Archie Hamilton Returns in a Porsche Cayman GT4-ClubSport
Archie Hamilton will be racing a manufacturer prepared 428bhp Porsche Cayman GT4 Club Sport in the GT Class at tracks across the UK in the coming 2020 racing calendar.
Archie Hamilton has had a promising racing career from an early age. He competed in junior karting at age 8, Formula Ford at 14, Formula Renault at 16, from there he has competed in the Porsche Carrera Cup Series, 24hr Dubai, Porsche GTS Europe Series, Le Mans in 2013, International GT Series for Corvette, GT2 in a Ferrari and everything in-between. Hamilton stepped back from racing in 2017 when finding sponsorship became extremely difficult. This clearly had him re-evaluating his life, ambitions and future racing career.
In that hiatus, Hamilton turned his talents to building a social media following that now sees him with a YouTube channel with an impressive 227,000 subscribers and 194,000 Instagram followers. This fast-growing audience has come from Hamilton’s infectious enthusiasm, a steady stream of desirable cars and the occasional appearance of his older sidekick, Tony, for light relief and a dose of sarcasm.
The return to racing appears to have been the plan for some time, when and with who was always the unknown factor. Hamilton has appeared in recent YouTube videos explaining his return and the need for sponsorship to fund the season*.
It’s not until the financial details are explained, that you realise the huge costs involved in a single season of racing and how much those costs increase as you progress up the racing pyramid. It’s no surprise that F1 teams budgets range from £132m (Williams) to £475m (Mercedes) in a season when the research, marketing, staffing and other associated costs are added up.
A novel, and unique, innovation Hamilton intends for the season is to live-stream, from the driver’s seat, all his races to his YouTube channel. The races will also be aired on ITV4 throughout the coming season.
Racing is clearly his preferred profession, but he has succeeded in combining it with a growing career on social media.
It will be interesting to see how Archies mix of racing and live social media broadcasts will be received by his follower base. It’s clear he has a strong following in the motorsport/exotic car arena, but will this season be a success on and off the track? We predict that it will certainly be a winner with his followers, and we hope Archie has the success he has had previously. Whatever happens, we will be covering his journey this season with anticipation and excitement.
Archie is not the first racing driver in the family. His grandfather, Duncan Hamilton, competed in a number of F1 racing events in the 1950s and won Le Mans in 1953.
* Sponsorship enquiries can be directed to Dino at [email protected]
