“We are going to win this year. Mark my words on that.” These are the words of Mahiki Racing’s co-founder, co-owner and driver Steven Lake.
The young Stoke-on-Trent-based team has high hopes for its Lotus Emira GT4 programme ahead of its second British GT championship season. It has stepped up its presence this year with a third entry in the GT4 class and is targeting at least one appearance on the top step of the podium.
Its chances of victory have increased purely by scaling up to field a trio of Emiras, but more meets the eye for Mahiki Racing, which is looking for strong results to match its aesthetically pleasing liveries.
Lake is a key name behind the scenes, fronting an aspiration for success with the latest manufacturer to join the GT4 category.
Lake’s motorsport career began at the grassroots level, after saving up for his first kart at just eight years old for £180, being encouraged away from bikes and quad bike racing by his father.
Since joining a rally team at 14 and setting up his own business at 21, Lake kick-started a programme for young karters to offer a more affordable pathway into motor racing.
The proof of its success can be found on the 2025 grid, which features some of its graduates, including Beechdean Aston Martin Vantage GT3 driver Tom Wood.
“It was very last minute,” Lake said, describing the process of starting Mahiki Racing with co-owner Jordan Kerridge.
“It was all through October (2023) we went racing, and last year, we did British and European [GT4 championships]. We spent all year developing.
“And then this year, I decided we’re going to push harder with British GT.
“Having proven to Lotus [about] a sensible job of what we’re doing, we decided to partner with them, make it all official and sort of push forward.
“I wanted to race, Ian [Duggan] raced with me last year and wanted to race with us, so that’s why we ended up running three cars because part of the deal Lotus wanted was a Pro-Am (#69 and #88) and a Silver car, so we set up a (#84) Silver car.”
Last year was a challenging season for the Lotus brand’s return to the championship.
Ian Duggan and Gordie Mutch scored the team’s only GT4 podium finish at Silverstone last year before finishing eighth in the standings by the end of the season.
Nevertheless, the Emira GT4 underwent “a lot of development”, according to Lake.
“The Macau GP race (debut for Emira GT4 last year) obviously with very good drivers, really good – can’t take anything away from them – but it was a very short six-lap sprint race.
“But it’s a different style of racing, GT racing and sprint racing. We started testing with the car, did some sprint runs and went ‘Oh it’s really good.’”
Testing and later racing over longer runs, though, showed that the Emira was far from the complete package last year, with Mahiki forging closer bonds with Lotus to bring the racer up to speed.
“[We’re] very open with Lotus; it’s a very good relationship between us,” Lake continued.
“We’ve worked together, we’ve had an open book on all the data, all the stuff we’re doing, shared everything.
“I did about 40,000 km in the car myself last year so we did a lot of running, found all of the niggles.
“The car’s always been good, I can’t take that away, but it’s now built for endurance racing, it’s built for going GT racing.
“The tyre compounds or tyre structure change, the brakes have changed… So it’s built to a pretty sensible standard now, and we’re consistent with it.
“We’ve had some updates and stuff to the car, which we’ve gone through with SRO.”
A key addition for the Mahiki programme this year is the arrival of Joe Osborne as team manager.
Osborne is a former driver who is well-affiliated with McLaren GT racing machinery.
His GT3 and GT4 appearances ranged from six seasons in British GT intertwined with other commitments such as Le Mans Cup, GT World Challenge Europe Endurance and GT Open – the latter of which he finished as a runner-up in the 2022 standings.
“I asked Joe to come and do a test with me,” said Lake. “We went and did a couple of days testing together, and I’d gone through a programme.
“Obviously, we have got a similar style while we drive. But as I got older, I could understand the car more.
“When I was younger, I was fast but had no idea what was going on. I’m not as fast as I was, but you will learn as you get older.
“He did a really sensible job with me to understand what’s going on. We got on really nicely. I love his confidence in it.
“And we’re looking for someone who could be a strong TM [team manager]. Some of the mistakes we made last year as a new team were silly things like making calls.
“I was doing a lot of engineering with him in the car. We didn’t have an engineer last year because of staff. It makes it more fun doing maths [in the car].
“Joe spent years watching GT racing, telling everybody what we’d done wrong, what we should have done. So I’m hoping he can just be 30 seconds in front of the things happening and tells us what to do.”
Porsche Carrera Cup GB graduate and 18-year-old Aiden Neate is set to co-drive the #69 Lotus with former GT4 championship contender and 19-year-old Josh Miller.
The pair of youngsters will add to Mahiki Racing’s aim towards success and data for one of the newest GT4 cars in SRO competition.
Lake and Jack Mitchell and Duggan and Joe Wheeler, will co-pilot the other entries in Pro-Am GT4 – the #69 and #88 – respectively.
During the media day, Mahiki’s Emiras completed 229 laps of Silverstone, the equivalent of 1,349 km. They set similar times to each other in the two sessions, with the Pro-Am-entered GT4s finishing second and third in the afternoon.
The upcoming Donington Park season-opener on 5-6 April beckons. It provides a fresh chance for Mahiki Racing to demonstrate its expertise and get to work on progressing the Emira’s competitiveness in the GT4 category.
Stay tuned…
