Tim Harvey

Tim Harvey (born 20 November 1961) is a British racing driver, best known for being the 1992 British Touring Car Champion,[1] and the 2008 and 2010 Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain champion.[2][3] A household name in the 1990s, Harvey won sixteen races in the British Touring Car Championship between 1987 and 1995, but competed in the series until 2002. He was also the winner of the invitational Guia Race of Macau touring car event, in 1989.[4]

For the film and television production designer, see Tim Harvey (film designer).

Tim Harvey
Nationality	British
Born	(1961-11-20) 20 November 1961 Farnborough, London
BTCC record
Teams	Rover (1987) Ford (1988–1990) BMW (1991–1992) Renault (1993–1994) Volvo (1995) Peugeot (1996–1998, 2002) Alfa Romeo (2001)
Drivers championships	1 (1992)
Wins	16
Podium finishes	48
Poles	3
Fastest laps	6
Debut season	1987
First win	1987
Best championship position	1st (1992)
Final season (2002) position	10th (43 points)

After leaving touring car racing, Harvey moved into the one-make Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain series; after two guest drives in 2003, including one victory, Harvey competed full-time from the 2004 season onwards. In seven full seasons in the championship, Harvey finished in the top four of the final championship standings in each season, and left the series after a class victory in the Porsche Carrera World Cup meeting at the Nürburgring,[5] with a series record of 35 overall victories.[6] Along with media commitments for television broadcaster ITV4, and their coverage of the British Touring Car Championship, Harvey currently competes in the British GT Championship; sharing a Porsche with Jon Minshaw, for the Trackspeed team.[7]

BTCC career

Born in Farnborough, London, Harvey first raced in the BTCC in 1987, taking three Class A wins in a Rover Vitesse[8] In 1988 and 1989 he dovetailed sports car racing with BTCC outings, before finishing third in Class A in 1989 and 1990.

Harvey driving a Peugeot 406 in the 1996 British Touring Car Championship season.

He was 8th overall in 1991. His 1992 title was achieved while driving a BMW 318 coupe, run by Vic Lee Motorsport. He won five of the last seven races, having previously only won once. A dramatic final race saw him beat John Cleland and reigning champion Will Hoy to the title, after Hoy suffered an engine failure and Cleland clashed with Harvey's team-mate Steve Soper.[9] He had a difficult 1993 season developing the Renault 19 for the new Renault entry but still managed to win the European Grand Prix support race in lurid conditions, while he was outpaced by team-mate Alain Menu in 1994 in the new Laguna. He raced for Volvo in 1995, using his wealth of experience to develop the all new Volvo 850 saloon, finishing 5th overall and taking 2 wins but generally unable to match team-mate Rickard Rydell. His experience was then used to develop the new Peugeot 406, signing with the French marque in 1996 but was unable to deliver the win that eluded Peugeot during the heyday of the supertouring years. He drove for Peugeot in the 1996, 1997 and 1998 seasons, his best year being 1997 where he finished 9th in the championship, which included two 2nd-place finishes, and strong drives in the wet at Thruxton.

After a couple of years away, his last BTCC years were 2001 (8th overall in a JSM Alfa Romeo)and 10th in 2002 (reuniting with Vic Lee to drive one of his Peugeots, before quitting the series to pursue a media career. The Alfa Romeo 147 that Tim Harvey raced is now owned by Allitalia – an Independent Italian Auto Specialist based in North Wales.

Porsche Carrera Cup

He has raced in the Porsche Carrera Cup for several years, finishing second to Richard Westbrook in 2004[10] and Damien Faulkner in 2006. In 2007, Harvey drove for Redline Racing in the new 997 Porsche GT3 in the British edition of the Carrera Cup. With stars such as Faulkner, Westbrook, Danny Watts and Richard Williams no longer competing, and Tim now in the top team of 2006, he started as title favourite, but finished up second again, by just four points behind James Sutton.

In 2008 he continued to battle for the title, making his 100th series start (from just 106 races in total). Tim won the Porsche Carrera Cup Drivers Championship, on 21 September at Brands Hatch.[11] He holds series records for podium finishes and fastest laps. He finished third in 2009, taking his first win of the year in race 6 at Thruxton[12] and a double win at Snetterton.[13] He then opened 2010 with nine wins in the first ten races (by contrast, he took 4 wins en route to the 2008 title). He wrapped up the 2010 title with one race to spare at Brands Hatch on 9 October with a second-place finish behind Stephen Jelley to ensure that he could not be caught by championship runner up Michael Caine. Following a puncture in race 20 which saw Harvey fail to score points for the first time in the season, Harvey claimed the 2010 Porsche Carrera Cup GB Championship by 10 points, with 11 race wins (vs. Caine's 7).[14] Harvey's two wins at Croft on 20 June saw him become the most successful driver in the history of the championship,[15] with 33 race wins at the time (beating Richard Westbrook's 31 wins). He would end the season 4 clear, with 35 wins, and over 150 podiums.

