Matt Shawyer first tasted success behind the wheel winning the National S2 Karting Championship, and he is now driving youngsters to taste glory in their own right.
Originally, Matt had dreams of racing on two wheels instead of four. Aged 11, his ambition was to become a Superbike rider, but he was quickly nudged into the direction of karting by his parents, who felt it was the safer of the two options.
Matt caught the bug and, in 1993, bought his first kart and began racing in a cadet karting series. It laid the foundations for a career that saw him win the British Racing Drivers’ Club (BRDC) Formula Ford Championship in 2004, crowned the Best Newcomer of the Year in 2005 by Motorsport News, and compete in Formula Renault UK for Hillspeed Racing.
His pedigree is without question, and now the multi-championship winner is dedicating his time to producing the talent of the future through his driving school.
“I transitioned more into the coaching side with Hillspeed Racing mainly,” he told Fen Regis Trophies. “I ended up coaching some of their drivers and we had some great results.”
Coaching a British Touring Car Champion
Racing, just like any sport, will present its own unique set of challenges and it is the coach’s role to help those under their tutelage overcome and navigate hurdles along the way. Most won’t realise the dreams they had as children, but every so often one bucks that trend.
Tom Ingram won the coveted British Tour Car Championship (BTCC) in 2022, but before he was winning trophies in one of the country’s most recognisable series, he was one of Matt’s pupils. The two worked together in 2010 during the Formula Renault Ginetta Junior Championship, when the would-be BTCC champion was racing for Hillspeed Racing, and Matt looks back fondly on his time with Ingram.
“I coached Tom Ingram during his first year in the Ginetta Junior Championship,” he said. “We won the Ginetta Junior Championship that year with Tom, who went on to become the British Touring Car champion.”
As well as Ingram, another former star pupil of Matt’s is Seb Morris, who won the British GT3 Championship in 2017.
“Seb Morris was the year after [Ingram’s Championship win] in 2011,” said the racing coach. “He won the Ginetta Junior Championship and has since gone on to race for Aston Martin GT.
“He has also been a Bentley driver in the GT cars, and that is another great story.”
Teaching Young Drivers
As a racing coach, Matt will regularly teach children as young as six years old how to drive. Of course, sessions for an infant will look much different to a session planned for an 18-year-old, that is either already competing or looking to compete very soon.
“We’ll go and do a day or a couple of sessions to see how they get on,” Matt said speaking of coaching new young drivers. “The main thing is to make sure they are safe, and they are having fun.”
He continued: “Kids develop massively between six and 10 years old. The main aim is to get them going around the circuit, and as they get older you get a gauge of how they’re working.
“You can slowly start coaching them more and more, see how they respond and go from there.”
With over 20 years of experience, Matt can talk with some measure of authority when judging a driver’s potential ability. While no driver hits the ground running like a prime Lewis Hamilton, Matt admits to being highly impressed by some of the youngsters he has worked with but retains cautious optimism.
“At such a young age,” he said. “There is such a massive range of abilities, but you do have drivers that you look at that make you go ‘wow!’ on their first day in a kart at six or seven years old.
“That doesn’t necessarily mean they progress like that, though. Sometimes, it’s the slower, more cautious – maybe more calculated – drivers that start a bit slow whose development is very, very good.
“It’s very much a skill that combines a number of different things, like the balance and awareness physically, as well as the mental ability to push forward.”
With a drive and will to succeed not just for himself, but all the drivers he works with, you would not bet against seeing more of Matt’s alumni making waves domestically and globally.
Matt is a Motorsport UK certified coach who offers driver coaching and race driver management services. Head to Matt’s website for more information.
By Aaron Gratton
