Motor racing driver Luke Davenport is an inspiration in the fast lane
Nothing is too out of the ordinary about Luke Davenport’s role as a motorsport coach and driver.
He is currently guiding Marcos Vivian de la Pedroso in a Ferrari 488 GT3 Evo 2020 with the AF Corse team, racing a Pro-Am combination in the Michelin Le Mans Cup, which is an international sports car racing endurance series, and driving a Lotus Elite for Tolman Motorsports.
It is not a full-time position, that comes through being an associate with Cheffins, and it is a matter of finding the time to combine a profession, a passion and a dedication.
The driving side of things has certainly opened up opportunities this year, though.
“From not doing very much, I’ve been back racing at the likes of Imola, I’ve achieved a lifelong dream of getting to Le Mans in one of the support races, and it’s just been the most incredible experience,” says Davenport.
“We’re supposed to be on a route that is the entry level series to get into Le Mans, so you have an amateur in each car and then a professional.
“There is a pitstop halfway through the race, the amateurs get out and the pros get in and that’s the structure that I’ve worked on in GT racing for a long time.”
But there is a bit more to Davenport’s motor racing story.
He describes the sport as something he does professionally, but in conjunction with his work with Cheffins.
It has provided the opportunity to pursue the dream of racing at a professional level, something that had been achieved in the British Touring Car Championship in 2017.
He took a sabbatical from his career to drive for Motorbase Performance, and was tipped to win the Jackie Sears Trophy, which is a prize for the rookie championship.
However, disaster struck at the Croft Circuit in North Yorkshire on June 11, 2017.
Davenport aquaplaned off the track and was unable to restart the car and other drivers ended up colliding with the driver’s side door.
It left him in an induced coma with a broken left tibia, fibula and ankle, broken pelvis, four broken ribs, a broken collarbone, damaged ligaments in his right leg and two punctured lungs..
In the following months, he went through intensive physiotherapy with Lucy Jane Haith in Gamlingay and when we went to a session to catch up in September 2017, you could see the steely determination.
Just six months later, he was back behind the wheel of a car, coaching and testing, and in many ways it is a story of inspiration and comebacks, although Davenport plays that down.
“I’m very fortunate to have my family really keen that I do it again; my wife is really supportive of it,” he says.
“It’s not something that I set out to try to inspire anyone. I just still have such a love for it. It brings me so much happiness that it’s something that once the bug’s bitten in motorsport, it doesn’t really let go.”
With the coaching, the testing, the racing and the work for Cheffins, it is easy to think that not too many people will remember everything that Davenport has gone through – it was just the fact that we had followed his career very closely from an early stage.
It is why just seeing him race on a platform as big as the Le Mans Cup, a qualifying series for the Le Mans 24 Hours, felt like a particularly noteworthy accomplishment.
But he challenges the premise that not too many people will know what he has been through.
“It’s an interesting point you raise because it’s something that has been…an important point for me is actually so many people in racing after 2017 remember me as the driver that unfortunately had the biggest accident in touring car history and came off worse rather than what I know I can achieve,” he says.
“It’s been really nice to come back and remind people that I can compete at the front and that I can compete at a professional level.
“You’re quickly forgotten in motorsport but it’s been a real personal achievement to feel that you’re also quickly remembered, and suddenly people at the track are asking to go and drive this or go and coach that.
“Whilst it’s not a big headline and I haven’t had that chance to really go out and win a big race yet – which is still a box I want to tick – it’s taking me from strength to strength that people are remembering and that I do know I can do the job.
“It’s been a bit of a vindicating experience after the accident where you do lose a bit of confidence but it’s only fuelled the fire more to say I can do this and the accident hasn’t restricted me from doing it, so let’s crack on.”
Aged only 29, plenty of opportunities to progress in motorsport could still lie ahead.
He is passionate about his work with Cheffins, and has much more in his life now, but admits that he would be eager not to leave any possibility unexplored.
“As it is my first love, I would always work as hard as possible to pursue any opportunity. I count myself very lucky to have been full time in the past,” says Davenport, who has a metal rod in his left leg, framework on the right leg around the pelvis and a plate in the collarbone as a result of the accident.
But the level of expenditure required may prove prohibitive.
Very few people are prepared to spend the amount needed to race, and then pay for a professional on top.
A team may be able to get a non-professional driver or an aspiring professional who could bring with them half the budget for the season, which could range from hundreds of thousands of Euros to millions to compete in the series that includes the Le Mans 24 Hours.
Davenport is ever hopeful though.
“If the opportunity ever arose, it’s something I would always pursue but it was quite an odd set of circumstances that got me into touring cars anyway,” he says.
“Motorbase were actually a GT team who I was due to have a test with in their Aston Martin back in 2016.
“That never happened so they very kindly tried me in their touring car and that year Shredded Wheat put a lot of money in and it just went from there so it was a bit of a funny year anyway.
“If there was ever a chance to go back to touring cars, my family might have something to say about it and my wife, but I would struggle to say no.
“The likelihood is that it is certainly trickier times ahead.”
However, there is a long career path in motorsport, far longer than people imagine. Rob Bell, who is Davenport’s coach and was when he first started out, is a factory McLaren driver well into his 40s.
“I hope to be doing it until I’m in my 70s as a hobby, I want to keep doing it on and on,” he suggests.
“I never rest on any laurels, always try to improve my technique.”
It is why Davenport continues to work with his physiotherapist Lucy Haith, to remain in peak condition for coaching and driving.
“I make sure before a race now I go to see her and we’ve been through the body and I’m in as good a shape as I can be,” he says.
“It’s almost been like restarting my career but having a bit of a headstart as I know what it’s like and how to approach things.
“You never know what’s around the corner, but hopefully we’ll keep behind the wheel.”
In a purely motorsport sense, and given everything Davenport has been through, it certainly seems an appropriate turn of phrase with so much of the road still ahead to drive forward.
