Father and son team eager to bring more success to Hillspeed racing team

But one father and son team are doing just that - and taking a Derbyshire motor-racing team from strength to strength in the process.

Morgan Ollerenshaw set up the Hillspeed racing team in 1970 for participation in the British Saloon Car Championship (now the BTCC).

Day-to-day running of the team is now largely taken on by son and team principal Richard.

But it is still very much a team effort with father and son working as hard as ever in the pursuit of more success in the highly competitive BRDC British Formula 3 Championship.

“There are not many motor-racing teams that stand the test of time, it is not the easiest industry to survive in,” said Richard.

“Myself and my father still work together and he still plays an active role within the team.

“The decisions that are made are made between the both of us in terms of the structure and the Championships that we operate in.

“He prefers to take a back seat and allow myself to figure out the operation, but it is very much a father and son partnership that has worked years. We play to each other's strengths.”

Hillspeed, who moved operations from Hathersage to Markham Vale earlier this year, have enjoyed plenty of success down the decades, with Championship victories in the ranks of Formula Renault, ARP Formula 3 [now known as F3 Cup] and Ginetta Junior.

And while Richard is now more in the front seat, he knows the vast experience of his father has been key to that success.

“One of the strengths of the sport is the young drivers that are coming through, who are obsessed with getting on the motorsport ladder as early as they can,” he added.

“We can be dealing with 13 to 14 year old drivers going into a new area for them and their parents.

“The thing that sets us apart is that my father, at 75 years-old, is still very much hands-on with them.

“It gives the parents a lot of reassurance that there is someone there for when the driver is not at home with mum and dad. It gives them a type of father figure within the team and he is there should they need anything.

“He can share 50 years of experience of being within the sport and teach the drivers a lot of things.

“He is at the forefront with the interaction with drivers and has the ability to tell them what it was like when he started and why we do what we do with the team.

“It is very much our focus to model and build the operation around what we would want if we were having our time again in terms of racing for a team.”

Hillspeed were the only team in the British Formula 3 series to have one driver start and complete all 48 races over the previous two seasons.

And with 50 years of proud history already in the bag, Richard is only too aware of the need to protect Hillspeed’s future by bringing through a new generation of stars.

“We have got an exceptionally strong driver development programme with our driver coach,” he said.

“The key areas of turning out a reliable car, a fast car and a driver who has been taught how he needs to be taught makes us or a very good package.

“The attention to detail is one of our key things. You have got to be aware of all areas when you are preparing cars.

“Trying to provide a full turn-key package in terms of the driver having the equipment to do the job and the skills through our development programme, when these are combined it brings the success that we have had over the years, in terms of the drivers that we have had coming through and winning championships.

“What a driver learns in their period with us is exceptionally important and will give them the foundations to build a career on.”

That attention to detail has produced a number of key moments for Hillspeed that will live long in Richard’s memory.

But perhaps his favourite is the stand-out 2010 season when Hillspeed swept all before them.

“The 2010 season was exceptional for us because we achieved back-to-back Championship successes with us going into Ginetta Juniors,” explained Richard.

“People said there was no point going into it, that we wouldn’t overturn existing teams.

“We turned up with the new car and Tom Ingram won the first race and went on to dominate the championship.

“Subsequent to that we became the first team to take a woman driver in Alice Powell to a single-seater title, when she won the Formula Renault BARC Championship.

“2010 was a high point because we were running duel programmes and were successful in both programmes.

“Off the back of the summer season, we went to the winter series and won the Ginetta Junior with Seb Morris, who then went on to become a Bentley driver.

“The two wins in British Formula 3 last year were also special. We achieved them at Spa - for any team to win there is a fantastic experience. It was a brilliant drive from Nicolas Varrone.

“Off the back of that we won at Silverstone with our Thai Driver Sasakorn Chaimongkol. It was a fantastic year, taking two wins on such iconic circuits.”

And, despite the uncertain future ahead due to the impact of coronavirus, Richard expects British Formula 3 to continue to thrive.

“We are very fortunate that Jonathan Palmer (Chief Executive of the MSV Group which runs Formula 3) has got his head screwed on.

“He was a racer, his sons were racers, he has his finger on the pulse and knows that costs have to be sustainable.

“He has produced an incredible championship that gives drivers everything that they need at that stage of their career.

“It has been structure very well in accordance with how much it costs to do it.

“The budgets are unsustanaible in some other countires, but I feel British Formula 3 will flourish and will hold itself together exceptionally well.”

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