Tom Chilton

BTCC driver
Name = Tom Chilton


Nationality = flagicon|ENG
Nickname = Sonic
Car number = 9
Team = Team Halfords
Car = Honda Civic TypeR
Championships = 0
Wins = 7
Podiums = 32
Poles = 4
Fastest laps = 7
First year = 2002
First win = 2004
Best position = 5th in 2005
Last season = 2008
Last position = 10th (107 points)

Tom Chilton (born 15 March, 1985 in Reigate) is a British auto racing driver educated at Reigate St. Mary's School and Shiplake College. A keen racer from an early age, he competed in the BRSCC T-Cars Championship in 1999 and 2000, going on to take the BRSCC Saloon Car winter championship in 2001. Tom has just completed his seventh year in the BTCC and finishing his last race of 2008 with a Win. His younger brother, Max Chilton, is also a racing driver.

Turning his attention to the BTCC, he was team mate to ex-Superbike racer Aaron Slight in 2002 driving a Vauxhall Astra Coupé for Barwell Motorsport. He proved to be very quick, and although his lack of experience counted against him he nevertheless finished the season in 15th place overall and 5th in the Independents' Cup.

In 2003 he moved to Honda Racing and finished in 9th place driving a works Honda Civic Type-R ran by Arena Motorsport alongside Matt Neal and Alan Morrison. With Honda withdrawing manufacturer support for 2004, Arena only had the budget to run a single car for Chilton. However, the car was still well-prepared and he came through to take his first victory during the 9th race of the season, at Silverstone, in the process becoming the youngest winner of a BTCC race. He won again in the 29th race at Donington.

His plans for 2005 centered around the DTM with a new programme backed by MG Rover, but this fell through with the demise of the British marque. He and Arena rejoined the BTCC at the second meeting of the season and combined his touring car duties with racing for Zytek in the ALMS and LMS endurance series. Tom won in both ALMS and LMS racing. He was classified 5th in the 2005 BTCC season despite only starting 24 of the 30 races. Chilton's involvement with Zytek continues, subject to funding and availability; Tom and his brother Max drove the car at the Silverstone 1000km in September 2007.
Vauxhall signed him for 2006 to drive the #5 Vauxhall Astra Sport Hatch. In a struggling season for Vauxhall, Tom never won a race and slipped to 7th overall. Vauxhall retained Chilton and Fabrizio Giovanardi for 2007, but Tom did not want to stay at VXR in 2008, and it was announced that Chilton would partner Gordon Shedden at Team Dynamics for the 2008 BTCC season. In the final round of the championship, Chilton won his first race since round 25 of the 2005 season with a dominant victory at Brands Hatch. This also ensured his tenth place in the championship.

He had appeared in Top Gear series 10 episode 6 racing with a Chevrolet motorhome.

External links

* [http://www.tomchilton.com Official website]
* [http://www.btccaction.co.uk/drivers/chilton.php btcc:action profile]
* [http://www.btccinfo.co.uk/drivers/chilton.html Profile from btccinfo.co.uk]