Management Services
Racing Driver Management
– Career planning and direction, including Championship selection
– Team selection and contract negotiation
– Sponsorship consultancy, including production of sponsorship materials
– Driver coaching and 1 to 1 training, including race craft and race strategy
– Attend test sessions and races acting as intermediary between driver and team
– Sports Psychology
– PR programmes and activities and website development
William Tregurtha
When Williams’s younger brother took tennis lessons he didn’t know that his coach was a big friend of Tim’s. One day, in a chance conversation, 8 year old Leo mentioned his brother raced karts. From there led to a conversation between William’s father and Tim and a meeting over a beer at a friend’s house in Aylesbury. William’s father Craig explained that with very little money they had managed to do some karting but at 14 they were out of ideas, momentum, and money! To cut a long story short Tim managed to convince another friend of his, Dave Richardson from RCE that he wanted to start a race team. RCE were the team in short circuit racing and Dave’s cars were winning everything but Dave wanted to expand into circuit racing and this was the perfect opportunity. William’s father took a loan out to buy a Ginetta Junior and Dave set up a team and ran the car at way less than cost. It was a difficult year for everyone as driver and team were learning, but it got Will on the track.
For the following season, Dave decided to focus on his core business, whilst Will had attracted the attention of HHC, the leaders in Ginetta racing, and also had attracted some sponsors who saw Will’s potential.
This season was amazing and Will challenged for the championship all year, finally taking the championship win; two years from that first beer in Aylesbury.
Since then Will’s career has been amazing, with extremely limited family backing William, Craig and Tim have mapped out a career which has seen William win the British GT Championship, finish runner up in the DTM Trophy and European GT 4 Championship, race a GT3 in ADAC Masters, GT in ADAC Masters and take many great results in VLN/NLS, British GT Cup etc,etc. Will has also recently secured a place with the Williams Esports racing team which is a great achievement and will provide another platform for him to display his racing skills.
For 2021 Will competed in 3 Championships – Firstly in the DTM Trophy with CV Performance in a Mercedes GT AMG. The opening round at Monza saw Will achieve an amazing Pole Position and 2 podium finishes which left him in the impressive position of leading the drivers championship which he continued to lead for the majority of the season. A final round Championship decider saw Will finish Vice Champion of the 2021 DTM Trophy. He also competed in the NLS Endurance Series in the brand new BMW M2 CS with the Purple Dot- Walkenhorst Motorsport team achieving numerous class podiums, poles and fastest laps. His 3rd Championship was the British GT Cup where he drives alongside a gentleman driver in a Nissan GT3 , although Will only competed in 6 races, they took 5 podiums and finished 3rd in the Championship.
2022 was a a hive of activity for Will with him competing in no less than 5 different championships. The season began with a return to his British racing roots contesting in a Bentley Continental GT3 in the British GT Championship alongside Mark Sansom. Will also continued his long standing partnership with Graeme Tilley racing in the GT Cup. They challenged this year’s races on board a brand new Mercedes GT, affectionately known as Lightning McQueen. In Europe Will added to his manufacturer tally racing at the legendary Nordschleife in a Ferrari 488 GT3 in the NLS. Next up was the Aston Martin competing in both ADAC GT4 and European GT4. Alongside all of this, Will is the Lead Driver Performance Coach for Williams Esports and is employed as part time sport lecturer at Loughborough College as part of their Motorsport UK DISE programme.
2023 saw Will continue his partnership with Mark Sansom, competing in British GT in the GT3 Silver-Am category with Barwell Motorsport in a Lamborghini Hurracan Evo2. We are delighted to report that Will and Mark won the 2023 British GT Silver-Am Championship, an amazing achievement by both drivers and thoroughly deserved. We will be announcing Will’s 2024 programme shortly.
Thomas Neubauer
2024 announcement – Thomas Neubauer has now officially become a Ferrari Factory Driver!
Thomas was introduced to Tim in the summer of 2020, he wanted a manager to help him develop his career and get him to the stage where he is able to earn a living driving race cars.
Thomas was already a pole position holder and race winner in top level GT racing but needed to be introduced to manufacturers and teams with a view to finding a factory linked programme for 2021.
Tim used all his contacts and introduced Thomas personally to all the major teams and manufacturers to investigate what the best options were and which manufacturer was most interested in Thomas and his talents for the future.
