We recently brought you the news that former British GT Champion and FIA GT3 racer Alex Mortimer will be teaming up with Duncan Cameron, Matt Griffin and Toni Vilander for this year’s Spa 24 Hours, but where has he been for the past 18 months? A very quick catch-up at Silverstone recently – where he was competing in the Radical Masters Euroseries – brings us up to date.
We last saw you in 2011, when you were in British GT with CRS. What happened after that?
“I was massively frustrated when my plans for 2012 were suddenly cancelled, and it was one of those moments in life when you say to yourself, ‘I’m 27; I’ve had a good year – been quick in the 458; I need to get on with something now!’ I didn’t have the backing of a manufacturer, so decided that it was time to crack on with life.
“I was engaged to be married, so decided to go and get a ‘real job’; and one thing that’s fantastic about motorsport is that it immerses you in a world of such successful people that the network you can build is amazing. Mum made me go and get a law degree when I was younger, so I had qualifications, and even though I didn’t go into law I went to work for Deloitte for a year through someone I knew in racing. I then applied for another position and am currently working for a services company on a contract with the Ministry of Defence – saving lots of money for the taxpayer!
“So it’s going well and the icing on the cake for me is that I now have a professional career outside of the sport and I’ve got the opportunity to carry on racing; so I’ve got the best of both worlds.”
So RPM [the race team Alex had run since the death of his father, Robin, in 2010] had to go?
“It did. My mum has MS and a lot of money was tied up in the business; and it’s a treacherous place to try and earn money – you hear all these horror stories about upgrade-kits costing £100,000 – and to try and make consistent money from racing is like pushing it uphill.
And there’s these emerging Pro/Pro pairings everywhere; how do you compete against that?”
Are you a professional driver in this series?
“I’m an amateur, which is great. I wrote to the FIA Bureau and they downgraded me from a Gold to a Silver; my aim is to be the fastest Gentleman Driver in the series!
“I’m ecstatic about Spa and think we have a fantastic chance of a Pro-Am podium. 24 hours is a long way, but Vilander, Griffin, me and Duncan – you’ve got to be in with a shout, right?”
With that, he climbed aboard the #21 SR8 and went on to finish second in the race, to add to his win from the previous day.
Earlier that day at the same circuit, Griffin and Cameron had taken the GT Open win, and Matt would go on to further success at the Red Bull Ring the next weekend; so confidence should be sky-high in the team for this weekend’s Belgian classic.
MH
