The Caterham king on a mission to conquer one-make national racing

“I think the most fun I’ve ever had racing any car has been in Caterhams. With the way they tow off each other it’s the most exciting racing I’ve known. I’ll always say that to anybody. It’s not necessarily the fastest car, but the racing and whole package has been by far the most enjoyable. That and the fact obviously I’ve done well in it!”

When it comes to Caterhams, there aren’t many who come close to Danny Winstanley – in terms of raw speed, as well as the trophies and title successes to match as a driver and team owner.

The 28-year-old’s assessment that he has “done well in it” is something of an understatement. Winstanley took back-to-back titles in the top tier of Caterhams – then dubbed the Caterham Seven 420R Championship – in 2017 and 2018 after finishing on the podium in every race across both seasons, more often than not on the top step.

And his success has now spread to beyond his own driving. Winstanley has focused on developing his DW Motorsport team over the past two years and, with the squad, John Byrne has secured the renamed Caterham Seven UK Championship in 2019 and 2020 to continue the Winstanley domination.

While he is predominantly renowned as a Caterham driver, Winstanley’s racing career has stretched across a whole spectrum of national motorsport over the past decade. It’s perhaps not surprising that he was able to find his feet so well in a number of series, since he was thrown in at the deep end from the outset when he made his car racing debut in 2009 at the age of 16 in the TVR European Challenge.

Danny Winstanley (middle) wins the Spa Summer Classic

“Stepping into the Tuscan straight out of the box from a go-kart was quite eye-opening,” recalls Winstanley. “It was a fast car, even by today’s standards. It was just raw and brutal and, although it sounds like a cliche, when people say if you can drive that you can drive anything… that car made anything else I ever drove easy in comparison. It was like holding on to a wild animal.

“A few guys, they obviously knew about the Tuscan Challenge. One of them came over to me in testing [before his debut] and said, ‘You’re going to get eaten alive in there.’ I thought, ‘Bloody hell, nothing like giving me a bit of confidence!’ I’ll never forget him saying that and I felt so good not long after, because the first time I ever raced the car I won the race.”

After that debut win, at Cadwell Park, Winstanley went on to finish third overall in the championship standings and second in class before moving into the GT Cup for two seasons, first with the Tuscan, before switching to a Porsche 964 and then a TVR Sagaris. “I didn’t enjoy it with the weight penalties,” he says. “So we went the one-make series route. It cuts out all the bullshit, basically.”

"I finished third once at Zandvoort – it was my worst finish of the year and I had the most wins and seconds. A guy said to me, ‘What happened?’ I finished third, I got a trophy, yet he asked me what happened! " Danny Winstanley

While there were occasional outings in series such as Euro Saloons, Ferrari Formula Classic, Britcar and the Civic Cup between 2012-15, most of which featured victories, Winstanley’s focus soon centred upon Caterham racing.

Over the next three seasons there were appearances in the Classic Sports Car Club’s Magnificent Sevens and in the British Racing & Sports Car Club-run Caterham Superlight R300 Championship.

He was third in the Superlight standings in 2014, and there were plenty of wins in the Magnificent Sevens, before he switched his focus to a full-time attack on the Caterham Seven 420R Championship in 2017. With help from his dad Craig and mechanic Callum Fletcher, there followed a double helping of titles, but with success came a raising of the stakes.

Winstanley races a TVR

Photo by: Gary Hawkins

“When you go racing, especially in the second year, you start feeling under pressure,” admits Winstanley. “People expect you to do well. I actually finished third once at Zandvoort – it was my worst finish of the year and I had the most wins and seconds. A guy [from Caterham] actually said to me, ‘What happened?’ I finished third, I got a trophy, yet he asked me what happened! I kind of felt that winning was what people were expecting from me in the end.”

As Winstanley started to become a focal point for advice in Caterham paddocks and interest began to grow in hiring out a spare machine from the double champion, he took the decision to make the switch to team management from 2019. As well as guiding Byrne to his back-to-back titles, Winstanley also ran cars for Rob Watts and Lewis Thompson, the latter in the 310Rs. Both will be returning with the team this season along with Tom Eden, who ran part-time in 2020.

Winstanley even dipped into Ginettas last season, running former Caterham driver Jamie Falvey in the opening rounds of the GT4 Supercup, and has grown to enjoy his team leadership role.

“I actually started to enjoy it more than my racing,” he says. “I’d done what I wanted to do in the Caterhams and I can just enjoy still being around the whole atmosphere of everything, plus I’m getting paid for it, which is even better.

“I’m still going to all the race circuits, and I still get to drive the cars because the customers want me to go out in them, so it’s not like I’m not doing anything.”

He’s not only getting behind the wheel alongside customers and in his role as an ARDS Grade A instructor; Winstanley also appeared in selected Lotus Elise Trophy rounds last year. Unsurprisingly, he was on the pace from the beginning and took three outright wins. He plans to do the full season aboard the Elise this year as well as run customers in the championship as part of a plan to be become more established in that category.

Winstanley races a Lotus Elise

Photo by: Richard Styles

“I don’t want to put all my eggs in one basket for the Caterhams and see it fail,” he says. “If, for one year, I don’t get any Caterham drivers at least I’ve established myself a little bit in the Lotus and I can help people that way, because I’ll have learnt more about the car as well.”

While his focus now is on running DW Motorsport as a business and taking to the track for some fun, Winstanley still harbours ambitions of competing at a higher level on the British motorsport scene. Keeping to the one-make theme, he hopes one day to make it into the high-profile Porsche Carrera Cup GB, but knows that gaining sponsorship would be crucial and certainly not the work of a moment.

The world of historic racing is another potential avenue and, whatever route he takes, Winstanley is clear that his driving will lie outside of Caterhams, even if he still has fond memories of them.

"Whatever I do, I don’t think I’ll ever have that same feeling I had in those years when I was racing Caterhams" Danny Winstanley

“To put it bluntly, I think I’d only be excited to go racing again if I was in something ‘proper’,” he says.

“Something reliable, like Porsche Carrera Cup. It’s not like a home-built road car converted like the TVR Sagaris and the Civic Cup cars I’ve raced. The Lotus is good fun but it’s not ‘proper’, is it?

“I think most people, if you said do you want to race Porsche Carrera Cup, would jump at the chance. I’ve done Caterhams; I’m not really excited by anything else. But whatever I do, I don’t think I’ll ever have that same feeling I had in those years when I was racing Caterhams.”

Winstanley races a Caterham

Photo by: Richard Styles