After some very interesting offers for 2021, TSM and Thomas were delighted to sign a contract with factory supported BMW Team Walkenhorst, driving the M6 in the GT World Series Endurance Championship. This exciting deal gave Thomas a real chance to develop his professional career and TSM continued to work with him attending races and tests ensuring Thomas had the best chance of maximising this superb opportunity. Thomas also competed for the first time in the Le Mans 24 as the Silver driver in the JMW Motorsport Ferrari 488 GTE where he performed brilliantly.
We were expecting a fantastic season for Thomas in 2022 after securing him a seat in both GT World Challenge Endurance and Sprint with factory backed Audi team WRT. But nothing could have prepared us for the truly, unbelievable haul of championships and titles that Thomas has claimed. Dubai 24 Hour Overall Winner – Ferrari Challenge World Champion – GTWC Silver Champion – Spa 24 Hour Silver Winner – Nurburgring 24 Hour GT4 Winner.
He won everything he competed in and we could not be more proud.
Casper Stevenson
Casper joined TSM at the beginning of 2023 with a view to helping him develop his career as a professional driver competing in the world’s biggest GT races.
Casper is relatively new to GT racing, but has achieved an incredible amount already – starting his racing in Ginetta Juniors with great success (9 overall podiums), then British F4 (14 overall podiums), followed by Euro Formula 3 (4 podiums and Rookie Champion) followed in 2022 by his GT3 debut in GTWC driving an AKKA Mercedes where his pace was immediately super impressive.
2023 saw Casper’s race calendar explode, securing a drive in WEC for TF sport in the D’Station Aston Martin including his debut at the Le Mans 24 Hour. In addition to this Casper also raced an Audi at Spa 24 and an Aston for the Fuji 24H.
He accomplished some excellent results in 2023, most noticeably 3 class podiums at Spa 24H, Fuji 24H and in the WEC Bahrain 8 Hour. In addition to these great results Caspers race pace has continued to amaze everyone, regularly being one of the very fastest cars on track with super impressive statistics.
Casper has shown himself to be a very capable racing driver and extremely fast, we have numerous exciting offers on the table for 2024 and will announce his plans very soon.
Micah Stanley
Micah became part of the TSM team in early 2023, and we are thrilled to have him and his entertaining personality on board. Having previously competed in British GT and Porsche Carrera Cup GB where he won the Pro-am Vice Championship in 2021, Micah’s aim was to achieve a British and European programme that allowed him to develop his skills for 2023. Micah achieved this by signing a deal with Richardson Racing to compete in a dual programme of Porsche Carrera Cup GB and Porsche Carrera Cup Benelux. The dual championship saw Micah compete in 12 races across Europe achieving several podiums. Micah also competed in a round of the NLS held at the infamous Nürburgring, working towards achieving his Permit A. Micah has great potential to become a professional driver and we are positive that his 2024 season will add further success and podiums to his career.
Joe Warhurst
Joe Warhurst is our newest and youngest driver, having approached TSM at the end of his super, succesful 2023 season where he was crowned Porsche Sprint Challenge GB Champion and Porsche Sprint Challenge Southern Europe Champion, an unbelievable achievement in his first year out of Ginetta Juniors. Joe has achieved so much already, having spent 2 years karting, he quickly progressed to Ginetta Juniors for 2 seasons where he learned his race craft and car control. We are extremely happy to have Joe with us, and are working on his 2024 programme to continue the success of this very, talented driver. We will announce Joe’s 2024 programme soon!
Nico Hantke
Nico is another new signing this year for TSM, he is a promising 19 year old German driver with experience in many of the top German karting championships. He made his move in to GT racing in 2022 in an Aston Martin, competing in ADAC GT4. 2022 saw Nico return to the same championship, again in the Aston Martin.
In 2023 Nico competed in the German ADAC GT4 Championship with Walkenhorst Motorsport in a BMW M4 GT4, he achieved several podiums throughout the year with some great drives from the back of the field to podium finishes.
He ended the 2023 season as Vice Champion in the Junior Championship, and an impressive P5 in the overall standings.
Nico also gained his Nordschleife Permit A this year after successfully completing the required criteria in NLS3, NLS5 and NLS8.
We are currently working on Nico’s 2024 GT programme and will be announcing his seat for next year shortly.
