Hunter David Abbott (born 4 December 1980 in Windsor,

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; abbreviated ), officially the Royal County of Berkshire, is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Oxfordshire to the north, Buckinghamshire to the north-east, Greater London ...

) is a British

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 ...

, businessman and inventor. He has raced sportscars, GT cars and Touring Cars. He was 2017 Blancpain GT Series Asia Champion and won the RAC Trophy after victory in the 2021 Silverstone 500 race. He is founder, owner and managing director of AlcoSense Laboratories, which designs, develops and manufactures alcohol breathalysers under the AlcoSense brand name. Abbott holds several

Patents A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...

in the field of breath alcohol analysis and is a member of the

Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety The Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) is a registered charity. For much of its history, it was also an All-party parliamentary group of the UK parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Nort ...

as an expert in breath alcohol analysis. In 2017, Abbott was awarded a "Gold Star" on the Wall of Champions at the

Mercedes-AMG Mercedes-AMG GmbH, commonly known as AMG (Aufrecht, Melcher, Großaspach), is the high-performance subsidiary of Mercedes-Benz, Mercedes-Benz AG. AMG independently hires engineers and contracts with manufacturers to customize Mercedes-Benz AMG v ...

factory in Affalterbach, Germany, as a result of winning the 2017 Blancpain GT Series Asia championship while driving a

GT GT3 race car for GruppeM Motorsport, an AMG Performance racing team. In 2018, Abbott was enrolled as a member of the BRDC as a result of his motor racing successes in the UK and abroad.

Racing career

Early years

Abbott began his racing career in 1995, in

karting Kart racing or karting is a motorsport discipline using open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on full-size motor ...

, winning the HKC Junior TKM Championship during his first year racing. He moved to Senior TKM competing in the 1996

Super 1 National Kart Championships The Super One National Kart Championships (S1) is a karting championship based in the United Kingdom. It has been in operation since 1983 and is regarded as the premier karting championship in the UK, producing professional drivers including Le ...

finishing 15th overall on his debut year. For 1998 Abbott moved to Formula 100C

where he finished the season 4th overall and ran as high as 2nd in the European

Intercontinental A Original Kart (OK) is a kart racing class for drivers aged 14 and over, sanctioned by the CIK-FIA. OK is the primary direct-drive class in FIA championships. The class was originally called Intercontinental A (ICA), first introduced in 198 ...

Championships. In 1999 Abbott moved to Formula A and competed in the

. Abbott did not race between 2000 and March 2003 due to lack of funding. In 2003, Abbott competed in a handful of Radical Enduro championship races driving a Radical Prosport and had several podium finishes. For 2004, Abbott raced in the Radical Enduro championship with Martin Donnelly Racing partnering Nigel Redwood. He missed the first two rounds of the championship but took eight victories and 11 pole positions in the remainder of the season, the most races any driver has ever won in one season of Radical Enduro.

Oval Racing

In 2005, Abbott moved into the UK Oval Racing, joining the SCSA racing series in the RyanAir sponsored car run by Torquespeed Racing. SCSA was a UK based championship, similar to the NASCAR

Sprint Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the NASCAR, National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), the most prestigious stock car racing series in the United States. The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, ...

which raced on the

Rockingham Motor Speedway Rockingham Motor Speedway was a motorsport racing venue in Rockingham, Northamptonshire, Rockingham, Northamptonshire, England, United Kingdom, near the town of Corby. It hosted professional and club races, as well as testing, track days, driv ...

oval circuit. He had a successful debut season, winning the Rookie Championship. This led to him being awarded 'One to Watch' by Autosport Magazine and "Driver of the Year" by NASCAR team

Roush Racing Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, doing business as RFK Racing, is an American professional stock car organization that currently competes in the NASCAR Cup Series. One of NASCAR's largest racing teams in the 2000s and early 2010s, Roush formerly ...

. Abbott didn't compete in the 2006 season, instead competing in British GT, but returned in

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

and finished runner-up to series champion Colin White.

24 Hour Racing

After a last minute call up from CWS Racing, Abbott competed in the 2016

Dubai 24 Hour The Dubai 24 Hour Race is both a sports car and touring car automobile endurance race held annually at the Dubai Autodrome in Dubai, UAE. It was inaugurated in 2006. Entrants and participants As with all races in the 24H Series, promoted by Dut ...

, finishing 2nd in the SP3 class driving a Ginetta G55 GT4. The team had led the race until three hours from the end when a belt failure forced the car into the pits for an additional pit-stop.

