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Nick Halstead

{{short description|British racing driver (born 1972)}}

{{About|the racing driver|the fencer|Nick Halsted}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox racing driver

| name = Nick Halstead

| image = Nick Halstead Thruxton 2024.jpg

| caption = Halstead at Thruxton Circuit in 2024.

| nationality = {{flagicon|GBR}} British

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1972|04|09}}

| birth_place = Kent, United Kingdom

| current series = British Touring Car Championship

| first year = 2021

| current team = Team Bristol Street Motors

| car number = 22

| starts = 61 (61 entries)

| wins = 0

| poles = 0

| best finish = 22nd

| year = 2024

| module =

| prev series = Asian Le Mans Series
British GT
Ginetta GT4 Supercup
Ginetta GT5 Challenge
TCR UK
Renault Clio Cup UK
Dunlop Touring Car Trophy

| prev series years = 2023
2022, 2021
2022, 2021, 2020
2019, 2018, 2017
2019
2019
2019

| titles = Ginetta GT5 Challenge AM

| title years = 2018

}}

Nicholas John Halstead (born 9 April 1972 in Kent) is a British racing driver, software engineer and entrepreneur currently competing in the British Touring Car Championship for Team Bristol Street Motors.{{Cite web|url=https://www.touringcartimes.com/2022/11/04/nick-halstead-joins-excelr8-2023-campaign/|title=Nick Halstead joins EXCELR8 for 2023 campaign|work=TouringCarTimes|date=4 November 2022|accessdate=4 November 2022}} Halstead has previously competed in British GT and the Ginetta GT4 Supercup. He won the AM title in the 2018 Ginetta GT5 Challenge, and made his British Touring Car Championship debut at Croft in 2021, substituting for Rick Parfitt Jr. at Excelr8 with TradePriceCars.com.{{cite web|url=https://www.btcc.net/2021/09/09/nick-halstead-to-join-excelr8-with-tradepricecars-com-line-up-at-croft/|title=NICK HALSTEAD TO SUBSTITUTE FOR RICK PARFITT AT CROFT|website=BTCC|access-date=2 November 2021}}

Halstead is the founder of companies such as Infosum, Datasift and TweetMeme, the latter of which was the first site containing the retweet feature, before it was sold to Twitter in 2010.{{cite web|url= https://www.nickhalstead.com/about|title=About Nick Halstead|website=Nick Halstead|access-date=2 November 2021}}

Career

=Fav.or.it=

In October 2007, the Fav.or.it company was founded, a proposed blog commenting system founded on principle that consumers and businesses both need content curated. The site was launched in 2008, and quickly built to 500,000 monthly users.

=TweetMeme=

In January 2008, the first prototype of TweetMeme was released, a site founded by Halstead which tracked trending topics on the social media giant Twitter. The site would find new topics being talked about, and would track numbers talking about them to rank them, an aggregator.{{cite web|url=https://techcrunch.com/2008/01/28/tweetmeme-arrives-to-track-twitters-hottest-links/|title=Tweetmeme arrives to track Twitter's hottest links|website=TechCrunch|date=28 January 2008 |access-date=2 November 2021}} The full site was then launched to the public in July the same year.

In February 2009 the retweet button was released onto the website, a feature allowing you to share posts you liked. Although this feature was founded on the TweetMeme website, it soon became a standard feature of almost all forum and social media sites, with approximately 1.6 billion retweet buttons across different pages on the internet.{{cite web|url=https://techcrunch.com/2009/08/21/what-exactly-do-16-billion-retweet-buttons-get-you-about-6-million-actual-retweets/|title=What Exactly Do 1.6 Billion Retweet Buttons Get You? About 6 Million Actual Retweets.|website=TechCrunch|date=21 August 2009 |access-date=2 November 2021}}

On 12 August 2010 the retweet feature was sold to Twitter,{{cite web|url=https://blog.twitter.com/official/en_us/a/2010/pushing-our-tweet-button.html|title=Pushing Our (Tweet) Button|website=Twitter Blog|access-date=2 November 2021}} and the website was shut down in September 2012, when it still had 3 million users at the time.

=DataSift=

Halstead announced DataSift in September 2010 at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference, a social data platform that provides brands and enterprises with access to content from the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and dozens of other social networks.{{cite web|url=https://techcrunch.com/2010/09/27/tweetmeme-founders-datasift-helps-you-find-a-needle-in-a-tweetstack/|title=Tweetmeme Founder's Datasift Helps You Find A Needle In A Tweetstack|website=TechCrunch|date=27 September 2010 |access-date=2 November 2021}} The software was officially released in November 2011.{{cite web|url=https://techcrunch.com/2011/11/16/datasift-launches-powerful-twitter-data-analysis-and-business-intelligence-platform/|title=DataSift Launches Powerful Twitter Data Analysis And Business Intelligence Platform|website=TechCrunch|date=16 November 2011 |access-date=3 November 2021}}

Nick stepped down as CEO of the company in October 2015.

