Nick Leventis (born 31 January 1980) is a retired British racing driver and founder of

Strakka Racing Strakka Racing was a British auto racing team founded by Nick Leventis. The team was based at the Silverstone Circuit in Northamptonshire. The team made history at the 2010 1000 km of Hungaroring when they became the first team in Le Mans Serie ...

. One of his most memorable successes was winning the

2010 24 Hours of Le Mans The 78th 24 Hours of Le Mans (French: 78''e 24 Heures du Mans'') was a non-championship 24-hour Endurance racing (motorsport), automobile endurance race for teams of three drivers each fielding Le Mans Prototype (LMP) and Grand tourer, Grand T ...

in the LMP2 category with

Danny Watts Danny Watts (born 31 December 1979) is a retired British professional racing driver. Career Watts was born in Aylesbury, and started racing in 1993, when he began karting. After five seasons of karting, he stepped up to single seater racin ...

and Jonny Kane, breaking five records in the process.

Early life

Nick Leventis was born in

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

, London and educated at

Harrow School Harrow School () is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school (English boarding school for boys) in Harrow on the Hill, Greater London, England. The school was founded in 1572 by John Lyon (school founder), John Lyon, a local landowner an ...

. Leventis initially competed in downhill

alpine skiing Alpine skiing, or downhill skiing, is the pastime of sliding down snow-covered slopes on skis with fixed-heel Ski binding, bindings, unlike other types of skiing (Cross-country skiing, cross-country, Telemark skiing, Telemark, or ski jumping) ...

until a serious back injury in 2003 forced him to quit the sport at a professional level. From here, he turned his focus to motorsports.

Racing

2004 - Start of racing career, driving a

BMW M3 The BMW M3 is a high-performance version of the BMW 3 Series, developed by BMW's in-house motorsport division, BMW M GmbH. M3 models have been produced for every generation of 3 Series since the E30 M3 was introduced in 1986. The initial mod ...

in the BMW LMA Euro Saloon Championship, dominating Class B and finishing runner-up in the overall standings. He proved his merit in endurance racing and achieved a class win and 6th overall in the first-ever Silverstone Britcar 24 Hour. 2005 - Nick competed in the

Ferrari Ferrari S.p.A. (; ) is an Italian luxury sports car manufacturer based in Maranello. Founded in 1939 by Enzo Ferrari (1898–1988), the company built Auto Avio Costruzioni 815, its first car in 1940, adopted its current name in 1945, and be ...

Historic Challenge and Le Mans Classic, driving a rare Ferrari Dino 246 and scoring encouraging results. 2006 and 2007 - Victories in the Roy Salvadori Trophy at 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 ...

meeting with a 1957

Aston Martin DBR1 The Aston Martin DBR1 is a sports car, sports racing car built by Aston Martin starting in 1956, intended for the World Sportscar Championship as well as non-championship sportscar races at the time. It is most famous as the victor of the 1959 ...

. In 2007 he reached a personal landmark with a Le Mans podium in the Legends race driving a Ferrari P3. Nick also competed in the Belgian and Italian Touring Car Series, gaining several podiums, two class victories at Spa and consecutive wins in the prestigious Vallelunga 6 Hour Silver Cup. Other successes included podium in the Epilogue of Brno 6 Hour race and a GT1 class win and 2nd overall in the highly competitive Vallelunga Gold Cup. 2007 - Created

, one of Britain's leading independent racing teams. 2008 -

and Nick progressed to the iconic

Le Mans 24 Hours The 24 Hours of Le Mans () is an endurance-focused 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 the Monaco Grand ...

with an Aston Martin DBR9 GT1. 2009 - Nick and

stepped up to a

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, ...

Zytek Gibson Technology is an automotive and motorsport company based at Repton, Derbyshire, England. It was founded by Bill Gibson and Brian Mason as Zytek Engineering in 1981. Ownership history In 1981 Gibson and Mason founded the Zytek Group wi ...

GZ09S LMP1 sports prototype 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 ...

. Partnered by

and

Peter Hardman Peter Hardman (born 7 September 1964 in Redditch, Worcestershire) is an English racing driver. Though a keen spectator of rallycross in his school days, Hardman did not look set to embark on a racing career until a visit to a Jim Russell driv ...