Moh Ritson
Moh joined TSM in February 2023 having already competed in Junior Saloons, Britcar, GT Cup and British GT. With numerous podiums and wins to his name already, TSM secured Moh a seat with top German team FK Performance in German ADAC GT4 partnering Tom Wood. In addition to his own race calendar, Moh works as an expert host for the F1 Paddock Club attending F1 races hosting VIP guests, he also works as a driver guide for luxury supercar tours brand – Ultimate Driving Tours. Moh has a great deal of potential both on and off the track, and we are confident he will succeed in his career goals. Moh is attending various tests over the winter period with a view to making a return to the German ADAC GT4 in 2024.
Alex Connor
Tim was first introduced to Alex a couple of years ago and they have kept in touch regularly with the aim of helping Alex with his career when the time was right. In November 2022 Alex officially joined the TSM team and we are delighted to have him on board. Alex has already established himself firmly in single seater racing with 2 seasons in GB3 and 2 seasons in F4. Alex was born and raised in Dubai and in his earlier years he karted in many of the UAE Kart Championships and SWS World Finals.
In 2023 Alex competed in the German ADAC GT4 Championship with Mucke Motorsport in a Mercedes AMG GT4 where he achieved some great qualifying times and results on a very competitive grid.
We are currently speaking to both single seater and GT teams to build a 2024 programme for this very talented, young driver.
Jody Fannin
Tim has known Jody for many years and originally did the deal on behalf of JMW to sign Jody to be the Ferrari team’s silver driver for ELMS. This proved to be very successful as Jody won the series becoming ELMS champion at his first effort. The natural consequence of this was of course that Jody naturally become upgraded by the FIA to Gold status, meaning that Jody turned his attention to other series such as VLN.
At this stage Tim suggested to Jody that a year of VLN with the superb Walkenhorst team with whom Tim was developing ever stronger ties, would be a great step for his career. The fit was natural and Jody did a year with the team in their AM car showing great progress.
After Jody’s performance in the AM car, Tim was able to secure a seat for the full season for Jody in Walkenhorst’s number one car. This proved to be extremely successful with Jody taking four overall podiums in VLN with the Play Station Walkenhorst BMW M6 GT3 car.
At this stage Tim started to officially manage Jody and in a very difficult 2020 Jody was able to race free of charge with JMW in the ELMS Ferrari.
Following this introduction – 2021 saw Jody contest in both ELMS and the Le Mans 24 Hour as the Gold driver in the JMW Motorsport Ferrari 488 GTE alongside team mates Rodrigo Sales and Andrea Fontana and Thomas Neubauer.
2022 saw a welcome return to the Nordschleife NLS and Nurburgring 12 Hour for Jody, competing with Racing One in a Ferrari 488 GT3 where he was able to add another podium to his collection. Jody also made a return to Le Mans 24 Hour this year where he drove as the Gold member of the line up in the official test.
For 2023 Jody continued his relationship with Racing One in the new Ferrari 296 GT3 competing in selected races of the NLS.
We will be announcing Jody’s plans for 2024 soon.
Affiliated Drivers
Tom Wood
We are delighted to have signed Tom to our management roster, he is a promising young driver who has several British Karting Championships to his name and has already enjoyed success in both British GT and European GT4. TSM helped Tom gain his Permit B for the NLS series at the famous Nordschleife circuit where he raced in the Purple Dot M240i during 2020.
2022 saw Tom drive alongside TSM team mate Euan McKay in ADAC GT4. The new Aston Martin GT4 coupled with the excellent experience of German team Racing One provided both Tom and Euan the perfect platform to showcase their ability. Taking a podium on their first outing, numerous top 3 qualifying results and a podium to finish the season.
For 2023 Tom made a move to FK performance, competing in the German ADAC GT4 in a BMW M4 GT4 alongside fellow TSM managed driver Moh Ritson. Tom also raced in the Radical GT Cup where he finished Vice Champion in the Pro SR1 Championship.
Caitlin Wood
Caitlin approached Tim over the winter of 2019/20 to discuss how to develop her as driver and generally progress her career. Caitlin has made a huge sacrifice to chase her dream, moving to the UK from Australia and supporting herself working as a race instructor at various UK circuits. TSM have created a driver development programme for her within a very cost-effective budget.