At the end of May 2011, Harvey announced he was quitting the championship with immediate effect, citing difficulty in adapting to regulation changes as his motivation and allowing up and coming Kieran Vernon the opportunity to benefit from his seat in the Motorbase Performance car.[16][17] He explained during the ITV4 coverage of the Oulton Park BTCC round on 5 June 2011 that he wasn't entirely retiring from racing and would be reappearing somewhere before long whilst continuing to commentate for ITV.

In what may have been his last Porsche race, Harvey won the Porsche Carrera Cup GB[18] race held at a wet Nürburgring in Germany as part of the Porsche Carrera World Cup. Harvey finished 13th overall, ahead of a number of the faster Supercup models.

Other racing

Harvey has also been a prolific winner in sports cars. A distinguished career in international motorsport has given him a deep seated knowledge of the business and substantial reserves of experience. A factory driver for Spice in the halcyon days of the World Sportscar Championship saw Tim battling the Jaguars and Mercedes Benz during the 1989 and 1990 seasons. He twice won the BRDC C2 Championship in 1988 and 1989. He has also contested the 24 Hours of Le Mans four times, winning his class in 1987. He won the British Sports Car Championship in 1999.

He is a double winner of the Oulton Park Gold Cup in 2000 and 2001, joining previous winners Stirling Moss, Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart and many others. Tim has made sporadic albeit successful outings in the British GT Championship, winning alongside various drivers in 2004 and 2005.

Harvey has also been a Touring car winner internationally, coming first in the Macau Grand Prix street race in 1989 and the Wellington International in 1994. He has successfully raced in Japan, Australia, South Africa and all over Europe.

On 19 June 2011, Tim won a Round of the Ginetta GT Supercup at Croft.

Tim also competes occasionally in enduro events on a motorcycle.

Other work

Aside from his racing, Tim combines his commentary and presenting work for ITV and Motors TV with various other motorsport roles, including acting as driver coach for many up and coming young British drivers. He has also coached the Oxford University Motor Drivers Club to success in the British Universities Karting Championship.

In 2008, Tim was appointed Director of the British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC) SuperStars program, designed to support the most promising young British drivers both financially and in an advisory role.

He currently resides in Bicester, Oxfordshire with his wife Ruth. He has a son Jamie, who is currently working in asset management with Fidelity International Limited.

Racing record

Complete British Touring Car Championship results

(key) Races in bold indicate pole position (1 point awarded all races 1996 onwards) Races in italics indicate fastest lap (1 point awarded – 1987–1990, 2001 onwards, 1987–1990 in class) (* signifies that driver lead feature race for at least one lap – 1 point awarded 1998 onwards)

