 ANDY MEYRICK
ANDY'S WEB SITE
With graduates like current drivers Jenson Button, Mark Webber and Rubens Barrichello, and past champions like Emerson Fittipaldi and Mika Hakkinen, the British F3 Series is the recognized talent pool for future stars. Andy Meyrick took ten poles and won seven out of twelve British F3 races in 2008, earning the British Racing Drivers’ Club recognition as a Rising Star. He is currently a BRDC Superstar and was a member of the British Motor Sport Association’s Race Elite program for two years. Led by David Brabham, the MSA selects and supports the most promising British racing drivers.
“Most professional drives start when they are quite young. I sat in a Formula Ford for the first time when I was 19. My father raced in the 70’s and 80’s but he finished in 1985 – the year I was born. We moved to a house that was 1.7 miles from the Oulton Park circuit in Cheshire. I had never been to the circuit. My dad was keen not to push me into racing. It was very much if you want to go racing you are going to have to show the ambition to do it yourself. I played a lot of sports including football at the junior professional level – had a pro contract when I was 16 for two years – finished that basically when I started racing.”
Andy started racing in 2005 in the North West Pre 90 Formula Ford 1600 Championship. He won ten races and the championship his first year in racing. “I ended up doing a track day at Oulton Park and really enjoyed it. We bought a car and I won my first race. We finished the first season and started to get some momentum and people started to take interest. So I moved up to the UK Formula Ford championship – did four races that year – and did three races in the Formula Renault BARC Championship. Had a couple podiums and won a race and things were progressing nicely. The following year, I did the Winter Championship in Formula Renault – four races, two race weekends, and finished sixth in that championship.”
In 2008, Andy moved up to the British F3 Series. “I got a test in a Formula 3 car in 2007 and it went well. So I ran the 2008 British Formula 3 championship and had a successful year. At the end of the season, I got the opportunity to test the Audi R10 TDI with the Kolles LMP team in Germany. It was a twelve driver shoot-out and I got the drive with them.” Andy helped take the team’s best ever result with a fourth place at Nurburgring and the team’s best qualifying with a fifth at Silverstone.
Andy partnered Chris Dyson and Guy Smith in the #16 Mazda Lola Coupe for the three long-distance endurance races in the American Le Mans Series in 2010. He came in third in the 12 Hours of Sebring on March 20, his first race in America. He rejoined the team for the six-hour American Le Mans Monterey on May 22 and the season-ending Petit Le Mans on October 2. He also raced at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in June, coming in fourth, the first petrol car to cross the start-finish line. “For me, it is a matter of being the best I can be – to continue going forward and develop and push myself. From that comes your success. If you can push yourself to be the ultimate driver of how ever good you are, than the wins will come with it. That is why it is good to work with Dyson, Lola and Mazda – you are surrounded by a fantastic team with the capabilities to succeed at the highest level.”
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