Back in 1984, old school petrolhead friends, Richard Bateman (Orthodontist) always known as Batman, and Steve Upsdell (Consultant Surgeon), decided to finally try their hands at motor racing. They agreed they’d talked about for way too long. They bought a Renault 5TS and shared one for a season until the unfortunate incident at Knicker Brook, Oulton Park. This used to be an exciting and challenging fast kink until ruined with a chicane. Thereafter they campaigned in their own cars with reasonable success. A little later Steve retired temporarily but he never the lost the bug and rejoined the team in 2018.
In 1988 Batman bought an unrestored Lotus Cortina Mk1 and spent the next two years building it into a racing car with his good and talented engineering friend, Richard Biggle. The Cortina was raced in National races for a couple of years and then we moved on to Internationals in 1992. The early years were races in the FIA European Touring Car Championships with Steve. We were regularly competing with factory sponsored teams like Alfa Romeo and famous names like Rauno Aaltonen in a BMW. The first race in Zolder (Belgium) saw us placed in the top 10 and collecting prize money. Happy days! Batman benefitted from meeting an excellent mentor in Nick Atkins and they shared many drives in each other’s cars in the one hour, two driver FIA races after Steve left. Highlights at this time included invitations to the inaugural and second Goodwood Revival.
Later the Cortina was joined by an Elan and then, because Batman wanted even more speed, he bought a Group C2 Tiga later eventually replacing this with the ex Le Mans C1 Pink Spice. This led the appearances in major events such as in support of the Le Mans 24h and the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Races in the USA, Daytona (Elan) and Sebring (Cortina) led to adding the red Datsun 210 to the stable. Initially it resided on the East Coast but is now in California ready for fun in the sun.
On the aviation front Batman’s rotary toys started with a Hughes 269A, then an Enstrom 280FX and finally an Enstrom 480. However the introduction of a Cessna 421 Golden Eagle for European trips has proved invaluable. Our flying is ably supported by Matt Russell, Aviation Manager and Pilot and Flight Engineer (and it turned out, exceptional racing engineer) Captain Steve Westran.
Initially the racing team was exclusively drivers with just their wives and girlfriends who happily turned out to be both willing and active participants. As things developed we have been lucky to find a succession of enthusiastic and talented people locally to volunteer to run the cars with us. The first was Steve Meloy in the R5. He was followed by Fixxy Dave Reed, Ian-from-Racing Stephenson, Gazza, Paul Williams, Krusty, Andy The Gas, Ben, Hanny, Ross, Nat and others. We must not forget our star Elan driver, Roger (Hottie) Barton.
In the early days the car was towed on a trailer with the car laden with people and spares. Now our little truck is set up to carry two cars and all the gear and is driven by another fantastic group of friends, Ian (Homer) Ball, Ian (Homer 2) Wells, Chicken Geoff Roberts and James. With them behind the wheel we have managed to travel much further afield including southern Spain and Eastern Europe.
BatmanMotorsport&Aviation 