Mike Newton (born 14 April 1960 in

Manchester Manchester () is a city and the metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It had an estimated population of in . Greater Manchester is the third-most populous metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, with a population of 2.92&nbs ...

) is a British businessman and racing driver. He is the founder and CEO of the AD Group of companies, which includes its solution arm AD Network Video. 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 ...

and

24 Hours of Le Mans The 24 Hours of Le Mans () is an endurance-focused Sports car racing, sports car race held annually near the city of Le Mans, France. It is widely considered to be one of the world's most prestigious races, and is one of the races—along with ...

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 Marshal is a term used in several official titles in various branches of society. As marshals became trusted members of the courts of Middle Ages, Medieval Europe, the title grew in reputation. During the last few centuries, it has been used fo ...

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 have historically been an important step for many prospective Formula One dri ...

. He was a regular competitor in Champion of

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

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 (known for sponsorship reasons 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, ...

. In 2001 he finished first in class at the 6hr Langstreckenpokal ( VLN) at the

Nürburgring The () is a 150,000-person capacity motorsports complex located in the town of Nürburg, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It features a Grand Prix motor racing, Grand Prix race track built in 1984, and a long configuration, built in the 1920s ...

on the Nordschleife 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 layout, ...

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 G ...

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. A two-time Le Mans Series champion and 24 Hours of Le Mans winner in LMP2, he has raced for most of his career in Great Britain and Europe, where he currently reside ...

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 racing car 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 s ...

. They also raced the car at Le Mans, but retired from the race. In 2005 the team moved from the LMP1 category to the

LMP2 A Le Mans Prototype (LMP) is a type of sports prototype race car used in various races and championships, including the 24 Hours of Le Mans, FIA World Endurance Championship, IMSA SportsCar Championship, European Le Mans Series, and Asian Le M ...

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 The British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC) is an exclusive invitation-only members club for racecar drivers who are judged to have achieved success in the upper levels of motor sport for a number of seasons. Except under exceptional circumstances, ...

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 ...

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 auto racing, motor racing touring car 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 Form ...

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 Silverstone Festival (previously known as Silverstone Classic) is an annual three-day Festival featuring historic motorsport, live music and family-friendly entertainment at the Silverstone Circuit, home of the British Grand Prix. The event attra ...

. He also took an overall podium and was the leading LMP2 car and in the two support races 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 Endurance racing (motorsport), automobile endurance race for teams of three drivers each entering Le Mans Prototype (LMP) and LM GTE, Le Mans Grand Tourin ...

in the same car, the EX257. This was part of an impressive series of results in the Peter Auto Endurance Racing Legends delivering the following overall series results. * 2020 – Peter Auto LMPB series runner up * 2021 – Peter Auto LMPB series winner * 2022 – Peter Auto LMP2B series winner * 2023 – Peter Auto LMP2B series winner The continuing participation in Masters Endurance Legends resulted in 4 outright podiums, 31 class wins from 19 events by the end of the 2023 season In 2023, six of the events were campaigned in the 2006 MG Lola EX264 HU003 which was the Le Mans 2006 24Hr class winner, and 2007 LMES LMP2 Series winner, with 1 outright race win, 7 class wins and 3 overall podiums.

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 Formula Ford drivers 24 Hours of Daytona drivers FIA GT Championship drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers European Le Mans Series drivers Racing drivers from Manchester 24 Hours of Spa drivers Cheever Racing drivers English racing drivers 20th-century English sportsmen