Aubrey Patrick Watts (born 21 November 1955 in

Farnborough Farnborough may refer to: Australia * Farnborough, Queensland, a locality in the Shire of Livingstone United Kingdom * Farnborough, Hampshire, a town in the Rushmoor district of Hampshire, England ** Farnborough (Main) railway station, a railw ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

) is a British

auto racing Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. Auto racing has existed since the invention of the automobile. Races of various sorts were organise ...

driver. He excelled in single make series in the eighties and competed in saloons in the nineties, mainly 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 TOCA, formally trading as BARC (TOCA) Ltd, is an organiser of motorsport events in ...

. He still makes occasional appearances in historic racing events.

Racing career

Early career

His first title came in 1979, winning the National Mini 850 Championship. Between 1980 and 1982 he drove in various saloon cars before getting his first taste of the BTCC for Rover Metro Team in 1983 and 1984. In 1986 he raced in the Fiat Uno Turbo Championship. More titles followed, winning the inaugural Honda CRX Championship in 1988, and again in 1990. Also that year he won the Mazda MX5 championship. In 1991 he stepped up to the ESSO Production Saloon Car Championship, winning yet another title with a

Peugeot 309 The Peugeot 309 is a small family car that was manufactured between 1985 and 1994 in England, Spain and France by PSA Peugeot Citroën. It was originally intended to be badged as a Talbot and, as development progressed, to be called the Talbot Ar ...

BTCC Mazda

His success in 1991 earned him a drive in the 1992 British Touring Car Championship for the new works Shell Mazda Racing Team in a

Mazda 323 The , also marketed prominently as the Mazda 323, Mazda Protegé and Mazda Allegro, is a small family car that was manufactured by Mazda between 1963 and 2003. The Familia line was replaced by the Mazda3/Axela for 2004. It was marketed as the '' ...

. The one car the team put out was not on the pace of most of the other works teams, and he finished the season in sixteenth place. In 1993, the team switched to a distinctively painted single

Mazda Xedos The Mazda Xedos is a range of executive cars that were launched by Japanese manufacturer Mazda in 1992. The original model was the Mazda Xedos 6, which was similar in size and in engine to the BMW 3 Series. The Xedos 6 has two types of engines - ...

6. The new car performed much better than the 323 although easy down on power compared to its rivals. The Xedos did manage to get some promising results throughout the year; Patrick lead races and qualified on the front row on more than one occasion. Unfortunately his season was spoiled by often being caught up in several incidents, and he ended the championship in fifteenth place. Mazda did not continue to run a team in 1994, despite showing promise in 1993 lthough a team of 2 semi-works cars ran half of the season

BTCC Peugeot

In 1994 he replaced

Robb Gravett Robb Gravett (born 10 May 1956 (sometimes noted as 2 May 1956) is a British retired racing driver and team owner from London. He started his motorsport career on two wheels, racing Moto Cross at the age of 12. By 15, he was already British cha ...

in the Peugeot Sport team with the

Peugeot 405 The Peugeot 405 is a large family car released by the French automaker Peugeot in July 1987, and which continues to be manufactured under licence outside France, having been discontinued in Europe in 1997. It was voted European Car of the Year for ...

. A good year for both driver and team saw him end the year in eighth place, including four podium finishes. Team mate for 1994, Eugene O'Brien, was replaced by newcomer

Simon Harrison Simon Mark Harrison (born 6 September 1969 in Northampton) is a British racing driver. He won two National Saloon Car Championships in 1994 and 1999, as well as the Production Class of the British Touring Car Championship in 2001. Harrison's 23 ...

in 1995. A slightly more troubled season ended with Watts in tenth place with two podiums. The new look Total Team Peugeot had a new car in 1996 with the all new

Peugeot 406 The Peugeot 406 is a mid-size car, large family car that was produced by France, French automaker Peugeot between 1995 and 2004. Available in sedan (car), saloon, station wagon, estate and coupé bodystyles with a choice of petrol or turbodiesel en ...

, along with a new team mate for Watts. Harrison was replaced with 1992 champion and fellow Farnborough racer

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 ...

. It what was always going to be a year of learning for Peugeot, the car failed to perform on the track, and he finished one down in sixteenth place, one position behind Harvey the lowest position for a works driver. Despite higher hopes for 1997 with MSD running the team, the car performed little better despite an improvement towards the end of the season. In Germany the car was dominating but the British effort struggled mainly due to internal team problems and budget restrictions. Again he finished the year down in sixteenth. With the team struggling, he left at the end of the year following a final race at that year's

Bathurst 1000 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 recen ...

teamed with

Neil Crompton Neil Crompton (born 30 July 1960) is a well-known Supercars presenter and commentator. Racing career Highlights According to the official V8 Supercars website, Crompton has competed in 357 various motor racing events, finishing in the first ...

, but failing to finish. He was replaced in 1998 by

Paul Radisich Paul Radisich (born 9 October 1962, in Auckland) is a retired New Zealand racing driver and businessman of Croat origin. He has competed in saloon cars for many years — both European-style tourers and the V8 Supercars of Australia and New ...

who found the team a problem also and fared even worse than Patrick.

Post BTCC

He competed in the first two rounds of the Australian Super Touring Championship in 1999 (Peugeot 406), winning one race at round one and finishing 2nd in both races of round two After that he has done a few rallies including the Armajaro British Historic Rally Championship which he won in 2006 and finished second in 2007. His Touring Car efforts of the nineties were recognised in 2004 when he was selected to drive in the BTCC Masters, where his race ended after a collision with

Jason Plato Timothy Jason Plato (born 14 October 1967) is a British racing driver who last competed in the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) for BTC Racing. He has twice been BTCC Champion, in 2001 for Vauxhall and 2010 for Silverline Chevrolet. He ...

. He now competes in an Allard J2 and FIA mustang and has recently bought the ex-works Computervision MG Metro Turbo he used in BTCC in 1984 and Peugeot 406 that he used successfully in Australia in 1999. In 2017, Watts drove in the Dunlop Endurance championship in Cuda Drinks-entered Ginetta G50 with Richard Burrows. They finished 24th in race one and 13th in race two at Silverstone. Patrick is CEO of recycling company Sweeep Kuusakoski, one of the biggest recyclers of electronic components in the world.

Racing record

Complete British Saloon / 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 1996 onwards all races, 1983-88 in class) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap - 1 point awarded 1983-88 in class) † Not eligible for points. ‡ Endurance driver.

Complete European Touring Car Championship results

(

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

Complete Australian Super Touring Championship results

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position - 1 point awarded) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap)

Complete Bathurst 1000 results

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 ...

race

Complete Britcar results

(

) (Races in bold indicate pole position in class – 1 point awarded just in first race) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap in class – 1 point awarded all races)

References

External links

BTCC Pages Profile.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Watts, Patrick British Touring Car Championship drivers 1956 births Living people People from Farnborough, London Britcar drivers Ginetta GT4 Supercup drivers Peugeot Sport drivers