James Pickford (born 30 April 1979 in

Macclesfield Macclesfield () is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East, Cheshire, England. It is sited on the River Bollin and the edge of the Cheshire Plain, with Macclesfield Forest to its east; the town lies south of Ma ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Merseyside to the north-west, Greater Manchester to the north-east, Derbyshire to the east, Staffordshire to the south-east, and Shrop ...

) is a British race car driver. As a child his interest was in motorbikes; his father Keith ran bike racing teams. James started at the beginning in karts in 1994. For a while he was coached by former BTCC racer Tim Sugden. His interest in saloon and sportscars began when he lost a test in a BTCC car after being nominated for the BRDC McLaren Autosport Young Driver of the Year award in 1998. His start in motor racing was in 1997, in the Formula Honda series. He won this 2 years in a row, and also did a single Formula Ford race in 1998. After a year working on marketing within the prestigious

Abt Sportsline Abt Sportsline is an auto racing and auto tuning company based in Kempten im Allgäu, Germany. Abt mainly deals with Audi and the related primary Volkswagen Group brands—Volkswagen, Škoda, and SEAT—modifying them by using sports-type su ...

team in the DTM, he returned to full-time racing in 2003, in the

SEAT Cupra Championship The SEAT Cupra Championship was a one-make series that ran for six years between 2003 and 2008, the last five of which ran as a support package to the British Touring Car Championship. Originally the prize for winning the championship was a driv ...

. He was fifth overall, but improved to win the title in 2004, with 11 top-four finishes in the 12 races including 3 wins. This earned him a factory

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 ...

SEAT drive in 2005. He came ninth in the series, with a podium 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 ...

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but did not retain the drive for 2006. For 2007 he contested the full

Porsche Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, usually shortened to Porsche (; see below), is a German automobile manufacturer specializing in luxury, high-performance sports cars, SUVs and sedans, headquartered in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Th ...

Carrera Cup GB, having done the later races in 2006, starting at Knockhill

This means he has contested three of the five championships which support the BTCC and feature on ITV's

Motorsport UK Motorsport UK (MSUK), formerly known as the Motor Sports Association (MSA), is a national membership organisation and governing body for four-wheel motorsport in the United Kingdom. Legally, it is a not-for-profit private company limited by guar ...

programme, as well as the BTCC itself.

Racing record

Complete British Touring Car Championship results

( key) (Races in bold indicate pole position – 1 point awarded just 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 British GT Championship results

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

External links

James Pickford official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pickford, James British Touring Car Championship drivers English racing drivers 1979 births Living people Formula Palmer Audi drivers Sportspeople from Macclesfield Porsche Supercup drivers Porsche Carrera Cup GB drivers Cupra Racing drivers