GT racing

2006 saw a move into GT racing for Abbott. He entered the 2006 British GT season, driving in the GTC class with a

Porsche 996 GT3 The Porsche 911 GT3 is a high-performance homologation model of the Porsche 911 sports car. It is a range of high-performance models, which began with the 1973 911 Carrera RS. The GT3 has had a successful racing career in the one-make national ...

racing for RPM Motorsport. The highlight of the year was finishing 2nd in the

Pau Grand Prix The Pau Grand Prix () is a motor race held in Pau, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department of southwestern France. The French Grand Prix was held at Pau in 1930, leading to the annual Pau Grand Prix being inaugurated in 1933. It was not r ...

. After the Snetterton round of the championship Hunter left RPM and joined Paul Mace's Specialist Direct team also driving a Porsche 996 GT3. After a brief hiatus in 2007, when he returned to Oval racing, he once again joined the British GT grid, beginning a long racing partnership with Rob Austin Racing. Partnering Rob Austin in the teams

Ginetta G50 The Ginetta G50 is a specialist GT4 class-developed racing car, designed by Ginetta Cars. A road version of the car was planned, but did not enter wide-scale production; instead, the smaller Ginetta G40 was launched. Development In late 2007, ...

, the pair managed to finish second in the GT4 class of the 2008 season, taking three class wins. At the

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 ...

round of the championship, Abbott had a spectacular 100 mph crash in his

Ginetta Ginetta Cars Limited is a British specialist builder of racing and sports cars based in Garforth, Leeds, West Yorkshire. History 20th century Ginetta was founded in 1958 by four Walklett brothers (Bob, Ivor, Trevers and Douglas) in Woodbridge, ...

, flipping several time before coming to rest on its roof where it burst into flames. Abbott was trapped in the car for 18 seconds while on fire.Archived a
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine
The driver's door was jammed shut and he escaped from the car by crawling through the roll cage and out of the passenger side of the car.Archived a
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine
Quick thinking by Abbott and efficient work by the race marshals meant that he escaped with only minor burns and injuries. After 2 weeks Abbott returned to the series and took a double victory at Knockhill. The partnership with Rob Austin Racing continued into 2009. Abbott contested the first half of the 2009 season, with Abbott taking 4 class wins and several podium finishes along with new partner

Gary Simms Gary may refer to: *Gary (given name), a common masculine given name, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name Places ;Iran * Gary, Iran, Sistan and Baluchestan Province ;United States *Gary (Tampa), Florida *Gary, Ind ...

before stopping before the Knockhill event. Abbott had a one-off outing after a late call from Stark Racing for the Snetterton round of the championship where he scored two-second places in the GT4 class. He finished 4th in the GT4 championship after missing the second half of the season. However, Abbott, with Rob Austin Racing and driver partner Henry Fletcher contested a full season in the

GT4 European Series The GT4 European Series is a sports car championship created and organised by SRO Motorsports Group. It is a pro/am championship which utilizes SRO GT4 class cars, and runs alongside the GT World Challenge Europe as a support series. History ...

. Abbott and Fletcher finish sixth in the 2009 championship, with three third-place finishes. Abbott continued into the

2010 GT4 European Cup The 2010 GT4 European Cup season was the fourth season of the GT4 European Cup. It began on May 1 at Silverstone, before finishing on October 17 at Magny-Cours after twelve races held at six meetings. Rhesus Racing driver and single-seater conve ...

, entering the first three rounds and scoring one 2nd place and finishing fifth in the overall drivers standings. In 2016 Abbott made a one-off appearance in the

Spa-Francorchamps The Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps (), informally referred to as Spa, is a motor-racing circuit located in Francorchamps, Stavelot, Wallonia, Belgium, about southeast of Spa. It is the current venue of the Formula One Belgian Grand Prix, ho ...

round of 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 ...

. He drove for Grasser Racing driving a Lamborghini Huracan GT3 car, qualifying 2nd and leading the race until retirement due to technical reasons on the final lap. For 2017 Abbott returned to GT racing in three series. He won the overall GT3 title and Pro-AM GT3 title in the Blancpain GT Series Asia driving for GruppeM Racing sponsored by Pagani Cars China and GruppeM in a Mercedes-AMG GT GT3. He also raced in selected VLN races in a BMW 235 Cup Car for Walkenhorst Motorsport taking a best place of 3rd. Abbott drove for

HTP Motorsport HTP Winward Motorsport also known as HTP Motorsport and Winward Racing is a German-American-based auto racing team. The team mainly competes in GT3 based series such as the GT World Challenge Europe. The team was founded after HTP Investment BV ...

at the 2017

Silverstone Silverstone is a village and civil parish in the West Northamptonshire unitary authority area of Northamptonshire, England. The village is about south-southwest of Towcester and northeast of Brackley, both accessed via the A43 road, A43 main ...

round of the

Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup The GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup, formerly for sponsorship reasons the Blancpain Endurance Series from 2011 to 2015 and Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup from 2016 to 2019, is a sports car racing series developed by SRO Motorsports Gr ...

