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Former Pupil Biographies
Andrew Kirkaldy (1976 - current)
| Andrew Kirkaldy (born 1 March 1976 in St Andrews) is a
Scottish racing driver and Managing Director of McLaren GT.
Growing up in St Andrew's his father enjoyed building rally cars
while his mum was a driving instructor. It meant Andrew spent his
early years following the rally circuit, before progressing to karting.
Alongside gaining a degree in mechanical engineering and
aerodynamics at Strathclyde University, Glasgow, he raced in Formula
Ford 1600, Formula Vauxhall Junior and Formula Vauxhall, winning races
along the way
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Single-seaters
Kirkaldy began his career competing in karting, winning the Scottish
Junior Championship in 1989 and the Scottish Senior Championship in 1993.
He raced in the Formula Vauxhall championship in 1996 and 1997, finishing
runner-up in 1997.
He also won the McLaren Autosport BRDC Award in that
year, which earned him a prize test with the McLaren Formula One team. He
was runner-up in Euroseries Formula Opel in 1998. He raced in the British
Formula 3 Championship in 1999 and 2000.
Sports cars
In addition to finishing runner-up in the Renault Clio Cup in 2002,
Kirkaldy made his FIA GT Championship debut. In 2004 he moved to the
British GT Championship, winning the series in 2005 with team mate Nathan
Kinch for Scuderia Ecosse. He also made his 24 Hours of Le Mans debut in
2005 for the team. He returned to the FIA GT Championship in 2006 with
Scuderia Ecosse, racing in the GT2 class. In 2008, he drove for his CRS
Racing team in the championship.
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FIA GT2 Championship
- Debut season 2006
- Current team CRS Racing
- Car no. 56
- Former teams Scuderia Ecosse
- Starts 36
- Wins 4
- Poles 10
- Best finish 5th in 2009
Championship titles
2005 British GT Championship GT2
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Previous series
- 1996–97 Formula Vauxhall
- 1998 Formula Opel Europe
- 1999–2000 British Formula 3
- 2001 German Formula Three
- 2001 Atlantic Championship
- 2002 Renault Clio Cup GB
- 2002 FIA GT Championship N-GT
- 2004 Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0
- 2004–05 British GT Championship
- 2007 Porsche Carrera Cup GB
Awards
1997 McLaren Autosport Award
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Team AKA & CRS Racing
As well as his racing career, Kirkaldy is a successful team principal,
founding his own Team AKA team in 2004. The team ran for four seasons in
the British Formula Renault Championship, ending up with a second in the
2006 teams championship. The team also achieved two top-three drivers
championship positions with James Jakes, who was third in 2005, and
Patrick Hogan, who was second in 2006 only after losing a tie-breaker to
Sebastian Hohenthal. In 2007 Chris Niarchos approached Kirkaldy with
sponsoring of Team AKA in their fourth season of the British Formula
Renault Championship, with the two having previously been team-mates on
the Scuderia Ecosse team which competed in the FIA GT Championship. Team
AKA then became known as AKA Cobra.
Following the 2007 season, Niarchos' interest in the team expanded as the
two wished to enter their own team in not only the FIA GT Championship but
the British GT Championship as well, ending their relationship with
Scuderia Ecosse. The team was renamed once more and was relaunched as CR
Scuderia, reflecting their choice of Italian Ferraris for their entry into
grand tourer racing. The team was again renamed for 2009, becoming CRS
Racing. Subsequently CRS agreed a deal with McLaren to develop the GT3
version of the McLaren MP4-12C. In 2012 as McLaren GT they delivered 25
cars and a further 15 in 2013. In 2013 the cars won 3 championships, were
second in a further 6, won 23 races and had a total of 65 podium finishes.
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