Samuel Lewis Tordoff (born 19 April 1989) is a British

racing car 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 best known for his appearances 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 is the grandson of rally driver and car dealer Jack Tordoff. Tordoff finished second overall in the

2016 British Touring Car Championship The 2016 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship (commonly abbreviated as BTCC) was a motor racing championship for production-based touring cars held across England and Scotland. The championship featured a mix of professional motor racin ...

, 2 points behind

Gordon Shedden Gordon Shedden (born 15 February 1979) is a Scottish auto racing driver, currently competing 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 Ki ...

. Tordoff supports his racing career with his day-to-day job as an accountant.

Racing career

Renault Clio Cup UK

In February 2009,

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

-born Tordoff joined the Renault Clio Cup UK grid with

Total Control Racing Total Control Racing (TCR) was a toy brand from Ideal which debuted in the late 1970s, similar to slot car sets, with approximately HO scale cars (and smaller scale semi-trailer trucks) that operated on a slotless track. Description The plasti ...

. He took his first podium finish in the Saturday race 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 ...

with second place behind

Alex MacDowall Alexander "Alex" Hay MacDowall (born 22 January, 1991) is a British auto racing driver. He is currently competing in the 2014 FIA World Endurance Championship season for Aston Martin Racing. Racing career Early career MacDowall was born in Car ...

, then followed this up by taking his maiden win with a lights to flag victory ahead of championship leader

Phil Glew Philip Glew (born 28 June 1983 in Grimsby) is a British auto racing driver. He has previously competed in the British Touring Car Championship and British GT Championship. He is currently a commentator for ITV Sport's coverage support races on t ...

. Tordoff finished eighth in his first season of car racing. He continued in the Clio Cup in 2010, where he finished on the podium at 12 out of the 18 races he competed in. Tordoff took his first win of the year in race two at Snetterton in almost the same circumstances as his first, the previous season. He finished third in the championship having missed the final round at

Brands Hatch Brands Hatch is a motor racing circuit in West Kingsdown, Kent, England, United Kingdom. Originally used as a grasstrack motorcycle circuit on farmland, it hosted 12 runnings of the British Grand Prix between 1964 and 1986 and currently host ...

to race in the

, becoming the fifth Clio Cup graduate to compete in the BTCC, in 2010.

British Touring Car Championship

BTCC Brands Hatch October 2010DSC 9389 (5068619625)

Triple 8 Race Engineering (2010; 2013–2014)

He made his

debut competing in the final meeting of the 2010 season at

, driving a

Vauxhall Vectra The Opel Vectra is a mid-size car (large family car) that was engineered and produced by the German automaker Opel from 1988 until 2010. Available in saloon, hatchback and estate body styles, the Vectra was also sold by the Vauxhall marque i ...

for Uniq Racing with Triple Eight. In the final round he placed 10th, scoring one championship point. Tordoff returned to the BTCC in

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

driving for Triple 8 Race Engineering, now branded as MG KX Momentum Racing where he raced alongside

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 claimed his first podium finish in the BTCC in the third race of the season at Brands Hatch, finishing third behind the

Team Dynamics Team Dynamics Motorsport is a UK-based motor-racing team based in Droitwich, Worcestershire; best known for their successes in the British Touring Car Championship, including winning the Overall Drivers title in 2005, 2006 and 2011 with Matt Nea ...

Hondas. He secured his first BTCC pole position at Snetterton, leading an MG 1–2 ahead of Plato. He finished the year in sixth place in the drivers' championship. Tordoff remained with Triple 8 for 2014, scoring another win at Donington Park, en route to seventh place in the final drivers' championship standings.

West Surrey Racing (2015–2016)

It was announced on 10 December 2014 that Tordoff had signed for the West Surrey Racing team for the

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

. He took his first win for the team at the

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 a ...

round. He continued with the team in

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

and went on to take 2 race wins and a further 7 podiums. After leading the championship for most of the second half of the year, he was pipped at the last race of the season by

who took the crown by just 2 points. Tordoff announced he was quitting the series on 23 November 2016, but stated he was open to a return in the future.