=InfoSum=

In late 2015 Halstead founded Cognitive Logic, a data collaboration company. It was rebranded to InfoSum in September 2017.

Racing career

File:CupraLeonTCR.jpg competing in the 2019 Britcar Endurance Championship.]]

=Ginetta GT5 Challenge=

In 2017 Halstead would make his professional racing debut in the Ginetta GT5 Challenge with Fox Motorsport. Competing in the AM class, in this year he would pick up ten podiums in the class to finish 3rd in the AM standings.

He would continue with Fox Motorsport in the AM class in 2018, where with four in-class victories he would go on to win the AM title.

In 2019 he made the switch to the Pro class, still competing with Fox Motorsport, where he had a best finish of 11th.{{cite web|url=https://www.ginetta.com/news/former-ginetta-champion-nick-halstead-joins-millers-oils-ginetta-gt4-supercup|title=Former Ginetta Champion Nick Halstead Joins Millers Oils Ginetta GT4 SuperCup|website=Ginetta|date=12 March 2020 |access-date=6 November 2021}}

=Ginetta GT4 Supercup=

Competing in a handful of races in series such as TCR UK{{cite web|url=https://www.touringcartimes.com/2019/05/29/nick-halstead-joins-tcr-uk-three-events-fox-motorsport-honda/|title=Nick Halstead joins TCR UK for three events in Fox Motorsport Honda|website=TouringCarTimes|date=29 May 2019 |access-date=6 November 2021}} and the Renault Clio Cup UK alongside his Ginetta GT5 campaign across 2019, in 2020 Nick would step up to the Ginetta GT4 Supercup, competing in the Pro-AM class still with Fox Motorsport. Across this season in his class he racked up 3 wins, 15 podiums, 3 pole positions and 4 fastest laps on his way to 3rd in the championship standings.

With Fox Motorsport, he would compete in the rounds at Oulton Park and Brands Hatch in 2021 in the Pro-AM class, scoring a second-place finish at Brands Hatch.

He continued in the championship with Fox Motorsport in 2022 in the G55 Pro class alongside his British GT campaign.

=British GT=

Nick made his British GT debut in 2021, racing a McLaren 570S in the GT4 Pro-AM class alongside teammate Jamie Stanley.{{cite web|url=http://www.dailysportscar.com/2021/04/13/fox-motorsport-return-with-gt4-mclaren-in-2021.html|title=Fox Motorsport Return With GT4 McLaren In 2021|website=dailysportscar.com|access-date=6 November 2021}} The duo achieved 2 wins in class over the course of 7 races to finish 2nd in the GT4 Pro-AM cup and tied 8th overall in the GT4 category.

Halstead continued with Fox Motorsport in the series in 2022, this time switching to the GT3 category.{{cite web|url=https://www.dailysportscar.com/2022/02/24/fox-motorsport-step-up-to-gt3-with-halstead-stanley-and-mclaren-720s-gt3.html|title=Fox Motorsport Step Up To GT3 With Halstead, Stanley & McLaren 720S GT3|website=dailysportscar.com|access-date=1 March 2022}}

=British Touring Car Championship=

Halstead made his British Touring Car Championship debut at Croft in 2021, substituting for Rick Parfitt Jr. at Excelr8 with TradePriceCars.com. Over the course of the weekend Halstead finished in a better position every race, driving home to 21st position in Race 3.

Racing record

= Racing career summary =

class="wikitable" style="font-size: 90%; text-align:center"
Season

! Series

! Team

! Races

! Wins

! Poles

! F/Laps

! Podiums

! Points

! Position

2017

|align=left| Ginetta GT5 Challenge - AM Class

|align=left| Fox Motorsport{{cite web|url=https://www.tsl-timing.com/event/171505/session/qu1gin|title=British GT Championship - Rounds 1 & 2 - 15th & 17th April - Oulton Park - 2017|website=TSL Timing|access-date=29 June 2022}}

| 19

| 0

| ?

| ?

| 10

| ?

| style="background:#FFDF9F;"| 3rd

2018

|align=left| Ginetta GT5 Challenge - AM Class

|align=left| Fox Motorsport{{cite web|url=https://www.tsl-timing.com/event/181305/session/qu1gin|title=British GT Championship - Rounds 1 & 2 - 31st March & 2nd April - Oulton Park - 2018|website=TSL Timing|access-date=29 June 2022}}

| 15

| 4

| ?

