There are many talented professional racing drivers available for private tuition, but in our opinion raw speed alone is not enough to make for an effective driver coach.
At The Drivers Club each of our instructors (below) has been hand-picked, not only for their ability behind the wheel, but also for their ability to clearly articulate the immense subtleties of high performance driving in a language that is consistent and easy to understand, whatever your experience level.
We guarantee that, in addition to being an experienced and talented driver and private coach, your instructor will be immaculately presented, polite, personable, and maintain the highest regard for your safety.
SAM HANCOCK
A highly established professional racing driver, Sam is an official factory driver for Aston Martin Racing, a veteran of five Le Mans 24hr participations, a former Le Mans Series champion and multiple race winner in the prestigious Porsche Carrera Cup. Sam is also a prominent racer and development driver of many important historic racing cars. Among his many historic racing successes, Sam’s win in the 2005 Goodwood Revival Meeting Whitsun Trophy is well remembered, where he set pole position and the overall fast lap of the entire event on his way to victory aboard a JCB-entered Ford GT40.
Throughout his career, Sam has enjoyed considerable success. He was the 2004 Le Mans Series Champion (LMP2) and his Le Mans 24hr participations have spanned the LMP1, LMP2 and GT2 categories. Two of those occasions were in the capacity of factory driver for the prominent Courage Competition team before most recently, driving for Aston Martin in their factory LMP1 car in which he very nearly finished 4th overall before engine failure with just 40 minutes remaining blighted all chances. Sam has also been a multiple race winner in the fiercely contested Porsche Carrera Cup GB, finishing 3rd overall in the series in 2008 with his own team, Jota Sport. Before moving into the world of sports cars, Sam forged a successful single-seater career, starting in karts at the age of eight and ascending through the ranks as high as the FIA Formula 3000 championship in which he competed as a member of the Jordan Grand Prix junior team.
Sam is also an avid and prominent racer of historic cars, with highlights including victory in the 2005 Goodwood Revival Meeting Whitsun Trophy, setting pole position and the overall fast lap of the entire meeting on his way to victory aboard a JCB-entered Ford GT40. He also finished 6th overall on his debut in the Goodwood Revival TT race aboard a lightweight Jaguar E-Type “4WPD”; and has taken class wins both at Goodwood and in the Le Mans Classic driving Neil Twyman-prepared Lotus XIs. Other notable historic cars raced, tested and developed by Sam also include: 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO, 1968 ex-Graham Hill Lotus 49 Formula One car, 1985 Lotus Renault 97T Formula One car (the car used by Ayrton Senna to claim his first grand prix victory), and many more!
BEN COLLINS
Ben, recently revealed as The Stig from BBC’s Tog Gear programme, needs little introduction. As if being The Stig weren’t enough, Ben is also James Bond’s driver coach - literally! A professional racing driver, track test journalist and Hollywood stunt driver, Ben has trained a wide variety of drivers from young Formula 3 professionals, members of the special forces and many celebrities including Bond star Daniel Craig for his driving scenes in the latest Bond movies - indeed it was Ben at the wheel of the stunning Aston Martin DBS in most of the famous car-chase scenes in 'The Quantum of Solace'.
On the race track Collins has enjoyed an outstanding career in both single-seaters and sports cars, winning races in British Formula 3, Indy Lights and the Le Mans Series; as well as twice contesting the famous Le Mans 24 Hours and claiming overall titles in the American-style ASCAR series and the British GT championship. More recently Ben has been competing in the prestigous Australian V8 Supercar series including events such as the Bathurst 1000.
A regular track test journalist for Top Gear Magazine, The Sunday Times and Autosport, there aren’t many supercars, sportscars or racing categories that Collins has yet to sample, making him uniquely well-placed to pass on the specific driving techniques required to best suit the individual goals of every Drivers Club member.
JONATHAN KENNARD
Williams Formula 1 test driver, McLaren Autosport BRDC Young Driver award finalist and BRDC Rising Star, Jonathan Kennard, has rapidly established himself as one of Britain's brightest prospects.
Jonathan made the step up from karting to car racing in 2001 in the BRSCC T-Cars championship, a unique one-make saloon car series for 14-17 year-olds, and was one of the stars of the 2002 season, taking seven podium finishes. The following year he embarked on a season in Formula Palmer Audi where he finished sixth overall and finished the season on a high with victory in the penultimate round of the year. His results in the season finale led him into the Autumn Trophy, a four-round mini series, which he won outright. Buoyed by his successes he entered the main FPA series in 2004, achieving ten pole positions and four wins to take the title even before the final round. In 2005 Jonathan tackled the scholarship class of the British Formula Three Championship. With one win and 10 podiums, he finished third in his class before graduating to British F3’s main Championship class, finishing sixth outright in 2007 with two pole positions, one race win and seven podiums.
More recently Jonathan has started dovetailing his testing duties for the AT&T Williams F1 team with races in the Formula Master series and Superleague Formula. Throughout his years as a racing driver, Jonathan has coached hundreds of clients at just about every racing school in Europe in addition to a number young aspiring Formula 1 drivers.
TOM FERRIER
Tom is a highly experienced professional racing driver and driver coach. A former British karting champion, Tom has since focused his career on saloon, touring and GT car racing at which he has enjoyed considerable success. Having initially established himself as a multiple winner in the Renault Clio Cup, Tom has gone on to race at some of the highest levels of the sport including the British Touring Car Championship and the European Touring Car Championship.
These days Tom focuses primarily on private driver development, acting as both coach and mentor to a variety of drivers both young and old, aspiring professionals and amateurs alike.
OLLIE HANCOCK
Younger brother of club founder, Sam, professional racing driver Ollie is an official factory driver for Lotus, a BRDC Rising Star award winner and BARC Formula Renault champion.
Although having his sights set on Formula One has required much of his career to focus on the professional single-seater categories, Ollie is also a huge fan of historic racing and, despite his tender years, has already achieved considerable success in this arena with his win in the prestigious World Sportscar Masters event at the 2008 Silverstone Classic being among the highlights.
Ollie is a highly experienced driver coach also, having worked for many years at various racing schools around England before concentrating more recently on the tutelage of aspiring private clients in both the classic and modern sports car racing arenas.