Year	Team	Car	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	Pen.	Overall DC	Pts	Class
1987	John Maguire Racing	Rover Vitesse	A	SIL Ret	OUL 1	THR Ret	THR 2	SIL 1	SIL 5	BRH 1	SNE Ret	DON Ret	OUL NC	DON 4	SIL 3																4th	45	1st
1988	Terry Drury Racing	Ford Sierra RS500	A	SIL Ret	OUL 4	THR 9		THR 5	SIL 6	SIL 7	BRH Ret	SNE 7	BRH 2	BIR C	DON Ret	SIL 2															11th	26	4th
	CAM Shipping						DON 2‡
1989	Labatt's Team	Ford Sierra RS500	A	OUL 2	SIL 16	THR 1	DON 3	THR 2	SIL 2	SIL 4	BRH Ret	SNE 3	BRH	BIR 2	DON 1	SIL 2															7th	56	3rd
1990	Labatt's Team	Ford Sierra RS500	A	OUL 4	DON Ret	THR 2	SIL Ret	OUL 3	SIL 3	BRH 2	SNE 2	BRH 3	BIR 4	DON 3	THR 2	SIL 15															4th	132	3rd
1991	BMW Team Labatt's	BMW M3		SIL 10	SNE 7	DON DSQ	THR 4	SIL 7^1	BRH 4	SIL 3	DON 1 Ret	DON 2 6	OUL 7	BRH 1 Ret	BRH 2 5	DON 2	THR Ret	SIL 1													8th	42
1992	M Team Shell Racing	BMW 318is		SIL 8	THR 8	OUL 4	SNE Ret	BRH 6	DON 1 4	DON 2 1	SIL 4	KNO 1 2	KNO 2 1	PEM 1	BRH 1 1	BRH 2 1	DON 1	SIL 4													1st	152
1993	Renault Dealer Racing	Renault 19		SIL 11	DON 1	SNE Ret	DON 16	OUL Ret	BRH 1 11	BRH 2 8	PEM Ret	SIL Ret	KNO 1	KNO 2	OUL Ret	BRH 14	THR 16	DON 1 3	DON 2 Ret	SIL 15											14th	31
1994	Renault Dealer Racing	Renault Laguna		THR 10	BRH 1 Ret	BRH 2 DNS	SNE Ret	SIL 1 Ret	SIL 2 8	OUL Ret	DON 1 9	DON 2 10	BRH 1 Ret	BRH 2 11	SIL 4	KNO 1 DSQ	KNO 2 4	OUL 6	BRH 1 4	BRH 2 Ret	SIL 1 1	SIL 2 18	DON 1 5	DON 2 8							9th	77
1995	Volvo 850 Racing	Volvo 850 20v		DON 1 8	DON 2 3	BRH 1 1	BRH 2 1	THR 1 15	THR 2 7	SIL 1 7	SIL 2 3	OUL 1 8	OUL 2 15	BRH 1 3	BRH 2 5	DON 1 10	DON 2 12	SIL Ret	KNO 1 2	KNO 2 3	BRH 1 7	BRH 2 7	SNE 1 Ret	SNE 2 2	OUL 1 Ret	OUL 2 5	SIL 1 10	SIL 2 7			5th	176
1996	Total Team Peugeot	Peugeot 406		DON 1 11	DON 2 9	BRH 1 Ret	BRH 2 9	THR 1 Ret	THR 2 Ret	SIL 1 13	SIL 2 Ret	OUL 1 Ret	OUL 2 8	SNE 1 4	SNE 2 Ret	BRH 1 Ret	BRH 2 9	SIL 1 Ret	SIL 2 13	KNO 1 Ret	KNO 2 Ret	OUL 1 Ret	OUL 2 Ret	THR 1 Ret	THR 2 12	DON 1 10	DON 2 14	BRH 1 13	BRH 2 9		15th	20
1997	Esso Ultron Team Peugeot	Peugeot 406		DON 1 10	DON 2 Ret	SIL 1 11	SIL 2 4	THR 1 9	THR 2 2	BRH 1 Ret	BRH 2 10	OUL 1 Ret	OUL 2 8	DON 1 7	DON 2 2	CRO 1 10	CRO 2 7	KNO 1 14	KNO 2 9	SNE 1 8	SNE 2 15	THR 1 6	THR 2 13	BRH 1 5	BRH 2 9	SIL 1 13	SIL 2 Ret				9th	66
1998	Esso Ultron Team Peugeot	Peugeot 406		THR 1 13	THR 2 Ret	SIL 1 11	SIL 2 18	DON 1 9	DON 2 11	BRH 1 Ret	BRH 2 11	OUL 1 Ret	OUL 2 Ret	DON 1 Ret	DON 2 Ret	CRO 1 16	CRO 2 18	SNE 1 12	SNE 2 Ret	THR 1 15	THR 2 9*	KNO 1 15	KNO 2 11	BRH 1 14	BRH 2 8*	OUL 1 14	OUL 2 10	SIL 1 Ret	SIL 2 Ret		17th	10
2001	JS Motorsport	Alfa Romeo 147		BRH 1	BRH 2	THR 1	THR 2	OUL 1 17	OUL 2 3*	SIL 1 DNS	SIL 2 Ret	MON 1	MON 2	DON 1 DNS	DON 2 DNS	KNO 1	KNO 2	SNE 1 DNS	SNE 2 DNS	CRO 1 Ret	CRO 2 Ret	OUL 1 8	OUL 2 5	SIL 1 16	SIL 2 Ret	DON 1 13	DON 2 Ret	BRH 1 7	BRH 2 Ret		8th	43
2002	Team Halfords	Peugeot 406 Coupé		BRH 1 Ret	BRH 2 7*	OUL 1 Ret	OUL 2 6	THR 1 5	THR 2 4*	SIL 1 Ret	SIL 2 5	MON 1 7	MON 2 DSQ	CRO 1 Ret	CRO 2 Ret	SNE 1 Ret	SNE 2 DNS	KNO 1 11	KNO 2 9	BRH 1 6	BRH 2 3	DON 1 Ret	DON 2 Ret*							−5	11th	43

1. ^  – Race was stopped due to heavy rain. No points were awarded.