| ?

| ?

| ?

| style="background:#FFFFBF;"| 1st

rowspan=5| 2019

|align=left| Ginetta GT5 Challenge

|align=left rowspan=3| Fox Motorsport

| 13

| 0

| 0

| 0

| 0

| 0

| ?

align=left| TCR UK

| 6

| 0

| 1

| 0

| 1

| 82

| 4th

align=left| Touring Car Trophy

| 6

| 0

| 1

| 0

| 1

| 184

| 5th

align=left| Britcar Endurance Championship - Class 4

|align=left| Maximum Motorsport

| 2

| 0

| 1

| 1

| 1

| 87

| 9th

align=left| Renault Clio Cup UK

|align=left| Westbourne Motorsport{{cite web|url=https://www.tsl-timing.com/event/193903/session/qu1cli|title=British Touring Car Championship - Round 9 - 28th/29th September - Silverstone - 2019|website=TSL Timing|access-date=29 June 2022}}

| 2

| 0

| 0

| 0

| 0

| 10

| 17th

2020

|align=left| Ginetta GT4 Supercup - AM Class

|align=left| Fox Motorsport

| 18

| 3

| 3

| 4

| 15

| 477

| style="background:#FFDF9F;"| 3rd

rowspan=3| 2021

|align=left| British GT Championship - GT4

|align=left rowspan=2| Fox Motorsport

| 8

| 0

| 0

| 0

| 1

| 66.5

| 9th

align=left| Ginetta GT4 Supercup - Pro-Am

| 5

| 0

| 0

| 0

| 1

| 151

| 6th

align=left| British Touring Car Championship

|align=left| Excelr8 with TradePriceCars.com

| 3

| 0

| 0

| 0

| 0

| 0

| 34th

rowspan=2 | 2022

|align=left| British GT Championship

| rowspan=2 align=left| Fox Motorsport

| 9

| 1

| 0

| 0

| 2

| 81

| 7th

align=left| Ginetta GT4 Supercup - G55 Pro

| 17

| 0

| 0

| 0

| 1

| 276

| 5th

rowspan="2" | 2023

| align="left" | British Touring Car Championship

| align="left" | Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8

| 30

| 0

| 0

| 0

| 0

| -5

| 30th

align=left| Asian Le Mans Series - GT

|align=left| Garage 59

|4

|0

|0

|0

|0

|11

|13th

2023-24

|align=left| Middle East Trophy - GT4

|align=left| Century Motorsport

|

|

|

|

|

|

|

2024

| align=left| British Touring Car Championship

| align=left| Team Bristol Street Motors

| 28

| 0

| 0

| 0

| 0

| 7

| 22nd

=Complete British GT Championship results=

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size:85%"

! Year

! Team

! Car

! Class

! 1

! 2

! 3

! 4

! 5

! 6

! 7

! 8

! 9

! DC

! Points

2021

!nowrap| Fox Motorsport

!nowrap| McLaren 570S GT4

! GT4

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| BRH
1
{{small|18}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| SIL
1
{{small|24}}

|style="background:#FFDF9F;"| DON
1
{{small|10}}

| SPA
1

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| SNE
1
{{small|17}}

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| SNE
2
{{small|17}}

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| OUL
1
{{small|18}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| OUL
2
{{small|21}}

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| DON
1
{{small|16}}

! 9th

! 66.5

2022

!nowrap| Fox Motorsport

!nowrap| McLaren 720S GT3

! GT3

|style="background:#FFDF9F;"| OUL
1
{{small|3}}

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| OUL
2
{{small|9}}

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| SIL
1
{{small|13}}

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| DON
1
{{small|9}}

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| SNE
1
{{small|9}}

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| SNE
2
{{small|8}}

|style="background:#FFFFBF;"| SPA
1
{{small|1}}

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| BRH
1
{{small|10}}

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| DON
1
{{small|11}}

! 7th

! 81

=Complete British Touring Car Championship results=

(key) Races in bold indicate pole position (1 point awarded – 2002–2003 all races, 2004–present just in first race) Races in italics indicate fastest lap (1 point awarded all races) * signifies that driver lead race for at least one lap (1 point awarded – 2002 just in feature races, 2003–present all races)

class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size:85%"

