Matthew Hamilton (born 2 February 1990 in

Hemel Hempstead Hemel Hempstead () is a town in the Dacorum district in Hertfordshire, England. It is located north-west of London; nearby towns and cities include Watford, St Albans and Berkhamsted. The population at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 cens ...

) 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 ...

. He is best known for competing 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 ...

Racing career

Hamilton raced 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 ...

between 1999 and 2005. In 2005 he won a

Formula BMW Formula BMW was a junior racing formula for single seater cars. It was positioned at the bottom of the motorsport career ladder alongside the longer established Formula Ford category. Like Formula Ford, it was intended to function as the young ...

scholarship, which gave him entry to the

2006 Formula BMW UK season The 2006 Formula BMW UK season was the third Formula BMW season based in United Kingdom whose mission was to develop talented young drivers and introduce them to auto racing using full-size cars. The series was part of the support race package fo ...

. He raced in

Formula Palmer Audi Formula Palmer Audi, officially abbreviated to FPA, and sometimes informally abbreviated to Palmer Audi, was a one-make class of open wheel Formula racing founded in 1998 by former Formula One driver, Jonathan Palmer. It was based in the Unite ...

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 ...

. He won the opening race of the season at

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 ...

, and was on pole position for the second. A fast-changing red starting light left Hamilton stranded on the startline. He was hit by several unsighted drivers and was spun around; it was then hit broadside at full racing speed by a car from the back of the grid. Hamilton was extracted from the cockpit and airlifted to hospital in Coventry with a broken right

femur The femur (; : femurs or femora ), or thigh bone is the only long bone, bone in the thigh — the region of the lower limb between the hip and the knee. In many quadrupeds, four-legged animals the femur is the upper bone of the hindleg. The Femo ...

. In 2008 he competed in FPA and in the

British Formula Ford Championship The British Formula Ford Championship was an entry-level single seater Auto racing, motor racing category, designed to give racing drivers their first step into car racing after karting. Drivers from around the world were attracted to the United ...

. In 2009 he made his GT racing debut at Silverstone racing in the FIA GT4 European Cup in a

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, ...

. He competed in the final two rounds of the 2009

in a TH Motorsport-prepared

Honda Civic The is a series of automobiles manufactured by Honda since 1972. , the Civic is positioned between the Honda Fit/Honda City, City and Honda Accord in Honda's global passenger car line-up. The first-generation Civic was introduced in July 1972 ...

, and continued in the same car for 2010. At the season's first meeting at Thruxton he collected funds for

Help For Heroes Help for Heroes is a British charity which supports members of the British Armed Forces community with their physical and mental health, as well as their financial, social and welfare needs. The charity was founded in 2007 by Bryn and Emma Parry ...

. He was forced to miss the Croft round of the championship due to budgetary issues. Hamilton signed for THM Racing in March 2014 the Watford-based Volkswagen Racing Cup outfit, to compete in the Volkswagen Racing Cup series backed by the giant Volkswagen Group.

Racing record

Complete GT4 European Cup results

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

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)

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamilton, Matt Living people English racing drivers 1990 births British Touring Car Championship drivers Formula Palmer Audi drivers Formula Ford drivers Formula BMW UK drivers Sportspeople from Hemel Hempstead Motaworld Racing drivers GT4 European Series drivers