Brilliant Blair

Mar 6 2013 By Jen Buchanan

He’s only been racing for six years.

Before that Blair Murdoch had never even raced a go-kart.

But the determined 27-year-old is already going from strength to strength in the Scottish Fiesta Championship, with 15 podiums, two poles and three wins in one season alone.

Blair spends all his spare cash entering races at Knockhill, Scotland’s only race track, which costs £250 a pop. And with seven Scottish races a year, as well as one in England, the costs can add up.

But modest Blair is dismissive of the money and effort he has put into his dream, despite the fact at one point he had two jobs and worked seven days a week to fund it. Even now, Blair books all his holidays from work around the races.

He said: “I try and keep the costs down as low as possible so I race all in one day and don’t pay for practice runs. The biggest cost is my tyres.

“I only really replace my front tyres, they take most of the damage because my car’s front wheel drive.

“The difference when you get new tyres is about half a second though.

“You push as hard as you can physically manage but you’re limited by what your car can do, it can definitely put you at a disadvantage if your tyres are worn down.”

Blair’s two litre, 150 horsepower Ford Fiesta RS turbo was a an old road car that had been written off.

But thanks to some hard graft, hours spent in the shed at his home in Dalrymple, and some help from ICR Motorsport at Knockhill, Blair managed to repair the car and bring it up to racing safety spec.

He added: “The engine and breaks are still the standard road ones though. You’re not allowed to change the engine because they want to keep everyone on an equal footing and it means it’s down to the driver.

“The car is fully stripped out though and I welded a roll cage inside. I changed the exhaust and air filters as well.”

Blair shrugs off any perceived danger about car racing. He said: “I’ve had a couple of crashes but when you’re wearing a helmet, a six-point harness and have a roll cage around you, it’s more dangerous horse riding. Yeah it hurts a bit but we’re pretty safe in there.”

Blair dreams of progressing up the ladder in his racing career, but is hindered by lack of funding.

Sponsorship will mean he can use more tyres and have some testing time, which will translate to better results and hopefully higher profile championships. Blair added: “I’d be more than happy to hold race days, for anyone who’d like to sponsor me. I could publicise them on my Twitter and Facebook sites, and the races are all shown on Motors TV so it could be good exposure for a company.”

To contact Blair you can reach him on 07899005886 or email blairmurdoch@aol.com