The driver programme consists of simulator coaching, on-line racing, track day 1-2-1 coaching and limited single seater testing. The whole programme was aimed to prepare Caitlin for her successful placing as a reserve driver for the 2021 W Series, where she drove at Spa and Texas. Caitlin is also working hard with Tim to secure personal sponsors who may be able to help her progress her driver development test programme and career in 2024.
Josh Caygill
One day at Spa Tim was busy running the JMW ELMS Team when he was approached by Josh Caygill’s father, Josh was racing there that weekend in his VW Golf in the British Golf series, and he was looking to advance his racing into something more series. We arranged a meeting the next week and Tim sat down with Josh and his father, where Tim suggested that the best route forward was to race in Europe where there are far more chances of developing a career as all the manufacturers are racing against each other in their back yard.
At the time Volkswagen had a championship, which supported the DTM, the VW Scirocco Cup. The Championship was amazing, massively subsidised by VW with all the cars centrally run and prepared by ABT Racing.
The Championship was always way over subscribed with a full season costing 50,000 euros it was superb value for money with a huge prize fund and almost guaranteed future career for a future champion. Tim had already had a driver, Daniel LLoyd in the past contesting this series, and this introduction allowed him to get a place for Josh on the selection days. Josh was coached and prepared for the selection days and from the 50+ drivers on the day, Josh was selected to be one of the 26 drivers invited to contest the series.
The series was a fantastic experience for Josh who worked his way up the field taking some excellent results at the end of the year and meaning that he was invited back the year after for the new project.
The new project was the start of the amazing Audi TT Cup, where 20 identically prepared Audi TT’s raced against each other with various stars from F1, Moto GP, DTM etc, guesting each weekend. Here Josh really started to be competitive taking podiums and fastest laps during an amazing season, all done within the outstanding hospitality and atmosphere provided by the showstopper that is DTM.
After the TT Cup, Josh was ready to move up to GT Racing in Europe, and using the Audi links we were able to get Josh a drive with the crack factory Audi WRT team. Here Josh enjoyed a superb season, as team-mate to many top factory Audi drivers like Rene Rast, Christopher Mies, Dries Vanthoor etc. For 2020 Josh and his UK sponsors were all set to return to the UK racing scene but Covid delayed that for 12 months so, 2021 saw the return of Josh to the UK circuits with top Porsche Team Redline Racing.
For 2022 Josh stepped in to the world of European Le Mans competing in the LMP3 class with Yorkshire based multiple championship winners United Autosports. The season started and ended with Josh on the podium, all in all a great experience for Josh in the unique environment of the European Le Mans Series.
Josh will announce his 2024 plans soon.
Past Drivers
Euan McKay
Euan first came to speak to Tim a few years ago, following an introduction from Rob Smith. Euan was looking at working with TSM following a season racing GT3 which although enjoyable was very expensive and left Euan very short of budget and looking for the best way to develop his career from there.
TSM Management came to an agreement with Euan and we suggested that with the limited budget available it would be the best idea to do a year of European GT4 with a really top team where Euan could really show what he was capable of.
Arguably the best team at the time in European GT4 was the EKRIS BMW team who were ex-champions and were entering a one car team with multiple champion Riccardo Van Der Ende as their lead driver. Tim had spoken to the EKRIS team in the past and knew the team owner enough to suggest a meeting where Euan was considered as the team mate for Riccardo. The drive was massively subsidised and really a great opportunity to try and win the Championship.
We were delighted when EKRIS called to say Euan had the drive and the season proved to be very successful with Euan and Riccardo regularly on the podium taking race wins on the way to a very close 4thplace in the championship. But for some reliability problems at the first event in Monza, Euan and Riccardo would almost certainly have taken the title, scoring more points than anyone else from the Monza races onwards.
For 2020 Tim really wanted to move Euan’s career forward and get back into GT3. The problem of course is always budget, and Euan’s sponsors were able to fund about half of a normal GT3 budget. The only way was to try and get some sort of scholarship or subsidised factory Junior programme.
Tim knew that Bentley were looking at creating a Junior Team and were short listing drivers to be considered for a test in Portimao in December 2019.
Tim was able to discuss with Bentley, and Euan was delighted to be invited to the tests. At this stage Tim of course helped Euan to prepare for the tests and how to approach the interview stage. The test itself went perfectly and Euan did a great job, resulting in him being offered one of the three places on the 2020 Bentley Academy programme, a really great result for Euan and a huge boost for his career.