‡ Endurance driver

Complete British GT results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position in class) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap in class)

Year	Team	Car	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	Pos	Pts
2000	Bob Watson Motorsport	Porsche 911 GT2	GT	THR 1	CRO 1	OUL 1 1	DON 1 8	SIL 1 Ret	BRH 1 DNA	DON 1 Ret	CRO 1 2	SIL 1	SNE 1	SPA 1	SIL 1				11th	51
	HKM Parr Motorsport	Chrysler Viper GTS-R		THR 1	CRO 1	OUL 1	DON 1	SIL 1	BRH 1	DON 1	CRO 1	SIL 1 5	SNE 1 2	SPA 1 DNS	SIL 1 5
2001	Hayles Racing	Chrysler Viper GTS-R	GT	SIL 1 2	SNE 1 1	DON 1 2	OUL 1 1	CRO 1 3	ROC 1 2	CAS 1 DSQ	BRH 1 Ret	DON 1 3	KNO 1 1	THR 1 2	BRH 1 1	SIL 1 3			2nd	?
2005	Motorbase Performance	Porsche 996 GT3 Cup	GT3	DON 1	MAG 1	CRO 1	CRO 2	KNO 1	KNO 2	THR 1 9	THR 2 10	CAS 1	CAS 2	SIL 1	MON 1	MON 2	SIL 1	SIL 2	?	14
	Team RPM		GT3 INV	DON 1	MAG 1	CRO 1	CRO 2	KNO 1	KNO 2	THR 1	THR 2	CAS 1	CAS 2	SIL 1	MON 1	MON 2	SIL 1 25	SIL 2 7	-†	0†
2007	Team RPM	Viper Competition Coupe	GT3	OUL 1	OUL 2	DON 1	DON 2	SNE	BRH 1	BRH 2	SIL	THR 1 18	THR 2 5	CRO 1	CRO 2	ROC 1	ROC 2		24th	4
2008	Trackspeed	Porsche 997 GT3-S	GT3	OUL 1	OUL 2	KNO 1	KNO 2	ROC 1 9	ROC 2 7	SNE 1	SNE 2	THR 1	THR 2	BRH 1	BRH 2	SIL	DON		47th	2
2012	Trackspeed	Porsche 997 GT3-R	GT3	OUL 1 10	OUL 2 3	NÜR 1 8	NÜR 2 12	ROC 6	BRH 9	SNE 1 7	SNE 2 2	SIL 11	DON Ret						11th	59

† Not eligible for points as invitation driver.

References

1. Meissner, Johan (17 February 2007). "History: BTCC 1992 – A controversial ending". TouringCarTimes. Mediaempire Stockholm AB. Archived from the original on 22 March 2007. Retrieved 21 November 2012.
2. "Harvey lifts Carrera crown". Crash.net. Crash Media Group. 24 September 2008. Retrieved 21 November 2012.
3. Pettit, Vince (9 October 2010). "First Win For Jelley As Harvey Claims Title". The Checkered Flag. BlackEagleMedia Network. Retrieved 21 November 2012.
4. Kitchell, Norideen (16 November 1994). "Harvey primed for tour of duty". South China Morning Post. SCMP Group. Retrieved 21 November 2012. Harvey, the 1989 Macau winner who turns 33 on race day, and fellow-Briton Justin Bell will be driving BMW 318is under the Motorola Pagers Racing Team banner.
5. "Harvey masters Nürburgring in Porsche Carrera Cup GB". Porsche Carrera Cup Great Britain. Porsche UK. 27 June 2011. Retrieved 21 November 2012.
6. Paice, Simon (31 May 2011). "Harvey Leaves Porsche Carrera Cup". The Checkered Flag. BlackEagleMedia Network. Retrieved 21 November 2012.
7. Broomhead, James (11 January 2012). "Tim Harvey and Jon Minshaw Join Trackspeed for 2012 British GT Season". The Checkered Flag. BlackEagleMedia Network. Retrieved 21 November 2012.
8. Tim Harvey Archived 27 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
9. Tim Harvey : Page 2 Archived 9 January 2003 at the Wayback Machine
10. http://www.btccpages.com/2006/carreracup.php
11. Tim Harvey takes Porsche Carrera Cup title at Brands
12. Caine and Harvey take Thruxton Honours Archived 11 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
13. Harvey takes Porsche Carrera Cup double at Snetterton
14. Porsche Standings and Results
15. Harvey sets new win record in Carrera Cup GB
16. Harvey Leaves Porsche Carrera Cup
17. Harvey Leaves Porsche Carrera Cup GB
18. Harvey wins at Nürburgring

External links

• Official website

Awards and achievements
Preceded by David Coulthard	Autosport National Racing Driver of the Year 1992	Succeeded by Kelvin Burt
Sporting positions
Preceded by Altfrid Heger	Guia Race winner 1989	Succeeded by Masahiro Hasemi
Preceded by Will Hoy	British Touring Car Champion 1992	Succeeded by Joachim Winkelhock
Preceded by James Sutton	Porsche Carrera Cup UK Champion 2008	Succeeded by Tim Bridgman
Preceded by Tim Bridgman	Porsche Carrera Cup UK Champion 2010	Succeeded by James Sutton