Chris Pye Motorsport
Racing on the Unique Chalk Oval of Horndean Raceway - Chris Pye s151, Danni Reader s351 & Kallum Pye s51
Ian Pye History
Having prepared a Mini for the 1977 season. Excuse my vagueness on the facts, but I was only 3 years old!!! I believe it was a 1275 GT white in
colour with a blue stripe. The car was numbered 227, which was chosen because it was and still is the bus number from Ian's home village of Grindleton to nearby town of Clitheroe. Ian suffered to be competitive with the car fighting off the might of the bigger engined Mk1 escorts and similar cars. Despite a number change to 105, which was Ian's area number in his job! the Mini proved to be past its best for Hot Rod racing in its reasonably modified state. This mini can be seen in the Ian Pye Gallery with Father & Son by its side.
In 1980 the chance arose to buy Stuart Jackson's European Championship winning escort. Soon it was painted in a striking Silver with Green Stripes and the car was moved into a nearby garage Dearwild Motors, where the team started to form with the help of long serving mechanic Kim.In 1983 having managed some ok finishes, but still no wins under his belt Ian decided it was all or nothing with his racing, and the team set about building a brand new Mk2 Escort with a brand new Burton Ford Pinto engine. The total cost of the car was over £10,000. How does that compare to a current day NHRPA Hot Rod at about £25,000-£30,000. Probably the same in terms of disposable income! The results were amazing. Ian debuted the car at the World Hot Rod Semi Final meeting at Hednesford, and in practice was quicker than the then regular world finalist John Edwards in his 112 numbered escort. In his first heat from the front of the grid Ian managed to win by over half a lap from some very quick drivers. This had guaranteed him a place in the meeting final, with the top 3 going through to the WF. A respectful 8th place in that final was achieved, so no WF for the team, but hope for the rest of the season. By the end of the season having won a number of races Ian was a Red Top driver and competing with the best in the Midlands Region, with household Hot Rod names of Pete Stevens (#242), Stuart Jackson (#156), Peter Grimer (#88), Paul Grimer (#8), Paul Sheard (#18), John Carding (#7).
In 1984 Ian raised over £10,000 in sponsorship for Safeway Supermarket's RNLI Lifeboat Appeal, and despite rolling the car at Hednesford on Easter Monday scored some good finishes remaining a star driver in the Midland Region. Hopes were high for the 1984 World Final....until Father's Day when the steering rack broke at about 60mph and the car veered into the solid concrete wall taking with him the soon to be crowned Peter Grimer! The car was a write off...Not wanting to give up, it was time to build a Toyota Starlet, salvaging as much as possible from the escort, and the car debuted later in the summer but never managed to give similar results. The best result was a win in the Grand National at the 1984 National Championships, beating the late Leslie Dallas in a wet/dry race which was won on a tyre decision.
After the 1986 season Ian took a sabbatical from racing, and the starlet sat looking unwanted and unloved in the garage
for about 10 years until someone spotted it and bought it to go grass tracking with it. In 1996 Ian, Chris and Mary (Ian's wife) had a conversation about returning racing in a Legends Car. Both Ian and Chris had seen the hype at shows and in the Mail on Sunday and having watched a few rounds early in 1997, a 1934 Ford Sedan was bought and a deal with the future 1998 Legends Car World Champion Tick Steward to run the car. The number #88 was chosen due to the cars being American, and it being considered a lucky number for a lot of American sports. It was also the number Chris played American Football in for his Surrey University team.After about 12 months, a career change saw Ian emigrate to Hong Kong, and the Magpyes Racing Team Legends car and setup was passed on to Chris to start racing.
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Chris Pye History
Chris joined the newly formed Oval Legends racing promotion organised by INCARACE as the 6th driver in the ranks in the late summer of 1998. It was a steep learning curve for the young driver. Legends Cars are only fast when driven sideways. In only his second meeting of his racing career he picked up 2 trophies at the 1998 National Championships. A year later and having collected a few more trophies and starred on Sky Sports Legends program the highlight of Chris' career was taking a podium 4th place in the 1999 National Championships ahead of 8/9 other cars. 4th place in the points championship that year was also a highlight.
In 2000 the car was a star at the NEC based Autosport Show, where it attracted a lot of interest. Unfortunately money troubles meant that not every meeting was possible, so Chris started to rent out his car for other drivers to try the formula out. This kept Chris racing for the rest of the year, but in the summer of 2001, the decision was made to sell the car back to Derek Hales, the official Oval Legends Dealer.
In 2004 when Chris' work career meant moving back to the south of England, a decision was made to find a cheap car to race. A VW Polo 1300 Stock Car was found as a non runner in Essex for £300. After a long hard winter, the car was rebuilt and Chris returned to racing using Father Ian's race number 105. The then Kent based driver was traveling every weekend to some of the best Spedeworth tracks taking in Ipswich, Bovingdon, Swaffham. However broken engine mounts, gearboxes and ultimately a twisted chassis meant the car had to be sold as it was too much work to keep repairing every week, not to finish all 3 races in a meeting.
A £400 XR2 Hot Ford was found to replace this car. Racing in a budget formula at INCARACE was perfect to keep the driver on tight budgets restraints, but a constant misfire problem resulted in a blown engine in October 2005, and the car was parked up in the garage, where it is still currently resting until 2008 when it is planned to be the car for Chris to use, when son Kallum starts racing as a Novice Junior at Horndean. Chris will be required to sit in a passenger seat alongside Kallum until the race stewards are happy he can race alone.
The only racing that Chris did in 2006, other than a company Go Kart tournament was racing a National Banger at
the famous Wimbledon track. This notorious track is not forgiving with a post and wire fence around the outside, something Chris had not wanted to race next to before. However a charity raffle in aid of Tourettes Syndrome (UK) Association for a chance to race a prepared Austin Westminster in the 2006 Pre68 World Banger Final was won with a single £10 ticket by Chris. The car was donated by Spudgun and prepared by Cecil and wrecked in 5 mins by Chris! Check out Cecil's website. Chris decided to race the car himself for the same charity and all in all the car raffle and racing raised nearly £3,000 for the charity. Chris only managed to complete
about 3 laps of the world final race before a car got stuck in the boot of the Westy, causing a non finish. In the next race of the day Chris was pushed hard into a home straight fence post, writing the car off and rolling the other car. A slight knock to his left knee was the only injury.
After the birth of his twins in 2006, Chris and his finance decided time was right for Chris to return to racing in_jpg.jpg)
2007, but on a local basis at Horndean, a 15 min journey from home. Through Ebay 2 cars were bought, one later being sold on and some hard work later Chris found himself back behind the wheel of a Mod C XR2 mk1 Fiesta at Southern Autosport. Despite fracturing his ankle in July 2007, Chris managed to return behind the wheel a couple of times before end of season and secured 7th place in the Points Championship.
Chris has swapped the Fiesta Mod C for a Mini Prod A for 2008 and had a very good debut outing at the 2008 EXPO event at Arena Essex. A second team car has been bought for Kallum Pye and Danni Reader to share in 2008.
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