The 2020 season was hard of course with Covid delaying the start of the season, but in the end once the Team Parker Bentley squad were under way Euan had a great season, doing a very good job against his two team mates in both the Championship and the Gulf 12 Hour.
2022 saw Euan drive alongside TSM team mate Tom Wood with Racing One in a new Aston Martin competing in ADAC GT4. Tim was able to secure both drivers a seat in the car following a competitive test in Portimao. The German based team brought a wealth of experience to the championship and the TSM pair secured a podium at the first race and another at the Red Bull Ring.
In 2023 Euan competed in the Silverstone round of GT Cup in a Mercedes AMG GT3 alongside gentleman driver Adam Knight, unfortunately heavy rain whist on slicks put them out of the race.
Euan has decided to take a break from racing in 2024 to focus on other areas of his career, but we hope to see him back on the grid soon!
Hunter Abbott
Hunter had been racing in BTCC for three years, always with mid-field teams and was often mixed up in other people’s accidents meaning the results just never came. Through a mutual friend Hunter approached Tim to see what he could recommend to develop his career. Tim was suggesting that he should race outside the UK and focus on the GT world, meanwhile Hunter was in a position to spend a reasonable budget but not anywhere near a “normal” GT budget.
At the time Tim was also working as a consultant to GruppeM Racing who he had driven for and worked with for over 10 years. GruppeM were returning with a two car Mercedes Team which Tim had helped create to go racing in the Blancpain Asia Championship, a mixture of factory Mercedes drivers, young hopefuls and Tim himself, enjoying his first full season of Racing for a while.
The plan for Hunter was to partner factory Mercedes drivers, Raffialle Marciello, Maxi Buhk, and Maxi Gotz throughout the season. These three drivers were busy with European programmes so they shared the driving alongside Hunter meaning that they all scored way less points than Hunter himself. The plan had always been to win the Championship, which was the obvious aim for the team and Hunter. At the final race of the year Hunter did enough to take the Championship, becoming the overall champion on his own whilst the team took the drivers and the teams championship, a really amazing result for the new Team, Hunter and of course Tim who put the whole project together.
As overall Blancpain GT Asia Champion Hunter’s profile was higher than it had ever been. Along the way Tim had also got Hunter two totally free drivers in Blancpain Europe, one with the excellent HTP Motorsport Team and one with multiple champions Barwell Motorsport. Both teams spoke to Tim and two FOC drives were secured.
As a result of winning the championship on his OWN the FIA decreed that Hunter should be upgraded to Silver status so for the next year Tim was able to arrange a really competitive drive with Walkenhorst Motorsport who were rapidly becoming the new stars in the BMW GT arena. Walkenhorst have worked with TSM for 5 years now running a 2 car VLN programme for us under the Purple Dot Brand. Hunter took many podiums in the pro-am class in the GT3 M6 and with really good results the team were very happy to offer Hunter a second season at a very cheap budget, all made possible by Hunter’s talents but also the ever growing relationship between Tim and Walkenhorst.
For the 2020 season Tim was able to successfully appeal to the FIA and secure Hunter’s return to the Bronze grade. With the problems of Covid, Hunter decided to concentrate on his business last year and not travel, but nonetheless Tim was still able to get Hunter a totally free of charge ELMS drive at the start of the year at Paul Ricard with the JMW Ferrari Team.
In 2021 Hunter secured a one off seat in the 2 Seas Motorsport Mercedes GT AMG competing in the GT3 class of the British GT Championship. The season got off to an amazing start with the team securing both Pole Position and the Race win at the Silverstone 500.
Hunter has now made the decision to concentrate on his business interests, but will never rule out a return in the future!
Sam Tordoff
When Sam first approached Tim he was racing in the Clio championship in the UK. The first stages of the relationship saw Tim working with Sam on his driving and general approach, coaching and mentoring him with a view to progressing a career as a paid driver. At the end of the first year in Clio’s it was decided to move into the UK Porsche Carrera Cup series, and Tim placed Sam with Parker Racing – multiple Porsche Champions. Here Sam developed really well taking podiums and wins in his first year before really fighting for the championship the next year, again with Parker Racing.
