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Ray Bellm

{{short description|British racing driver (born 1950)}}

{{Use British English|date=November 2022}}

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

{{Infobox racing driver

| name = Ray Bellm

| image =

| image_size =

| caption =

| nationality = {{flagicon|GBR}} British

| birth_date = {{birth date and age|1950|5|20|df=y}}

| birth_place = New Malden, London, England

| death_date =

| death_place =

| retired =

| related to =

| last series = British Touring Car Championship

| years active = 1990–1993

| teams = Hawaiian Tropic
BMW Team Listerine
M Team Shell Racing with Listerine
Team Dynamics

| starts = 33

| wins = 0

| poles = 0

| fastest laps = 2

| best finish = 5th

| year = 1991

| prev series =

| prev series years =

| titles = World Sportscar Championship - Group C2
BPR International Endurance GT Series

| title years = 1985, 1986, 1988
1996

| awards =

| award years =

}}

Raymond Anthony Bellm (born 20 May 1950) is a racing driver from the United Kingdom.

Driving career

He began his racing career in 1980, running in historic racing series and winning the British Historic 2-litre GT class in 1983 and 1984 driving his Chevron B19 sports car. He made the move to modern sports car racing in 1984, driving for Gordon Spice. The pair founded Spice Engineering in 1985 and construct Group C chassis.

As part of the Spice team, Bellm would win the World Sportscar C2 Championship in 1985, 1986 and 1988. He was also able to share a Le Mans win with Gordon Spice in each of those three years, before finally leaving the team in 1990.{{cite web |url=http://cars.mclaren.com/featured-articles/le-mans-memories-ray-bellm.html |title = Latest {{!}} McLaren Automotive}}

File:Mclaren F1 GTR - Ray Bellm & Maurizio Sandro-Sala at Donington 1995 (49673632742).jpg at Donington Park during the 1995 BPR Global GT Series.]]

In the early 1990s he moved to the British Touring Car Championship, driving for Vic Lee Motorsport, finishing fifth overall in 1991. Following Lee's arrest and imprisonment for drug trafficking, Bellm and Steve Neal co-founded Team Dynamics in 1993, eventually selling his share in the company to Neal.{{cite web |url=http://speedhunters.com/archive/2009/01/02/retrospective-gt-gt-btcc-super-touring-years-pt-1.aspx |title=RETROSPECTIVE>>BTCC SUPER TOURING YEARS PT.1 - Speedhunters |access-date=2009-01-13 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090301104426/http://speedhunters.com/archive/2009/01/02/retrospective-gt-gt-btcc-super-touring-years-pt-1.aspx |archive-date=1 March 2009 |df=dmy-all }} He won the International GT championship in 1994, and the BPR Global GT Series in 1996 driving a McLaren F1 GTR to 11 wins in two years. He also won the 1991 Willhire 24 Hour at Snetterton in a BMW M3 co-driven with Kurt Luby and Will Hoy.

Since then he has returned to historics, including running the Le Mans Classic in 2004 and 2006. He also turned to rallying coming sixth in the 2000 London-Sydney Rally and in 2005 won three rounds of the British Historic Rally Championship in a Mk1 Ford Escort.{{Cite web|url=http://www.historicrallysport.co.uk/finished-builds/for-ray-bellm|title = For Ray Bellm}} In 2005 he contested the British round of the World Rally Championship in Group N classed car finishing seventh. In 2006 he finished sixth in Finland and twelfth in Rally Great Britain.

He has served as chairman of the British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC) from 2004 to 2005, and was responsible for negotiations with Formula One Management which resulted in the successful resigning of the British Grand Prix in 2005.

Bellm also owned and ran the Silverstone based motorsport equipment retailer, Grand Prix Racewear, having bought a majority stake in 1994.[http://foxcraft.co.uk/biographies/biog8_fiona.html Bio_Fiona Butterfield] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110816162705/http://foxcraft.co.uk/biographies/biog8_fiona.html |date=16 August 2011 }}

In 2011, Bellm started the 106 Drivers Club, an event based company to run social road car tours for owners of the iconic 3 seater Mclaren F1. Celebrating milestone anniversaries, the 20th and 25th anniversaries attracted 22 chassis of the 103 that remain.