, standing in for injured

Michael Avenatti Michael John Avenatti (born February 16, 1971) is an American former attorney currently incarcerated in federal prison for felony fraud and extortion. He is best known for his legal representation of Pornographic film actor, adult film actress S ...

, finishing 4th in class and at the Barcelona event of the same championship for Barwell Motorsport driving a Lamborghini Huracan GT3 where he won his class partnering

Patrick Kujala Patrick Kujala (born 15 May 1996) is a Spanish-born Finnish professional racing driver. Career Karting Kujala started his career at the age of four as he drove his first laps behind the steering wheel of a karting car, after which he compet ...

and

Martin Kodrić Martin Kodrić (born 8 June 1997 in Zagreb) is a racing driver from Croatia. He competed in the International GT Open for Teo Martín Motorsport. He competes in GT World Challenge Europe Endurance Cup The GT World Challenge Europe Endurance ...

, standing in for injured Adrian Amstutz. In 2018 Abbott joined Walkenhorst Motorsport driving a PlayStation sponsored BMW M6 GT3 in VLN, partnered with Jonathan Hirschi, Christian Krognes and Jordan Tressonn. Their best finish was 3rd overall at VLN 7. In 2019 Abbott raced again for Walkenhorst Motorsport driving the sister BMW M6 GT3 car sponsored by

Total Total may refer to: Mathematics * Total, the summation of a set of numbers * Total order, a partial order without incomparable pairs * Total relation, which may also mean ** connected relation (a binary relation in which any two elements are comp ...

in VLN, partnered with a range of drivers including Henry Walkenhorst, Andreas Ziegler, Rudi Adams and

Jordan Tresson Jordan Tresson (born 30 April 1988 in Villers-la-Montagne) is a French racing driver, who previously raced in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Career In April 2010 Tresson won the Gran Turismo Academy, a competition run by Nissan and Sony ...

In 2020 Abbott competed in the opening round of the

European 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 ...

Circuit Paul Ricard The Circuit Paul Ricard () is a French motorsport race track built in 1969 at Le Castellet, Var, near Marseille, with finance from pastis magnate Paul Ricard. Ricard wanted to experience the challenge of building a racetrack. The circuit has ...

with JMW Motorsport driving a

Ferrari 488 GTE The Ferrari 488 GTE is a grand tourer racing car built by Ferrari's in-house Competizioni GT unit, for competition in endurance racing. It was served as a replacement for the Ferrari 458 Italia GT racing car, using the Ferrari 488 GTB as a base. ...

, finishing 4th. Abbott did not race for the remainder of the season citing concerns around travelling during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. As COVID-19 restrictions eased Abbott joined 2 Seas Motorsport for the 10th edition of the Silverstone 500 in 2021, driving an AMG GT GT3 Evo with Martin Kodric. Abbott qualified on pole position, as did Kodric, and took a lights to flag victory, lifting th
1932 RAC Trophy
in the process.

One-Make Racing

In 2008, Abbott made a one-off appearance in the

G50 Cup at the Brands Hatch GP after one of the Rob Austin Racing drivers was delayed after returning from a US trip. Having never driven the car before, Abbott went straight into qualifying and claimed two pole positions for race 1 and race 2. Abbott did not finish race 1 after contact with Tom Dunstone but won race 2 from

Frank Wrathall Frank Brian Wrathall Jr. (born 4 October 1986 in Lancaster) is a British racing driver who has competed in the British Touring Car Championship. He won his first race on 21 October 2012 in the final race of the 2012 BTCC season. Having gradua ...

and Christian Dick. Abbott entered the 2012 Ginetta GT Supercup, driving a

Ginetta G55 The Ginetta G55 is a specialist sports car, which has been built by Ginetta Cars since 2011. It is built to the FIA GT3 regulations, and the cars are raced in a one-make series; the Ginetta GT Supercup. In addition to this, they are also used i ...

for

Century Motorsport Century Motorsport is a professional motor racing team based in Fenny Compton, Warwickshire, in the United Kingdom. They currently participate in the Ginetta GT4 Supercup, the British GT Championship The British GT Championship is a sports ...

sponsored by Armour Electronics and Outback BBQs. Abbott finished sixth overall, with two 3rd places his best results. For 2013, he moved back into Europe, entering the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Benelux, driving a Porsche 997 GT3 Cup Gen 2 sponsored by Petronas Oil, Armour Electronics and Outback's BBQs. He finished the season in second place behind former Midland F1 test driver

Jeffrey van Hooydonk Jeffrey van Hooydonk (born 1 October 1977) is a Belgian racing car driver. A native of Antwerp, Van Hooydonk began racing karts in 1990 and graduated to open-wheel racing five years later. For the next three seasons, he was successful in Formula ...

and ahead of factory Audi driver Christiaan Frankenhout.