At the end of this season the goal was to move into BTCC, and Tim was able to secure Sam a drive alongside Jason Plato in the 888 MG team, run by Ian Harrison who had been Tim’s BTCC team manager back in the 90’s at Prodrive BMW. The relationship with 888 worked extremely well, with Sam taking a podium at his first ever BTCC weekend, and his first win later in the year. A second year with 888 MG, saw more pole positions and victories.
For the next season it was decided that Sam should move to WSR BMW, and a deal was struck to race for the excellent Dick Bennett’s run team.
Here Sam really flourished and with a real push for success, working excellently with his engineer, John Waterman, and Tim to really develop into a top professional.
The following season was really the realisation of all the hard work, Sam was a championship contender and actually led the championship for the vast majority of the season, only to lose the title at the very last race of the year to Gordon Shedden by just 2 points!
The following two seasons saw Sam working with Motorbase and then AMD, both teams who really focused their efforts around Sam, building and developing their teams around him. Both seasons saw plenty of pace and especially with the Honda, Sam was able to end the season easily as the best Qualifier of the year. Unfortunately, reliability both years stopped Sam fighting for the Championship. For personal reasons Sam stepped away from racing at the end of 2019 but watch this space for a return one day!
James Walker
I first started looking after James when he wrote to me as a complete novice who had only ever attended races with his dad as a spectator. He was 16 years old with no Karting experience at all. We established a young driver development programme for James where he started to race karts while also starting to test a Formula Ford. From here we coached and developed James, helping him to drive with our own Formula Ford team for a year before managing his move to the top JLR team.
Here James was a multiple race winner and challenged for the title.
The next step was F3 and TSM worked with James to find sponsors, whilst also instigating a syndicate of investors who each invested in James with the clear goal of F1. James went on to race F3 in the UK, when F3 was amazingly strong, winning many races and helping us to raise more money and investors to help his transition to World Series by Renault (WSR) which at the time was absolutely as competitive as GP2 and actually produced more F1 drivers. James raced WSR for 3 years, winning many races and challenging for the title in 2009, taking wins and podiums at various tracks including Monaco.
F1 was very much on the cards but the amounts of money needed were huge and instead James decided to switch to Sportscars and GT cars where he could make a career. After 4 years of this James decided to go back to living in Jersey and start a family. An amazing rise from absolutely no-where.
Daniel Lloyd
Tim worked with Daniel Lloyd, a relationship starting when Daniel and his father had become totally disillusioned with motorsport and ready to quit after a difficult and expensive season of Clio racing. The general feeling was that without the personal backing required Daniel was never going to get anywhere in the sport. They sat down with Tim and admitted they had a very small budget to go racing and didn’t know what they could do with it.
Tim had some very good connections in America with the owners of the Skip Barber Racing school and we were able to get Daniel a drive in that championship at an extremely good price. This season allowed Daniel to gain experience and get used to racing on another continent and all for a much lower budget than anything possible in the UK.
For the next season Tim wanted to get Daniel back into Europe but still the available budget was very low, the plan was to get Dan a place in the amazing VW Scirocco cup, which supports DTM. This series was always massively oversubscribed and Tim used an old connection with Kris Nissen the VW boss at the time. Kris was actually Tim’s team-mate for one weekend back in the BTCC days when he stood in for Alain Menu. Kris was able to get Daniel a place on the selection days where Dan did a very good job, doing well enough to be offered a place as a subsidised “junior” driver for just 35,000 euros for the season. Daniel had a really good year and took several podiums on route to taking fourth in the championship.
The plan was then made to really push to move into the Porsche Carrera Cup series in the UK. The budget for this was totally out of reach but Tim was able to instigate various sponsorship schemes which working hard with Dan and his father started to gain funding.
This was only part of the plan though, in tandem with this we were targeting the Porsche scholarship with was a competition aimed at selecting one driver which Porsche would subsidise, giving them the massive boost of £100,000 towards the budget.
We started work, preparing Daniel for the judging process in every way, from how to best drive a Porsche, to media training, and preparing his prospectus and business plan which he had to present to Porsche on the day. Daniel worked exceptionally hard always on his fitness so this side was never a concern, but on the day Daniel excelled, coming out top in every section of the trials and as a result was announced the winner of the scholarship.
