Christopher Leonard Hodgetts (born 6 December 1950 in Tanworth-in-Arden, Warwickshire) is a British former

racing driver Auto racing (also known as car racing, motor racing, or automobile racing) is a motorsport involving the racing of automobiles for competition. In North America, the term is commonly used to describe all forms of automobile sport including non ...

. He began his racing career in 1979, driving in the Clubman Class A championship.

BTCC career

Hodgetts debuted in the

British Touring Car Championship The British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), officially known as the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship for sponsorship reasons, is a touring car racing series held each year in the United Kingdom, currently organised and administered by ...

1980 Events January * January 4 – U.S. President Jimmy Carter proclaims a United States grain embargo against the Soviet Union, grain embargo against the USSR with the support of the European Commission. * January 6 – Global Positioning Sys ...

. His first overall podium place came in

1981 Events January * January 1 ** Greece enters the European Economic Community, predecessor of the European Union. ** Palau becomes a self-governing territory. * January 6 – A funeral service is held in West Germany for Nazi Grand Admiral ...

when he came second. He was consistent in the top five after that, mostly driving for the works

Toyota is a Japanese Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. Toyota is the List of manuf ...

team. He came fourth in

1983 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to TCP/IP is officially completed (this is considered to be the beginning of the ...

, fifth in

1984 Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeas ...

, second in

1985 The year 1985 was designated as the International Youth Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** The Internet's Domain Name System is created. ** Greenland withdraws from the European Economic Community as a result of a n ...

, before winning the series in

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. ** Spain and Portugal en ...

and

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

at the wheel of a Group C

Toyota Corolla The is a series of compact cars (formerly Subcompact car, subcompact) manufactured and marketed globally by the Japanese automaker Toyota Motor Corporation. Introduced in 1966, the Corolla was the best-selling car worldwide by 1974 and has bee ...

AE86. The 1988 season was not a success. The new Group A

Toyota Supra is a sports car and grand tourer manufactured and developed by the Toyota Motor Corporation beginning in 1978. The name " supra" is a definition from the Latin prefix, meaning "above", "to surpass" or "go beyond". The initial four generations ...

needed a lot of development and only a handful of good results were gained. His last race in the BTCC was in

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

. That season he drove for the works Vauxhall team, helping to develop the new

Vauxhall Cavalier The Vauxhall Cavalier is a large family car that was sold primarily in the United Kingdom by Vauxhall Motors, Vauxhall from 1975 to 1995. It was based on a succession of Opel designs throughout its production life, during which it was built in ...

. Towards the end of the year he switched to a

Ford Sierra The Ford Sierra is a Mid-size car, mid-size/D-segment, large family car manufactured and marketed by Ford of Europe from 1982–1993. It was designed by Uwe Bahnsen, Bob Lutz (businessman), Robert Lutz and Patrick Le Quément, and was noted for ...

, before calling time on his BTCC career. During the 1989 season, Hodgetts was driving for Brooklyn in an iconic red

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 ...

After the BTCC

Besides racing in

touring cars Touring car racing is a motorsport road racing competition that uses race-prepared touring cars. It has both similarities to and significant differences from stock car racing, which is popular in the United States. While the cars do not move a ...

, Hodgetts also found success in

sports car racing Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing that uses sports cars with two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be either purpose-built Sports prototype, sports prototypes, which are the highest level in sports car racing; or grand to ...

. He shared the BRDC C2 Championship with Tim Harvey in 1989 before retiring and won the TVR Tuscan Challenge in 1990. The 1994 season saw Chris in the Rover Turbo Challenge. He also drove in the

World Sportscar Championship The World Sportscar Championship was the world Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance racing series run for sports car racing, sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA), from 1953 World Sportscar Championship, 1953 t ...

on occasion and had seven starts in the

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 ...

, representing team such as

Mazdaspeed (often stylized in all-caps as MAZDASPEED) was Mazda's in-house performance division. The company was a grassroots racing team in Japan. Owned by Mazda Motor Corporation, they built production model vehicles, became involved in motorsports develo ...

, Courage Compétition and Spice Engineering. He had a best finish of 7th place overall in the classic 24 hour race. In 1995 he won the GT2 title in 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 G ...

, driving a Marcos LM600. He retired after 1998, when he drove a Lola in the ISRS. Hodgetts now works for Racing Team & Drivers as a driver instructor. His son Stefan raced in the BTCC in 2004.

Racing record

Complete British Saloon / Touring Car Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position – 1980–1990 in class) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap – 1 point awarded ?–1989 in class) † Events with 2 races staged for the different classes. ‡ Endurance driver.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hodgetts, Chris 1950 births Living people British Touring Car Championship drivers British Touring Car Championship Champions British Formula 3000 Championship drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers People from Tanworth-in-Arden British GT Championship drivers World Sportscar Championship drivers 24 Hours of Spa drivers Britcar 24-hour drivers