After a break of nearly two years, Mark Proctor has announced his return to competitive racing, signing up with Total Control Racing to compete in the 2011 Elf Renault Clio Cup.
The Bridlington racer last competed in May 2009, when he was involved in a massive accident in the Ginetta G50 Cup at Oulton Park. The injuries he suffered saw him to decide to call time on his racing career, however unable to shake off the racing bug, Proctor jumped at the chance to return.
He said: “I've been racing all my life and it's been hard to stay away. I needed to get back into the sport and the chance to race with TCR in Clios is the perfect opportunity for me. Unfortunately my run in Ginettas ended with the big accident, it was a freak accident, but I decided to walk away from racing. It's been impossible to shake the bug though and I'm really happy to be back.
“Obviously the team's reputation goes before it and I wanted to be with the very best. Clios will be a great new challenge for me and there's nothing like the BTCC package in the UK, I'm really looking forward to being back there.
“We haven't got any expectations I just want to be as competitive as I can. I'll be giving away quite a bit of weight to most of the other drivers so I'll be working hard to minimise that – I definitely want to try and lose a couple of stone before the season!”
The Clio Cup is the latest chapter in a distinguished motorsport career for Proctor, which has seen him have success in the British Rallycross Championship and the Eurocar V6 Championship, before enjoying a stint in the British Touring Car Championship prior to his G50 run.
Total Control Racing boss Lee Brookes is happy with his latest acquisition, saying: “We're really pleased to get Mark onboard with the team. It's great he's decided to come back to racing and we're looking forward to working with him. He's got a lot of experience and although he's not been on track for two years we're sure it won't take him long to get up to speed.”
Proctor completes TCR’s line up for the one makes series, joining James Dixon, Tom Grice and Nicolas Hamilton.
Brookes added: “Obviously, we're delighted to have filled all four cars and we're sure it'll be a strong season. James (Dixon) and Tom (Grice) should be right up there, Mark should get back into things quickly and we're sure Nicolas (Hamilton) is going to develop strongly through the year.”