Not only this but, Porsche also decided to give Daniel the scholarship for 2 years as they really recognised his potential and wanted to see him thrive within the Porsche family. This was the first time they had awarded the scholarship for more than one season.
Over the next two years again with Tim managing the situation throughout, Daniel was a regular race winner in Porsche Carrera cup in the UK, honing his skills and generally furthering his experience and career. Tim was also able to secure Daniel a one-off drive along the way in BTCC where he really showed his potential in a 888 Vectra.
Although we amicably stopped working together officially at the end of this season we are still very friendly and we are very proud of how Daniel has developed his career to become a paid professional in the touring car arena.
Jonny Cocker
When Jonny first approached TSM about management he was just 16 years old and racing in Porsche Carrera Cup in the UK. Jonny was managing to fund his racing personally but this was very difficult and unsustainable.
The following season the plan had been to race Carrera Cup again in the UK, but Tim managed to convince new Porsche team, GruppeM Racing, that Jonny would be a great co-driver alongside Tim himself. The plan was to win the British GT Championship and following an amazing season that’s exactly what happened. Tim missed one race due to a racing commitment in America meaning Jonny was the British GT Champion on his own, becoming the youngest ever National GT Champion.
As a result of these results GruppeM put Jonny into the Asia Porsche Carrera Cup the year after plus contesting the ELMS. Jonny again showed his class by winning the Asian Porsche Series. From here Tim was able to negotiate a massively subsidised drive with Barwell racing in European GT3 and this Barwell link then developed into a paid drive with Paul Drayson – contesting the ALMS series in an Aston Martin Vantage. The year after the progression developed even further with Paul and Johnny stepping up to LMP1 in ALMS, taking a famous victory at Road America.
A perfect case history of an excellent driver with the right guidance going from paying to drive in British Carrera Cup to being paid to drive in ALMS within 4 seasons.
Rob Smith
To this day, Rob Smith is in Tim’s phone as “Rob Smith Test”. One day Rob, who describes himself as a bin man, was looking at this client list. Rob runs a waste management business in Essex, and so on his rounds one day he called in to see what happened in the plain unit with JMW on the invoice details. Rob was a keen amateur racer, competing in Britcar and Creventic races and what he saw when he entered was a shock for him.
JMW Motorsport, are an ELMS and Le Mans team with many championship wins and Le Mans entries to their name. The team has been part of Tim’s business for many years, initially driving for them before moving onto the role of commercial director.
Rob was in his element and spoke to Davey the chief mechanic for hours, asking at the end if it would be possible to have a test in the car one day… Tim took a call next day from Davey, saying that some bin man from Essex wanted to have a test..
Tim remembers that first call to Rob with fondness, Rob was full of enthusiasm and the more Tim spoke to him he thought, why not, lets give him a run when we are testing after the season.
That day finally came, the team had just finished second in the ELMS the day before and stayed at Estoril for 2 days testing. Rob Smith was to get 25 laps with no pressure to see how he went. The test was remarkable; Rob took to the Ferrari like the proverbial duck, lapping in times, which would have been very competitive amongst the Bronzes the weekend before. At this stage Tim and team owner Jim McWhirter decided to offer Rob the Bronze seat for the year after, Rob was able to find some sponsors and a deal was done. The bin man was an ELMS driver!
Over the next two seasons Rob drove for the team and raced impressively. Along the way Tim was mentoring and coaching Rob and the highlight was by far when the team decided Rob had done enough to put him in their car for the 2017 Le Mans 24 hour. This years Le Mans effort was a perfect storm, the team had just taken delivery of its new 488 GTE car and Tim had managed to sign ex F1 driver Will Stevens and a young Dries Vanthoor as the team mates. The race proved to be incredible with the renowned JMW reliability matched by great pace and zero mistakes from any of the drivers.
The result? JMW won the Le Mans 24 Hour race and the bin man was a Le Mans winner!!
From here Rob felt he had to focus again on his business, but meanwhile Tim was working away and managed to negotiate a driver for Rob with the American Wethertec Team who took Rob purely on his driving skill and the 2017 Le Mans victory. The drive was totally free of charge and Rob was driving at Le Mans again, this time all expenses paid!
Rob felt he could never beat those days and with his sons starting to race he stepped back from racing, but we remain great friends and Tim and Rob often recall that first call from some Essex bloke who fancied having a go!