Tom Chilton Drives Ford's BTCC heroes
Ten years is an awfully long time in motorsport. A decade ago McLaren was the top team in F1 and Mika Hakkinen was well on his way to a second title; Tommi Mäkinen, meanwhile, was heading towards a fourth consecutive WRC title in his Mitsubishi Evo VI, and the British Touring Car Championship was at the height of its powers with a multitude of big-budget manufacturer entries fighting for showroom sales by swapping paint on the racetrack.
If you’d gone to one of those BTCC meetings and wandered the spectator banking you may have spotted a wild-haired teenager with his family, dreaming of being out there himself. That boy was Tom Chilton. Today, deep into his eighth BTCC season, he’s one of the most experienced drivers in the field, though he’s still not old enough to qualify for the car insurance discount you get when you hit 25!
Back in 1999, aged just 14, Chilton became the youngest driver to be granted a motorsport licence. After a couple of seasons cutting