After competitively racing stock cars many years ago, fellow competitor
and friend Joe Parrington persuaded Tom to buy an MGB GTV8 to restore back in 1991. After many
hard months of work on the car, it was looking like new, and Tom was persuaded to race in class
B of the MGCC BCV8 Championship, as Joe had been in a similar car for the previous couple of
seasons.
At his first race, Cadwell Park in 1992, Tom finished a credible third in class
and became instantly hooked with the concept of motorsport once again. Beginning to compete
more regularly, Tom continued to improve what was a relatively uncompetitive car as best as he
could. Unfortunately, the weight and handling of the big V8 was no match for the lighter more
nimble 1950cc B's. This was proved at Lydden Hill when Tom followed an MGB through a corner,
and barely made it out of the other side!!
It was at this point that, after 3 reasonably
successful years of class B, that it was time to progress to class C. This class caters for
‘soft-tuned' MGB V8‘s along with full race MGB's. And it was at this point that CTS Racing was
born, as Tom's friend Andy Cooper offered his help. After an extremely frought winter preparing
another car ready for class C, the first race was again at Cadwell Park. And, once again Tom
finished third in class, despite some very close competition!
Now racing alongside more
equal machinery, the talent of Tom Stewart began to show. This was made possible by the
expertise of Andy Cooper, providing an immensly reliable car. Despite strong competition from
the likes of Suzi Hart-Banks, Jonathon Palmer and Peter Collis, Tom clinched the class title by
just 1 single point in his first year of class C. 1996 did not go totally to plan for Tom
Stewart and CTS Racing, as 3 consecutive accidents in the latter part of the season meant that
we cut our losses and opted for early retirement, although still managing third in
class.
1997 proved to be the
most successful year to date for CTS Racing though, with 12 wins from 12 starts, 11 of them
with fastest lap providing Tom Stewart with the overall championship with a maximum of 147.5
points. After winning the overall championship and the class championship for the second time,
Tom decided to progress to the highest level within the championship - class D!!
After
another hectic winter upgrading the car from class C to D, the car was ready for the second
round of 1998. Can you guess where? Yep, Cadwell Park once again! Having only just finished the
car in time, this round was spent ‘running the car in' and so there were celebrations all round
when we finished in an impressive second place in class (3rd overall)!! We also entered into
the last race of the day here - the Allcomers race - in which we claimed our first overall win
with this car, even beating a TVR Tuscan!!
In our third championship race, which was at
Snetterton, Tom beat off all the competition to win by an awesome 10 seconds proving
immediately that he had quckly come to terms with the extra power of class D! From this race
on, the lead became a constant scrap between Peter Collis and ourselves, although occasionally
coming too close for comfort and the two drivers coming into contact. In fact, the season was
so closely fought that the class D honours came right down to the final round at Donington
Park. It was here that basically, whoever finished ahead claimed the class honours! In a very
wet qualifying session, Peter Collis ended up with a front row grid position, whilst Tom was
back on row 7! With the best start of the year, Tom was on Peter's boot lid by the first corner
and after eight laps, along with several position changes, it was Tom Stewart who eventually
took the win by just 4 tenths of a second!!
1999, 2000 and 2001 saw us take a step back
from the world of motorsport, and we competed in only a handful of events throughout the whole
three years. 2002 saw our return,
and was the first year we competed in two championships side by side, with us racing in both
the BCV8 Championship and also the Northern Saloon and Sports Car Championship. Here we
competed against marques such as Porsche, BMW, TVR, Marcos and an almighty 600bhp Ford
Cosworth. Although the smallest powered car of our class, we did enjoy the racing, but alas did
not return for 2003.
Dave Stewart
12th March 2004