, Nick and the team claimed an impressive pole in Barcelona and finished 14th in LMP1 in the

. 2010 - Raced an LMP2 twin-turbo V6 engined HPD ARX-01c in the Le Mans Series, recording one of the most remarkable seasons in sportscar racing, scoring an LMP2 victory at the

Le Mans 24 Hour The 24 Hours of Le Mans () is an endurance-focused 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 the Monaco Grand ...

race, breaking five records. Memorably the team also achieved the first ever LMS outright win for an LMP2 chassis, with victory at the 1,000 km race at the

Hungaroring The Hungaroring is a motorsport racetrack in Mogyoród, Pest County, Hungary where the Formula One Hungarian Grand Prix is held. In 1986, it became the location of the first Formula One Grand Prix motor racing, Grand Prix behind the Iron Curtai ...

. 2012 and 2013 - Raced in the

FIA World Endurance Championship The FIA World Endurance Championship, abbreviated as WEC, is a world championship for automobile endurance racing organized by the Automobile Club de l'Ouest (ACO) and sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The se ...

with an LMP1 class HPD ARX-03a with Johnny Kane and

. The team finished on the FIA Endurance Trophy for Private LMP1 Teams' podium in all eight races – achieving the 100% record with an outstanding final stint in Shanghai by Nick when he took the car from 4th to 3rd in the closing stages of the race. The highlight of the season was a 3rd overall finish at the 6 Hours of Bahrain. 2012 - Nick was the brainchild behind the creation of Strakka Performance in 2012, a driver development programme designed to nurture young talent to the best they can. 2015 – Leventis spearheaded the design and production of Strakka's own car, the DOME S103 at the

6 Hours of Silverstone The 4 Hours of Silverstone (formerly the 1000 km of Silverstone and 6 Hours of Silverstone) is an endurance sports car race held at Silverstone Circuit near the Northamptonshire villages of Silverstone and Whittlebury. First run in 1976 as ...

, claiming a third place on its debut. 2016 – Nick became a member of the prestigious BRDC (British Racing Drivers’ Club), home to the most successful racing drivers from Great Britain and the Commonwealth. With the Gibson-Nissan, Strakka's team consisting of Leventis, Jonny Kane and

came fourth in 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 ...

class (eight overall) at 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 ...

. Nick accepted the BRDC Woolf Barnato Trophy awarded to the highest placed British driver at the

. 2017 – Nick and

started working with one of the most successful and prestigious GT3 manufacturers,

McLaren McLaren Racing Limited ( ) is a British auto racing, motor racing team based at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, Surrey, England. The team is a subsidiary of the McLaren Group, which owns a majority of the team. McLaren is best known a ...

. They entered the challenging

Blancpain GT Series GT World Challenge Europe (known as the Blancpain GT Series between 2014 and 2019) is a sports car racing series organised by SRO Motorsports Group. It features grand tourer racing cars modified from production road cars complying with the FIA's ...

with an impressive four

McLaren 650S The McLaren 650S is a British sports car designed and manufactured by British automobile manufacturer McLaren Automotive. It was announced in February 2014 as a new model, but based on the existing McLaren MP4-12C, MP4-12C with 25% new parts, a ...

GT3. 2018 - In 2018 Nick will expand Strakka Racing's GT activities beyond Europe, forming a new partnership with Mercedes-AMG which will see them carry Performance Team status for the German marque. The Silverstone-based team will run three new Mercedes-AMG GT3s in the Intercontinental GT Challenge alongside Blancpain GT Series Endurance Cup. 2019 - On the 24th of July, it was revealed that Leventis had tested positive to banned substances. He was thus banned for four years. Following this incident he announced his retirement.

Racing Record

Britcar 24 Hour results

24 Hours of Le Mans results

Complete FIA World Endurance Championship results

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Leventis, Nick 1980 births Living people People educated at Harrow School English racing drivers European Le Mans Series drivers 24 Hours of Le Mans drivers FIA World Endurance Championship drivers Britcar 24-hour drivers Doping cases in auto racing Sports car racing team owners Strakka Racing drivers Mercedes-AMG Motorsport drivers McLaren Racing drivers 24 Hours of Spa drivers People from Kensington Racing drivers from London