Tom Chilton

He won again in the 29th race at Donington.

Thomas James Chilton (born 15 March 1985) is a British racing driver who currently drives for Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 in the British Touring Car Championship.

He has spent most of his career competing in touring car racing, and his younger brother, Max, is also a racing driver.

Chilton was born in Reigate.

A keen racer from an early age, he competed in the BRSCC T Cars Championship in 1999 and 2000, going on to take the BRSCC Saloon Car winter championship in 2001.

His brother, Max Chilton, is also a racing driver.

Turning his attention to the BTCC, he was teammate to ex-Superbike racer Aaron Slight in 2002 driving a Vauxhall Astra Coupé for Barwell Motorsport.

In 2003 he finished in 9th place overall driving a works Honda Civic Type-R run by Arena Motorsport alongside Matt Neal and Alan Morrison.

With Honda withdrawing manufacturer support for 2004, Arena only had the budget to run a single car for Chilton.

However, the car was still well-prepared and he came through to take his first victory during the 9th race of the season, at Silverstone, in the process becoming the youngest winner of a BTCC race.

His plans for 2005 centred around the DTM with a new programme backed by MG Rover, but this fell through with the demise of the British marque.

He and Arena rejoined the BTCC at the second meeting of the season and combined his touring car duties with racing for Zytek in the ALMS and LMS endurance series.

Chilton won in both ALMS and LMS racing.

He was classified 5th in the 2005 British Touring Car Championship despite only starting 24 of the 30 races.

Chilton's involvement with Zytek continued, subject to funding and availability; Tom and his brother Max drove the car at the Silverstone 1000 km in September 2007.

In the final round of the championship, Chilton won his first race since round 25 of the 2005 season with a dominant victory at Brands Hatch.

VX Racing signed him for 2006 to drive the No. 5 Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch.

In a disappointing season for Vauxhall, Chilton never won a race and slipped to 7th overall.

However, Vauxhall retained Chilton and Fabrizio Giovanardi for 2007, however the team built the car around Giovanardi.

Chilton finished 9th overall.

His father, Grahame Chilton, is a businessman who co-owned the insurance company Benfield Group up until 2008, when it was taken over by Aon plc for £738m.

Chilton became vice-chairman of Aon after the deal and also collected around £77m for his stake.

Chilton was educated at Reigate St Mary's School and Shiplake College.

Chilton decided he did not want to stay at VX Racing in 2008.

He left to partner Gordon Shedden at Team Dynamics for the 2008 BTCC season and replacing VX Racing-bound Matt Neal.

For 2009 Chilton returned to Arena Motorsport to drive a Ford Focus ST in the BTCC under the Team Aon banner, but spent much of the year developing the car and he ended the season 13th in the drivers' standings.

This also ensured his 10th place in the championship.

He remained with the team for 2010.

The LPG-powered car was more competitive, taking four of the first five poles, but bad luck meant teammate Tom Onslow-Cole took better results than Chilton initially.

Both were on the podium in race two at Snetterton.

At Silverstone the team was dominant, and Chilton was allowed to take both wins ahead of teammate Tom Onslow-Cole.

Onslow-Cole finished ahead in the overall drivers' championship but Chilton secured the Independents' Trophy by a two-point margin over Steven Kane.

For 2011 the team developed a new car based on the new third generation Ford Focus which ran to Super 2000 regulations powered by an NGTC turbocharged engine.

Results were poor initially as the car was developed but Chilton took the car to pole position at Knockhill, going on to win race one.

He also won the final race of the season at Silverstone.

He proved to be very quick, and although his lack of experience counted against him he nevertheless finished the season in 15th place overall and 5th in the Independents' Cup.

After five seasons absent, Chilton returned to the BTCC in 2017, driving a factory-supported Power Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra.

He took a third-place finish in the third race at the opening round at Brands Hatch, after starting from pole.

On 20 December 2017, Chilton decided to focus on his BTCC career.

He finished the year 7th in the drivers' championship on 197 points.