Adrian Campfield

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Fact File

Name:	Adrian Campfield
Nationailty:	British
Date of Birth:	5th July 1989
Hometown:	Godalming, Surrey, UK
Height:	6 ft 1 Inches, 185cm
Weight:	72kg
Hobbies:	Karting, Golf, Tennis, Squash
Sporting Hero:	Kimi Räikkönen, Nigel Mansell
Greatest Help:	Dad mainly for his support
Greatest Achievements:	Winning my first national race last year at Brands Hatch

Race history

2009

ADAC Formel Masters, Germany, Ma-Con Motorsport

2008

UK Formula Ford, Works Kevin Mills Racing Driver.

2007

UK Formula Ford 7/10 Rounds Competed, Privateer

2006

FF1600 Kent, Privateer

2002 – 2005

Super 1 National Karting

Personal history

Ever since I can remember I have been surrounded by motorsport. While I was groing up my dad was always racing and preparing his own race cars in the garage. My two brothers and I used to travel with him to watch his races and it became something that we looked forward to every weekend.

I always wanted to race go karts as a child and as soon as we could afford it my dad started taking us to the local indoor kart circuit – this was in 2001 when I was 10 to 11 years old. I raced in the junior league they laid on every other Friday and I rushed home from school as fast as I could to make sure we weren’t late. Even though it was not the best racing, it was clear that I had some talent as every week I won the races and constantly lowered the lap record. I would sit before the start of a race and just dream of sitting in a real race car.

In 2002 my father thought it was time to start taking it a little bit more seriously. Through his work he managed to get in contact with Peter Gorman who helped him make contact with Andrew Stapley from ASM (Andrew Stapley Motorsport), who has turned out to be a huge help in my career so far. My father bought an LRG chassis junior pro kart for my elder brother and myself, and for my younger brother a Honda cadet. We raced in the Sandown Park Winter series and Summer series. In my first ever outdoor kart race, as a novice against experienced racers, I finished in 2^nd position – I was over the moon and couldn’t believe it. From thereon in 2002 I went on to finish 2^nd in the summer series with 2 wins and many podium finishes. I also drove the F6 championship where I was placed 5^th overall after missing many races.

After a successful year of running on LRG chassis, Andrew Stapley, who owned and made the LRG chassis, wanted us to make the step up into 2 stroke racing with his works team.

In 2003 at the age of 13 – quite late to start karting at this level – I entered the Minimax class which is a Junior Rotax max engine restricted for 11-15 year olds.

In 2 stroke karting you had to race in the Super 1 series if you wanted to race with the best drivers and competition from around the UK. I got my campaign off to a flying start with a podium at my first ever Super 1 event. This is a series that has seen many people compete and travel far up the motorsport ladder into cars. After my auspicious start I continued to impress and carried on a run of solid top 8 finishes. After four rounds of the six round championship I was lying 5^th in the standings. However at the second to last race I was injured in one of my heats, dislocating a shoulder, and didn’t score any points for that event. Then at the final round of the championship I suffered the same bad luck again where I was crashed into in both my heats and gained no points agaian. This left me a solid 12^th overall in the standings but still gaining a top seed – successful for my first year in 2 stroke karting in Super 1.

I also raced in the Stars of Tomorrow class where I continued my same form to finish 11^th overall in the standings and a best finish of 5^th place. I also secured the lap record at Nutts Corner which I believe still stands.

In 2004, now 14 years old, I made the move up to junior max, having raced for only two years where a lot of the drivers with whom I was cometing had been racing since they were 8 or 9. My season started off pretty poorly after suffering some very bad luck at the opening rounds, but by mid season things started to improve and I started making regular top ten finishes. In the last two rounds of the championship I qualified 2^nd and 4^th for the grand finals and finished 4^th and 7^th in the last two Super 1 rounds. This boosted me up into the seeded positions and 14^th overall for the year out of 80. It was slightly disappointing for me but my talent had not gone un noticed.

In 2005 I was offered a drive in the highly rated top junior class of its time JICA (Junior ICA) with ASM and Simon Wright Racing. How ever racing on such a small budget compared to my competitors it was another successful year. I only ever spent one year racing in a class where I had to adapt to the karts and the racing really quickly, where a lot of karters spent a good few years perfecting one class. All being well I was running in the top ten all year with a best finish of 5^th position and a 13^th overall in the standings. This was good on our budget we were beating many drivers who were testing all the time and using 4 or 5 engines per weekend to our 1.

In 2006 Andy Stapley wanted me to make the transition into racing cars before I got too old. I was 16 now but still only has a limited budget behind me. Andy Stapley thought it would be best if we made the move into racing formula ford 1600. We bought a Swift SC93 quickly and prepared it for the upcoming season.

In this year I was very successful, I finished 4^th overall in the midlands south championship after missing the first 2 rounds due to a pre season crash. I also finished 2^nd in class B finishing on the podium in the last 5 races but never quite managing a win against the new cars. I competed in the FF1600 kent formula ford festival as well where I finished 4^th in my heat, 5^th in the semi final and 7^th overall in the pouring rain. I was also running 5^th in the Walter Hayes trophy when I got taken out and had to DNF.

In 2007 I decided to step up the UK National Formula Ford championship in a privately run Mygale 06. With limited testing I quickly got to grips with the car gaining top 5 finishes at Brands Hatch. We did not fully commit to that years racing as there was not a full budget available to me so we only competed in 8 out of the 10 rounds. How ever because of my successful run of top 8 finishes for the majority of the year, I was the top privateer car home pretty much every race and managed a 10^th overall in the championship and 10^th at the UK Formula Ford festival. This was still under the supervision of Andy Stapley.

At the end of the 2007 season I was very worried whether I would be racing in 2008 as I had not done as well as I hoped.

But at the end of February in 2008 I got a call from Kevin Mills whos car finished 2^nd in the championship the in 2007. We came to an agreement so that I could race one of his works Spectrum chassis so we decided to part with Andy Stapley and take this opportunity.

The first half of the season was spent developing the car as it was new to the UK from Australia but in the second half of the season I managed to gain 5 outright podiums in the car with 1 win. This was a great effort by the team and me to develop a brand new unknown chassis in the UK and turn it into a winner! I just missed out on the lap record at donnington park as well in the final race of the season by 2 thousands. The season ended well with a podium as well.

With funds running low I was dying to race in the formula ford festival because I knew I had a chance of doing very well. And I did. I finished 4^th overall with 35 drivers coming from all over the world to race. I also one the John Nicol Trophy for the best british driver.