Esports star Lucas Blakeley has signed with Kevin Mills Racing to contest this weekend’s United Formula Ford round at Silverstone and BRSCC National FF1600’s Oulton Park opener the week after.
The 21-year-old Scot was an Esports driver of the Racing Point Formula 1 team in 2019, and starred in appearances in F1’s official Esports series.
His 2020 was busier, with more Esports competitions such as The Race All-Star Series, and he stayed with Racing Point as its racing activities were rebranded as Aston Martin for 2021.
He kicked off the 2021 F1 Esports season with a maiden win at Bahrain, won again at Algarve and led the points but eventually came third in the standings. In January 2022 he departed Aston Martin, saying it was “time to start writing the next chapter” as he prepared to move into real-world motorsport.
The first opportunity came in the Race of Champions on the snow in Pitea, Sweden, where he beat Sebastian Vettel in a one-to-one heat in electric rallycross cars.
He then began testing in FF1600 with Graham Brunton Racing, and signed to contest the Scottish FFord season with the team.
Blakeley qualified 13th on debut at Knockhill, and finished his first two races in 18th and 13th. He qualified 13th again for round two at Croft in England, then fought with championship-winning team-mate Michael Gray through the weekend’s races (shared with National FF1600’s grids) to leave with a ninth, a 10th and a 12th place.
The remaining Scottish FFord rounds were cancelled due to small entry lists, and Blakeley was championship runner-up. He then signed to be one of Veloce Racing’s Esports drivers for the rest of 2022.
Ahead of his FF1600 return, Blakeley is testing at Silverstone this week with KMR.
“I’m back racing in FFord, something I have been hoping to say for quite a while now since I got my first taste of it last year. Super happy to be doing some more races,” he announced in a social media video. “Back-to-back weeks I’m going racing, super, super excited to get going.”
“Big thanks to GBR for giving me that chance last year. Giving me my first taste of FFord, something I’m very grateful for.”
“Ever since I got that taste of it last year I’ve been thinking about it very much about how I want to get back behind the wheel, because it was such a great experience and something that I really wanted to definitely get back into.
“The goals for these two weekends is pretty simple. I want to be trying to get as close as possible to the front of the grid as I can in the time that I’ve got available to me. At the end of the day, track time is everything. So I’m hoping to make good use of the track time I have, the testing that I’ve got available, and put it to the best use I can on track. And try to score as good results as possible, make solid progress.”