This is Toby’s latest car:
Toby was born in 1996 and fell in love with karting when he was on holiday as a young child. He began to take a keen interest in racing in general and soon was competing in club kart events. By the age of 13 he had won six club championships! In 2010 he was crowned the EasyKart UK Junior Champion and in 2011 he retained that title and also added the Super One Junior TKM championship thus he became the first and only youngster to hold both titles at the same time. It’s great to see some of his trophies, all bearing the names of drivers who have since become F1 champions.
Before he could gain his licence to compete in single seat race cars (and before he could hold a licence to drive a road car), he had to gain some wider experience, and he did this in Classic Formula Ford where he was 3rd overall and 1st in class. He also came first in class in the 1600 MR2 series and set the lap record at Donnington Park, also competing in a MGZR where he came second in class and achieved the fastest lap.
At the age of 17, Toby’s career took him into the world of single-seaters where he had a spectacular rookie year competing in the F3Cup run by MSVR, he raced with Lanan racing based near Milton Keynes. His first race at Snetterton was to set the scene for the full season of 16 races, his first ever race saw him win by over 20 seconds. The F3Cup season was run over 8 weekends including 2 visits to Snetterton, 2 weekends at Silverstone, and weekends at Rockingham, Oulton Park, Brands Hatch and the only overseas round at Spa in torrential rain. Toby secured the F3Cup championship in race 13 at Silverstone:
This season can be summed up with the following impressive statistics:
- 10 pole positions
- 10 wins
- 4 second places
- 10 fastest laps
He was on the podium for every single race of his rookie season.
Toby has just competed in the MRF challenge, a relatively new series of 12 races run over three weekends – quite a hard schedule. These were held in Qatar, Bahrain and the final round in Chennai. He was on the podium for 9 of the 12 races including 4 firsts and accumulating 3 fastest laps. He won the championship on race 10 with 2 races to go. He topped the driver standings by 47 points. As a result, Toby currently holds two championship titles.
Toby’s other achievements include, managing youngsters in karts, testing in BARC Formula Renault and Porsche Carrera S, being a driver coach and a being simulator development driver for iZone Performance.
The aim is to compete in Formula 1 and therefore become one of only 20 or so drivers on the track. He certainly has the talent having been recognised as a “future star” by Alex Hawkridge former Team Principal of Toleman Racing (now Lotus F1), who was the man who discovered and signed the late Ayrton Senna, reputedly the iconic and greatest F1 driver of all time. Toby is currently being managed by Jenson Button’s former management team.
Toby’s history and progress can be followed by social media:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Toby-Sowery-Racing/337963999629714?fref=ts
Twitter: @TobySoweryRacin
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TobySoweryRacing/videos
Website: www.tobysowery.co.uk
By Paul Eldred