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How a 35-year-old BTCC rookie came the long way round

It's been an unusual route to the BTCC for 2008 British GT champion James Gornall, but the series' only rookie for this season reckons he's a better driver for it

If this were any ordinary racing season, James Gornall would currently be preparing for the fourth round of the British Touring Car Championship at Thruxton next weekend, knowing that the Hampshire track's high-speed corners were the main Achilles heel for his team's Trade Price Cars Racing Audi S3s last year.

Of course, this is no ordinary season, and the only rookie in this year's field is still waiting to make his debut, although his vast array of experience in different national motorsport categories should stand him in good stead.

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Author James Newbold

James Newbold is Autosport's Plus Editor, responsible for coordinating website feature content.

In a sign of things to come, having completed his Politics and International Relations degree at the University of East Anglia in 2015, he left his graduation ceremony early to catch the last train to Brussels for the following day's Spa 24 Hours.

After a period as a freelancer, he joined the Autosport staff in 2018 and won the Motorsport UK young journalist of the year award. He initially edited Autosport magazine's Performance and Engineering supplements before joining the website team in his current role in 2020.

A keen enthusiast of anything that can be categorised unusual or niche, he enjoys unearthing little-known stories across all branches of motorsport, but has spent most of his career covering sportscars and is a regular part of the Le Mans 24 Hours reporting team.

He lives with his wife and children in Plymouth, England.