

LMP2 A Le Mans Prototype (LMP) is the type of sports prototype race car used in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, FIA World Endurance Championship, IMSA SportsCar Championship, European Le Mans Series and Asian Le Mans Series. Le Mans Prototypes were crea ...

category, winning the class at Le Mans and finishing second in the Le Mans Series. They repeated this feat in 2006. In 2007, Newton and Erdos won the Le Mans Series LMP2 category. In 2010, Newton, Erdos and Wallace finished third in the

Class at Le Mans in a Lola HPD Coupe, and Newton and Erdos won the Le Mans Series LMP2 Drivers Title, with RML winning the LMP2 Team title, accompanied at different races by both Andy Wallace and Ben Collins. In 2008 Newton was elected vice-president of the British Motorsport Marshals Club. Newton has been a BRDC member since 2008. For 2012 Newton stepped back from the troubled ELMS series due to a lack of funding from ailing business interests, and undertook the development of a Speed Euroseries CN car, bringing the

Tiga Race Cars Tiga Race Cars Ltd. was a British auto racing constructor and team. The company was founded in 1974 by two former Formula 1 drivers, Australian Tim Schenken and New Zealander Howden Ganley. The company's name was formed by the first two letters o ...

name back to Sportscar racing with the Tiga CN012, leading the development activities, and also as a driver, partnered by Dean Stirling. Newton also made a one-off appearance in the Silverstone Classic in the Fujifilm Touring Cars race in a 1995

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 ...

Cavalier. After a short break from racing, Newton returned in the

- AER #25 for the Masters Endurance Legends series, taking two class poles and two class wins in the Imola round in April 2018. MGLolaEX257BRH

Newton completed four rounds in the 2018 Master Endurance Legends, Imola, Silverstone, Nurburgring and Spa achieving 8 Class pole positions, 8 fastest laps, and 8 wins for LMP2 cars from 2000 to 2005. At the final round he competed in at Spa, in race 1 finished 1st LMP2 overall against cars of any era up to 2012, running as high as 4th overall in the second race. Newton still competes in the Masters Endurance Legends regularly with the EX257, having taken 4 class wins out of 6 races after the

Silverstone Classic The Silverstone Classic is an annual three-day car and race event at the Silverstone Circuit, home of the British Grand Prix. The event features hundreds of historic race cars in circa 20 races over the weekend, displays from over 100 car clubs w ...

. He is also set to compete in a support race for the

2021 24 Hours of Le Mans The 89th 24 Hours of Le Mans (French: ''89e 24 Heures du Mans'') was a 24-hour automobile endurance race for Le Mans Prototype (LMP) and Le Mans Grand Touring Endurance (LMGTE) cars held between 21 and 22 August 2021, at the ...

in the same car, the EX257.

Career Results

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Complete Bathurst 24 Hour results

References

External links

AD GroupAD Team Tiga
{{DEFAULTSORT:Newton, Mike Living people 1960 births Businesspeople from Manchester British businesspeople British racing drivers Formula Ford drivers 24 Hours of Daytona drivers FIA GT Championship drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers European Le Mans Series drivers Sportspeople from Manchester 24 Hours of Spa drivers Cheever Racing drivers