Touring Car Racing

Abbott announced that he was making the switch to

touring car racing 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 ...

, entering 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 ...

with his previous GT team Rob Austin Racing. He entered the

2014 British Touring Car Championship season The 2014 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship was a multi-event motor racing championship for production-based touring car racing, touring cars held across England and Scotland. The championship features a mix of professional motor racing ...

with Rob Austin Racing, driving a

NGTC Next Generation Touring Car, also known as NGTC and by its Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) designation TCN-1, is an FIA and TOCA specification and classification for production based race cars. The specification covers nation ...

Audi A4 The Audi A4 is a line of luxury compact executive cars produced from 1994 to 2025 by the German car manufacturer Audi, a subsidiary of the Volkswagen Group. The A4 has been built in five generations and is based on the Volkswagen Group B platfor ...

. Abbott scored points on his debut, securing a single point by finishing 15th during race 3 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 hosts ...

. He featured in the top 10 at several races and was top Rookie in the Jack Sears Trophy with 96 overtakes, awarded to the driver who overtook the most cars during the season. In 2015, Abbott stayed with Rob Austin Racing in the

under the ''Exocet Racing'' banner with title sponsorship from Exocet Fuel Additives. Abbott again featured in the top 10 in many races but after missing the Knockhill round of the championship to be there for the birth of his son, Hunter finished the year 21st in the Drivers Championship. For 2016, Abbott switched to the front wheel drive Chevrolet Cruze of

Power Maxed Racing Power Maxed Racing is a British auto racing team based in Bidford-on-Avon, Warwickshire. The team has raced in the British Touring Car Championship, since 2015 after purchasing BTC Racing in February 2015. British Touring Car Championship Ch ...

in the

with title sponsorship from Power Maxed, a company making car polishes and accessories. Despite top 5 qualifying results and a fastest lap 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 ...

, Abbott's best result was 10th at

, Abbott finished 19th overall in the championship standings.

Lap Records

Abbott holds or has held lap records at the following circuits: 2000 - Brands Hatch Indy Circuit in Formula First 2008 - Zolder in GT4 2008 - Donington Park in GT4 2009 - Spa Francorchamps in GT4

Famous crashes

On Saturday 22 March 2008, Abbott had a spectacular 100+ mph crash in the Rob Austin Racing

G50 in the opening round of the 2008 British GT Championship at

. After being tagged by Peter Snowdon's Aston Martin Abbott struck the barriers on the outside of the circuit between Old Hall and Cascades corners at unabated speed. The car flipped several times end over end, clearing the safety barriers, before coming to rest upside down where it burst into flames. The fire was caused by the roof skin being ripped off in the force of the accident, in the process this also ripped off the fuel filler pipes from the fuel tank. As it was near the beginning of the race the fuel tank was near full, when the car came to rest upside down the fuel load leaked quickly into the car. Abbott was trapped in the car for 18 seconds while on fire. The driver's door was jammed shut and he escaped from the car by crawling through the roll cage and out of the passenger side of the car. Quick thinking by Abbott and efficient work by the race marshals meant that he escaped with only minor burns and injuries. After 2 weeks, Abbott returned to the series and took a double victory at Knockhill. There was significant mainstream media coverage of the crash through newspapers and magazines and can be viewed on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

. On Sunday 31 July 2016, Abbott was involved in a crash while racing for

in the

round of the

. A multi-car start-line crash occurred, triggered by contact between Team BKR-run

Volkswagen CC The Volkswagen CC, initially sold as the Volkswagen Passat CC, is a car built by German marque Volkswagen from 2008 to 2016. It is a variant of the Volkswagen Passat that trades headroom and cargo space for a coupé-like profile and sweeping roofl ...

driven by Mark Howard and Team Parker Racing Ford Focus of Alex Martin. Abbott was clipped by Mark Howard's spinning car and rolled several times, knocking over a TV tower and coming to rest on top of the barriers. Abbott suffered

concussion A concussion, also known as a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), is a head injury that temporarily affects brain functioning. Symptoms may include headache, dizziness, difficulty with thinking and concentration, sleep disturbances, a brief ...

and no one else was injured. Mark Howard and Alex Martin were penalised for causing the multi-car crash.

Racing record

Complete British GT Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position in class) (Races in ''italics'' indicate fastest lap in class) ^† As Abbott was a guest driver, he was ineligible to score points.

Complete British Touring Car Championship results

( key) (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

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

References

External links

Hunter Abbott Official WebsiteBritish GT Drive Biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abbott, Hunter Living people English racing drivers Sportspeople from Windsor, Berkshire 1980 births British Touring Car Championship drivers ASCAR drivers British GT Championship drivers Ginetta GT4 Supercup drivers 24H Series drivers GT4 European Series drivers