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and I have never come across anything anywhere near it in terms of what
your driver learns,” he explains.
Using the multi-disciplined Ginetta G40, drivers aged from 14 to 17
compete in support races to the British Touring Car Championship,
receiving exposure rivalled by no other junior championship. “Being
part of the touring car package you have 30,000 fans, live TV, you’re
interviewed by the likes of Louise Goodman and Steve Ryder, and the
drivers learn so much,” Tomlinson explains. “So when people come out of
the Ginetta Juniors and move on, it gives them a really good advantage.”
A man in demand
Away from Ginetta, Tomlinson has applied his expertise in other areas of
the sport, including as a board member for the BRDC and then as joint
acting chief executive of Silverstone Circuits from late 2014 until early
2015. At the time, the company was in desperate need of leadership after
three senior executives had been suspended from their roles. During his
six months in the role, Tomlinson’s business acumen was an important
tool in starting to turn the tide at the home of the British Grand Prix.
“Silverstone is a great circuit and what I tried to do was unlock the
potential of the great people that had been at the circuit and running
it for many years,” he states. “I think I went a long way to doing that.
Silverstone Circuit is a happier place for the staff since I had my time
there. I think there have been some significant improvements and
cost reductions that needed to be undertaken, which probably should
have happened five or six years ago.” Tomlinson’s short-term goal was
multi-faceted – he wanted to “unlock the talent and empower them”,
significantly reduce costs in a manageable way, and to put the customer
at the centre of all that the circuit does. “The management team have
done a great job implementing this,” he says.
The time and energy invested into understanding the intricacies of
business, how to successfully implement a plan and, importantly, how to
build and maintain the support of those around him is among the many
reasons why Tomlinson finds himself as a man in demand. He has even
served as the government’s Entrepreneur in Residence in the Department
of Business, Innovation and Skills.
Making the effort to understand exactly what you’re working with is
equally important on track and Tomlinson is in no doubt that all drivers
can benefit from expanding their knowledge base, especially when it
comes to mechanics and engineering.
“Anyone that comes from an engineering background and knows the
intricacies of how a car works has an advantage over someone that
doesn’t,” he explains. “The number of times I’ve got into a car of a
gentleman driver and I’ve spotted something loose – whether it’s the diff
loose, or the prop shaft loose, or a track rod – and they’ve been driving
the car. Just knowing there is something wrong with the car is very
important, but it’s not always easy for a driver to relay that back to an
engineer. Being a driver, engineer, designer and owning the company is
a real shortcut.”
The benefits of supporting your on-track ability with engineering knowhow
is also highlighted by one of Britain’s best-known racing drivers,
Nigel Mansell, who lined up alongside Tomlinson in the 1000km of
Silverstone in 2009 in the Ginetta-Zytek GZ09S. Remembering his
experience of sharing the car with Mansell, Tomlinson says: “He’s an
extremely determined guy in everything he does. He’s focused on
whatever he is doing at that time and determined to be a success, whether
it’s golf or motor racing.
“But what surprised me most about him was his ability to engineer the
car. He’s a fantastic engineer and really helped us to develop that car. We
worked together with Nigel and Greg Mansell (Nigel’s son) in the Team
LNT car. He had a lot of thoughts, and put in the motorsport environment
he’s a great engineer, but he also gave it 100% as a driver, even though at
that point he was in his mid-fifties!”
Tomlinson’s own engineering nous is perhaps best highlighted by the
Ginetta G50, which has emerged as one of the most popular cars in
motorsport, was named Autosport’s Car of the Year in 2008 and, incredibly,
was designed and built within six months. According to Tomlinson, the
goal was to create a car that was fun to drive – “a bit lairy if anything”
– with a plan in mind for it to replace the TVR Tuscan Challenge onemake
series. Following feedback and refinement, including a focus on
making it more aerodynamic, the Ginetta G50 as we know it was born. In
Tomlinson’s own words, however, “the G55 is much more aerodynamic
and a natural successor to the G50”.
It’s all about enjoyment
For Tomlinson the G50 project was “great fun” and it is exactly this – fun
– that he hopes to instil in motorsport in the future. When MSD asks him
about his plans for Ginetta over the next decade his outlook is refreshing
– focusing first on ensuring that people get the most enjoyment as
possible out of the sport. “We always welcome people to get involved and
the next five to 10 years will pretty much be about doing much more of
the same, which is to focus on our customers and motorsport in general,
and develop cars that people like to have fun in.
“A lot of people in the sport have forgotten about the customer. Either it’s
a lot of fun, or people stop doing it and go out of business. They take a lot
of money off people, but they don’t like it if they don’t see the value in it.
We want to engage with anyone in motorsport who wants to have fun.”
In a sport that has become somewhat renowned for its high entry costs
and perceived low levels of accessibility, Tomlinson is playing a vital role
in creating much-needed opportunities across the board. In his own
words, he says Ginetta will do everything in its power to “bring in people
from other areas and make motorsport as easy as possible” to get started
in – an admirable goal that has MSD’s full support.
Article written and supplied by MotorsportDays.com
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