Driver Profiles
Below are profiles of the Team Neaves drivers, explaining there race experiences or lack of it in most cases!!
Blaine
NAME: Blaine Neaves
DOB: 12.10.1958
CALL SIGN: Viper
OCCUPATION: Builder / Landcaper
Most memorable quote: “Manual Labour”
Blaine has raced things for most of his life, starting with dumper-truck racing round a building site in his late teens. His first ‘proper’ racing experience was grass tracking Mini’s and would later turn out to be good experience indeed as, in his own words: “it taught me how to crash”. Regularly rolling these Mini’s and smashing the hell out them means that Blaine is no stranger to the odd knock…
Scruteneering at Mallory
In the early 90’s Blaine made the jump to circuit racing and entered the Anglia Phoenix Championship for the first time with a green MGBGT. He was rubbish, more specifically he and the car were both rubbish, most likely due to his ‘professionally’ built engine producing less power than a standard unit! But after a year or two of hard campaigning, and a new engine with more power he began to have some great battles with drivers like; Frank Thompson, Peter Collis and a younger, less hairy David Brooke.
Over the years Blaine has had to curb his racing habit due to finances etc. and most recently the purchase of the family home has meant money was tight, but in 2006 he decided to come back out to play having stopped in 2000. The car was running well in 2000 and looked like a potential race winner even then, but things move fast and by 2006 the car needed a lot of development, mainly with the suspension. 2008 has seen the introduction of the K-series engine; the cheaper way to get 190bhp, this coupled with Blaine’s improving standard of driving has given us a great 2008 season, with some fantastic racing.
Blaine is now looking forward to 2009 for some more great battles on the track…
Dan
NAME: Dan Neaves
DOB: 12.05.1986
CALL SIGN: Maverick
OCCUPATION: ICT Network Engineer
Best known for: crashing his brothers go-kart…
Cool as a cucumber
Dan, the older of the two brothers acquired his race licence in 2007 (bribing the instructors wasn’t cheep) and as yet has not had a chance to use it. In terms of experience there is not a great deal, a few visits to the local go-karting track is about it! The most memorable of course being when he crashed Ollie’s 2-stroke Rotax kart into a tyre barrier, spinning it while on cold tyres, 2nd lap out of the pits…
It should be said that since the kart crash Dan has visited a skid-pan for some car control lessons!
Rusty (Dan’s car) is nearing completion and hopefully will be out for some races in 2009, he’ll be eager to prove his race mettle against that of his brother and his dad, as he has a huge competitive streak!
Ollie
NAME: Ollie Neaves
DOB: 25.05.1988
CALL SIGN: Cougar
OCCUPATION: Transport Planning Technician
Best known for: his vast knowledge of all things MGB due to hours and hours of research
- Very cold at Mallory…
Ollie is the younger of the two brothers at just 20 years of age, his racing licence was also awarded in 2007. Experience includes a few trips out in his 2-stroke rotax go kart, and a brief hoon-about in the Old Number 7 on the Top Gear track. Ollie has also attended skid pan training.
- Ollie has been hard at work on his car over the past months and intends to do a few races in 2009, his main aim is not to finish last!
