The Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup is renowned as a tough proving ground for GT racers and, while not a series usually covered by DSC, also serves as a significant stepping stone towards factory drives, with many previous winners now very well known in sportscar racing circles – Bergmeister, Ortelli, Henzler, Westbrook, Bleekemolen, Rast, Thiim and Bamber to name but a few. It is not, however, where you might expect to find a young driver making his first foray into GTs after a ‘conventional’ racing career so far; and yet this is where 19 year old Cameron Twynham has decided to step-up to the GT plate.
The youngster has been on the DSC UK Ed’s radar for a couple of years owing to his residence in the same town – Market Harborough – where he is something of a local celebrity through reports of his F3 and Formula Renault races in the local press. And when pictures emerged (prior to the Supercup news) of Cameron testing a Beechdean Aston Martin GT3 recently, DSC popped round for a chat with him and his father Julian – who has watched every race of his son’s career – to find out a bit more about his plans.
When did you start racing? Is there a motor racing background in the family?
JC: “I have no background in motorsport, but we’ve both loved the sport for a long time. I’ve been taking Cameron to the Grand Prix for years and we’ve also been to many bike races, but we only got into karting in 2009; when business was bad, strangely enough. My business supplies agricultural parts to tractor manufacturers and in 2009 business just stopped, so I found myself with plenty of time on my hands.
“After three years of karting we decided to move into cars and did the Dunlop InterSteps Championship and, okay, there were only eight cars, but the BMW was a good car and we were with Fortec and it was a really good learning year. After that, Cameron moved into F3.”
CT: “It was sheer luck that we tested the F3 – I’m not even sure how it came about – but it turned out to be a really good move. Everybody was going Formula Renault or FIA European F3. European F3 would have been great for my second year in F3, but it was very expensive. We tested the Renault car at Pembrey, but I didn’t get on with it. Then when I tested the F3 round the same circuit, I found it much more to my liking. So I made the move to the European F3 Open, which perhaps wasn’t as competitive as the FIA series but which allowed me to really get to know the car; and for me it was a great move.
“I had a great year racing on some brilliant tracks and went on to finish runner-up of the Championship Cup class of the European F3 Open with Team West-Tec in 2013.
“We then took the decision to move up to the main class for 2014 with the same team, but things didn’t go so well for various reasons and midway through the year we decided that we needed a change to try and make the most out of the season that was left.
“We left Pembrey on the Sunday not knowing what we were going to do next, but on the Friday I was signing up with Comtec to do Formula Renault at the Nürburgring! Someone had heard that I wasn’t in F3 anymore and phoned me up. My first time in the car was during Free Practice on the Friday, but I still managed to finish 11th in the second race.”
JC: “We did two more meetings with Comtec, but realised that this wasn’t getting Cameron anywhere and we stopped then. It was an opportunity that he had to take, but it highlighted to us that in single seaters there’s nowhere to go unless you have a lot of money. Formula Renault is €1.2m for 2015, and I just don’t have that.”
How do you go from that situation to Porsche Supercup?
JT: “We looked at Porsche GB, and it’s going to be a very good series this year. Rod Vickery, Cameron’s manager, arranged for us to go and talk to a team, but – although they are undoubtedly good at what they do – the set-up and atmosphere suggested to me that the focus would not be on Cameron and so we decided to look elsewhere. Rod then called Christian Danner, who he knows from his F1 days, and he put us in touch with Andrea Leberle from MOMO-Megatron Racing and we arranged to go to the Ascari circuit in Spain for a test.”
CT: “It was like being at Croft! My first-ever lap in the Porsche was very wet and my second-ever was virtually undriveable! But I stayed out and completed about 50 laps. It had dried out by the next day, thank goodness, and I managed to get to within half-a-second of [British Supercup racer] Ben Barker’s time – he’d tested in the same car a week earlier – on older tyres than he had run on, and that led to me agreeing a deal with the team for this season.”
[“Rod Vickery is an old friend and assured me Cameron was the type of young driver we needed in our team,” said Leberle. “Both my engineer Chris Murphy and I were pleasantly surprised that for such a young driver with no experience of GT cars he was quickly on the pace. He drove faultlessly over the two days, especially in the wet on day one, and didn’t put a wheel wrong. I believe we have a very quick driver with a lot of potential and are looking forward to a strong season together.”]
Does the Porsche suit your driving style?
CT: “I really enjoyed the test at Ascari, but won’t know for sure if it fully suits my style until after the pre-season testing, which will see other people on track as well. But I can’t see myself having a problem with it.
“And if I can learn to protect my Michelins during a 30-minute sprint race against a field of identical cars, that will help greatly for my future GT career.”
Tell me about the Aston Martin test
CT: “I drove the GT3 at Silverstone in February and it was a great experience; I absolutely loved the car.
“Jonny Adam went out for a few laps on new tyres before I got in, but I was pleased to see I beat his first-sector time almost straight away. He was quite a bit quicker in the second, but that was because of the gearing and my unfamiliarity with the ABS – I was still braking like I was in a single-seater. But I got quicker throughout the day and felt comfortable.
“We were testing on Pirellis with a view to a Blancpain Endurance Series programme, but we decided that the Supercup is the best route for me to go this year and next. That doesn’t mean that I won’t be doing any endurance races, there are still options there. I’ll be racing on some fabulous circuits this year – Monaco, Spielberg, CoTA – as part of the F1 package and it’s going to be an amazing experience. But I ultimately want to race at Le Mans and as many of the other big races as I can.”
Is your goal is to be a professional racing driver?
CT: “Absolutely! My goal is to be a fully paid racing driver. I’d already signed up to the idea of making the switch to GTs after my first meeting with Rod; and my driver-coach Ollie Millroy has also been talking about it for quite some time. Dad wasn’t so sure and I had to keep telling him to ignore all the emails from single-seater teams.
“Formula 1 was always my goal, of course, but we realised last year that there was no way to get to it. There’s a pyramid of progression which gets narrower and narrower and only opens up again when you have the kind of money that Pastor Maldonado has.”
JT: “Having finally accepted the idea, I’m now wondering why we didn’t go this route a year ago. I think the Supercup is the best route for Cameron. The Aston Martin test was a great experience for him, but I think that that is more a long-term goal and that he should focus on the Supercup as it can do a lot to raise his profile.
“When we first met Rod, he said that the plan is for Cameron to pay less for his racing in year one; to pay nothing in year two; and to be paid to drive in year three. And we’re bang on schedule as MOMO-Megatron have been able to offer an amazing contract which is costing us half what we’ve had to pay in the past.”
CT: “My focus is entirely on my racing career. I’m not at college and I’m in the fortunate position to be able to train fulltime, thanks to Dad’s support. I’m determined to get there.”
Cameron Twynham is representative of a new generation of ambitious and talented young racers who are more and more realising that the goal of a professional career in motor racing lies not with Formula 1, but with a factory contract in sportscar and GT racing. DSC wishes him well in his Supercup adventures and suspects that his name will crop up again on this site in the not-too-distant future.
MH