Motorbase Performance (2018–)

Tordoff announced he would return to the BTCC in 2018 on the 12 February, piloting an all new Ford Focus RS run by Motorbase Performance.

Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain

In 2011, it was announced that he would be driving for Team Parker Racing in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB. He had a best result of third in the Porsche Carrera World Cup race at the

Nürburgring The is a 150,000 person capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It features a Formula One, Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long "North loop" track, built in the 1920s, around t ...

and he won a set of tyres at Rockingham, courtesy of series sponsor

Michelin Michelin (; ; full name: ) is a French multinational tyre manufacturing company based in Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes ''région'' of France. It is the second largest tyre manufacturer in the world behind Bridgestone and la ...

. Tordoff finished the championship seventh in his first season. Tordoff stayed at Team Parker Racing for

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

where he would race alongside fellow Yorkshire racers Richard Plant and Daniel Lloyd. He took his first win in the series at

having started from pole position and resisted race long pressure from championship leader Michael Meadows. He went on to win both races at Snetterton and won the season finale at

; he finished third in the championship, 46 points behind champion Meadows and 8 points behind second placed Ben Barker.

Porsche Supercup

Tordoff was one of seven drivers from the Porsche Carrera Cup GB to compete in the

Silverstone Silverstone is a village and civil parish in Northamptonshire, England. It is about from Towcester on the former A43 main road, from the M1 motorway junction 15A and about from the M40 motorway junction 10, Northampton, Milton Keynes and B ...

round of the

Porsche Supercup The Porsche Supercup (officially known as Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup, known as Porsche Michelin Supercup prior to 2007) is an international one-make sports car racing series supporting the FIA Formula One World Championship organized by Porsche ...

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

. He competed in the race once again in

, finishing 12th as best of the Great Britain championship entrants.

GT racing

Tordoff announced that he would be joining the

British GT Championship 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 2017, driving for Barwell Motorsport alongside fellow former BTCC driver Liam Griffin. In addition, in March 2017,

Strakka Racing Strakka Racing was a British auto racing team founded by Nick Leventis. The team was based at the Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire. The team made history at the 2010 1000 km of Hungaroring when they became the first team in Le Mans Serie ...

announced that Tordoff would race for them in the

2017 Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup The 2017 Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup was the seventh season of the Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup. The season began on 23 April at Monza and ended on 1 October in Barcelona. The season featured five rounds, with each race lasting for a dur ...

, sharing a McLaren 650 GT3 with

David Fumanelli David Cleto Fumanelli (21 April 1992, Milan) is an Italian racing driver and racing coach. Single Seater Career Formula Renault 2.0 Fumanelli, after just two years of national karting races, made his single-seater debut in 2008 in his native It ...

and

Jonny Kane Jonny is a masculine given name, and pet name, in the English language. A pet form of Jon, the natural diminutive of given name Jonathan, in some cases it can also mean a condom. A variant form of ''Jonny'' is ''Jonnie''. People with the name *J ...

Personal life

In September 2019, Tordoff's son died a few days after birth due to a kidney deformity. He subsequently pulled out of the BTCC round at

Knockhill Knockhill Racing Circuit is a motor racing circuit in Fife, Scotland. It opened in September 1974 and is Scotland's national motorsport centre. The circuit is located in the countryside about north of Dunfermline. It is the only FIA approved ...

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 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 European Le Mans Series results

Complete British GT Championship results

(

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

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tordoff, Sam 1989 births Living people English racing drivers British Touring Car Championship drivers Porsche Supercup drivers European Le Mans Series drivers Porsche Carrera Cup GB drivers 24H Series drivers Renault UK Clio Cup drivers BMW M drivers Strakka Racing drivers Blancpain Endurance Series drivers McLaren Racing drivers