Driving force

Bexhill-based racing driver Ben Stiles has his eye on pole position after winning a national championship last year. Simone Hellyer finds out what it takes to make it in motorsport

At 24 years old, Bexhillon-Sea racing driver Ben Stiles is by no means old, but in a sport where most professionals start driving before they can walk, his relatively late start is somewhat of a rarity.

Ben first got behind the wheel of a racing car after finishing his degree and paying a visit to his father Trevor, a former Formula Ford driver, in New Zealand. “I only got into it about three years ago after finishing university in Bath, where I did motorsport engineering. It was my absolute life’s dream to get into the seat of one of these cars, but these opportunities don’t come up very often,” he explains, adding: “My dad was a professional racer back in his day, but had stopped and started his racing career quite a few times. He was just in the process of stopping for good when he went on a tour of New Zealand in the back of a Ford Mondeo. He was living a bit of a cowboy lifestyle and heard the noise of a race circuit one day. He went over and saw that they were doing Formula Ford, which is what he used to race. Being the friendly type that they are in New Zealand, one of them said he could come back and have a drive. He ended up doing that for three years before I went over there to join him. Luckily, I was quite boring at university and stayed in to work rather than party, which meant that I managed to save a few pennies to get myself over there.”