! Year

! Team

! Car

! 1

! 2

! 3

! 4

! 5

! 6

! 7

! 8

! 9

! 10

! 11

! 12

! 13

! 14

! 15

! 16

! 17

! 18

! 19

! 20

! 21

! 22

! 23

! 24

! 25

! 26

! 27

! 28

! 29

! 30

! DC

! Points

2021

!nowrap| Excelr8 with
TradePriceCars.com

!nowrap| Hyundai i30 Fastback
N Performance

| THR
1

| THR
2

| THR
3

| SNE
1

| SNE
2

| SNE
3

| BRH
1

| BRH
2

| BRH
3

| OUL
1

| OUL
2

| OUL
3

| KNO
1

| KNO
2

| KNO
3

| THR
1

| THR
2

| THR
3

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| CRO
1
{{small|26}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| CRO
2
{{small|25}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| CRO
3
{{small|21}}

| SIL
1

| SIL
2

| SIL
3

| DON
1

| DON
2

| DON
3

| BRH
1

| BRH
2

| BRH
3

! 34th

! 0

2023

!nowrap| Bristol Street Motors
with EXCELR8

!nowrap| Hyundai i30 Fastback
N Performance

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| DON
1
{{small|Ret}}

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| DON
2
{{small|7}}

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| DON
3
{{small|Ret}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| BRH
1
{{small|23}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| BRH
2
{{small|23}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| BRH
3
{{small|20}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| SNE
1
{{small|26}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| SNE
2
{{small|25}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| SNE
3
{{small|21}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| THR
1
{{small|NC}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| THR
2
{{small|23}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| THR
3
{{small|22}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| OUL
1
{{small|23}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| OUL
2
{{small|24}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| OUL
3
{{small|19}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| CRO
1
{{small|22}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| CRO
2
{{small|22}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| CRO
3
{{small|20}}

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| KNO
1
{{small|15}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| KNO
2
{{small|21}}

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| KNO
3
{{small|Ret}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| DON
1
{{small|24}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| DON
2
{{small|20}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| DON
3
{{small|20}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| SIL
1
{{small|25}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| SIL
2
{{small|21}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| SIL
3
{{small|19}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| BRH
1
{{small|22}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| BRH
2
{{small|20}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| BRH
3
{{small|20}}

! 30th

! {{Tooltip

5|Penalised 5 points after Snetterton and 10 points after Thruxton.}}
2024

!nowrap| Team Bristol Street Motors

!nowrap| Hyundai i30 Fastback
N Performance

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| DON
1
{{small|16}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| DON
2
{{small|16}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| DON
3
{{small|17}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| BRH
1
{{small|17}}

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| BRH
2
{{small|13}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| BRH
3
{{small|17}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| SNE
1
{{small|20}}

|style="background:#FFFFFF;"| SNE
2
{{small|WD}}

|style="background:#FFFFFF;"| SNE
3
{{small|WD}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| THR
1
{{small|19}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| THR
2
{{small|19}}

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| THR
3
{{small|Ret}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| OUL
1
{{small|17}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| OUL
2
{{small|18}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| OUL
3
{{small|17}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| CRO
1
{{small|20}}

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| CRO
2
{{small|Ret}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| CRO
3
{{small|18}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| KNO
1
{{small|19}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| KNO
2
{{small|17}}

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| KNO
3
{{small|14}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| DON
1
{{small|19}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| DON
2
{{small|18}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| DON
3
{{small|17}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| SIL
1
{{small|16}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| SIL
2
{{small|18}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| SIL
3
{{small|18}}

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| BRH
1
{{small|14}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| BRH
2
{{small|17}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| BRH
3
{{small|19}}

! 22nd

! 7

=Complete Asian Le Mans Series results=

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; font-size:85%"

|+

! Year

! Team

! Class

! Car

! Engine

! 1

! 2

! 3

! 4

! Pos.

! Points

2023

!nowrap| Garage 59

! GT

!nowrap| McLaren 720S GT3

!nowrap| McLaren M840T 4.0 L Turbo V8

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| DUB
1
{{small|12}}

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| DUB
2
{{small|5}}

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| ABU
1
{{small|11}}

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| ABU
2
{{small|10}}

! 13th

! 11

References

{{reflist}}

External links

  • {{DriverDB driver|nick-halstead}}
  • {{Official website|nickhalstead.com}}

{{BTCC teams}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Halstead, Nick}}

Category:English racing drivers

Category:Sportspeople from Kent

Category:1972 births

Category:Living people

Category:British Touring Car Championship drivers

Category:Ginetta GT4 Supercup drivers

Category:British GT Championship drivers

Category:Asian Le Mans Series drivers

Category:Britcar drivers

Category:TCR UK Touring Car Championship drivers