We began as a group of friends and family that were enthusiastic Track Day Participants, with a longstanding History of Classic Ford ownership. Despite their tender years (18, 15 & 14) the GibboRacing boys had a reputation for building fast reliable, Track Day cars, in the main an Mk2 RS2000. Through the Kent RS Owners Club we began following Rod Birley in the then DMN Championship, and always thought that we should be part of a Racing Series, which at that stage were pipe dreams. Then after a rapid series of events we had a Race Car, or so we thought. Starting afresh (Green as Grass), we took everything as Gospel that we were told for our first Race, which ended in disaster, the Saph turned sideways and hit the pit wall on the start/finish straight at Brands. We discovered over the rest of our maiden season that not everyone would be as meticulous as us prepping a Race Car. Despite all of the “misfortune”, some great driving by Al, meant that we missed out on an overall Group B class win by one point in the last race of the season, when the Saph finally said enough and limped home with a wiring related misfire. Al’s driving prowess had not gone unnoticed, however, which saw him rewarded with the DMN Driver of the Year 2011. With limited funds, but unlimited enthusiasm and support from the family, we set about releasing the potential that we knew we had within the team and car as a whole. First stop the legend Harvey Gibbs and a properly built, reliable engine. Then came the handling, enter another legend in the Hot Rod world, Colin Smith. After a total re-wire, repaint and rebuild we were set fair. Another great season followed, with reliability as standard, some fantastic driving, and some luck (mostly bad), we came in Third Overall in the freshly named QMN series, with Al being awarded “Most Consistent Driver”. Roll on next Season!

GibboRacing Driver

Hello, my name is Alan Phillips, at the moment I am lucky enough to be the driver for the  GibboRacing. We are competing in the Dunlop Motorsport News Saloon car championship in 2011.

A bit about myself :- I have been driving for more years than I care to remember, and have had lots of different makes of cars. But Fords have always been top of my list. Having owned Mk.1 & Mk.2 Escorts, 3000E Capris and a RS3100, eventually going on to the Cosworths. I have owned a 2wd saph, an Andy Rouse prepared 4X4 304R and currently have an Escort Cosworth that I have owned for 11 years. Also in the last 5 years I have taken a shine to the Subaru Impreza.

I started off doing a Trackday's in 1999 and got bitten by the bug, now having done quite a few since then at various tracks around the country. This year however, things got a bit more serious and a race car has been purchased. This led to me taking my ARDS test in Oct 2010. Hopefully we will get the car out on a few trackdays / learning sessions early in 2011 this is a complete step up for us and we are going to have to learn how to set the car up and of course the main thing being to see if I can do the car justice…….watch this space.

GibboRacing Race Engineer

Hi, my name is Jack Gibbons and I am part owner and Race Engineer for the Saph. Although I am only 15, I have been helping my Dad work on our car's since I was 3. At the age of 6 I did my first oil service, by 10 I was preparing our Trackday Mk2 RS 2000. Since that time up to now, I have Changed brakes on Volvo T5's, various timing belts, swapped engines, installed new clutches, axles diffs and halfshafts, camshafts, tappets and most suspension parts.

I also have my own car, and although its only 1/5th scale, I have had to rebuild it from scratch as, through no fault of my own, it smashed to bits when the throttle opened full after a battery failure, and it plowed into a wall at about 40 mph. I am upgrading it from plastic to alloy parts to make it stronger for when I take it to Spain and some very rough terrain.

I know that all I have learned so far will help me with the race car, but already understand that it is a big step up from what I am used to and have lots and lots to learn. I can't wait to get the car on the track to see what it can do with Al driving.