Racing record

= 24 Hours of Le Mans results =

(key)

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

! Team

! Co-Drivers

! Car

! Class

! Laps

! {{Tooltip|Pos.|Overall Position}}

! {{Tooltip|Class
Pos.|Class Position}}

{{24hLM|1984}}

|align="left"| {{flagicon|GBR}} Spice-Tiga Racing

|align="left"| {{flagicon|GBR}} Gordon Spice
{{flagicon|AUS}} Neil Crang

|align="left"| Tiga GC84-Ford Cosworth

| C2

| 69

| DNF

| DNF

{{24hLM|1985}}

|align="left"| {{flagicon|GBR}} Spice Engineering

|align="left"| {{flagicon|GBR}} Gordon Spice
{{flagicon|IRE}} Mark Galvin

|align="left"| Spice-Tiga GC85-Ford Cosworth

| C2

| 312

| 14th

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

{{24hLM|1986}}

|align="left"| {{flagicon|GBR}} Spice Engineering

|align="left"| {{flagicon|GBR}} Gordon Spice
{{flagicon|BEL}} Jean-Michel Martin

|align="left"| Spice SE86C-Ford Cosworth

| C2

| 257

| 19th

| 6th

{{24hLM|1988}}

|align="left"| {{flagicon|GBR}} Spice Engineering

|align="left"| {{flagicon|GBR}} Gordon Spice
{{flagicon|FRA}} Pierre de Thoisy

|align="left"| Spice SE88C-Ford Cosworth

| C2

| 351

| 13th

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

{{24hLM|1989}}

|align="left"| {{flagicon|GBR}} Spice Engineering

|align="left"| {{flagicon|GBR}} Gordon Spice
{{flagicon|USA}} Lyn St. James

|align="left"| Spice SE89C-Ford Cosworth

| C1

| 229

| DNF

| DNF

{{24hLM|1994}}

|align="left"| {{flagicon|GBR}} Bristow Racing
{{flagicon|NOR}} Erik Henriksen

|align="left"| {{flagicon|GBR}} Harry Nuttall
{{flagicon|GBR}} Charles Rickett

|align="left"| Porsche 911 Carrera RSR

| GT2

| 34

| DNF

| DNF

{{24hLM|1995}}

|align="left"| {{flagicon|GBR}} GTC Gulf Racing

|align="left"| {{flagicon|GBR}} Mark Blundell
{{flagicon|BRA}} Maurizio Sandro Sala

|align="left"| McLaren F1 GTR

| GT1

| 291

| 4th

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

{{24hLM|1996}}

|align="left"| {{flagicon|GBR}} Gulf Racing
{{flagicon|GBR}} GTC Racing

|align="left"| {{flagicon|GBR}} James Weaver
{{flagicon|FIN}} JJ Lehto

|align="left"| McLaren F1 GTR

| GT1

| 323

| 9th

| 7th

{{24hLM|1997}}

|align="left"| {{flagicon|GBR}} Gulf Team Davidoff
{{flagicon|GBR}} GTC Racing

|align="left"| {{flagicon|GBR}} Andrew Gilbert-Scott
{{flagicon|JPN}} Masanori Sekiya

|align="left"| McLaren F1 GTR

| GT1

| 326

| DNF

| DNF

colspan="8"|{{center|{{small|Sources:{{cite web|title=Ray Bellm|url=https://www.24h-lemans.com/en/track-record/driver/ray-bellm-4517|publisher=Automobile Club de l'Ouest|access-date=10 June 2023}}{{cite web|title=Ray Bellm Results|url=https://motorsportstats.com/driver/ray-bellm/results|publisher=Motorsport Stats|access-date=10 June 2023}}}}}}

= Complete British Touring Car Championship results =

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position – 1990 in class) (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

! 10

! 11

! 12

! 13

! 14

! 15

! 16

! 17

! DC

! Pts

! Class

1990

! Hawaiian Tropic

! Ford Sierra Sapphire

! {{Tooltip|B|Class B}}

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| OUL
ovr:10
cls:6

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| DON
Ret

|style="background:#FFFFFF;"| THR
DNS

|style="background:#FFFFFF;"| SIL
DNS

| OUL

|style="background:#FFFFFF;"| SIL
DNP

| BRH

| SNE

| BRH

|style="background:#FFFFFF;"| BIR
DNA

|style="background:#FFFFFF;"| DON
DNS

| THR

| SIL

|

|

|

|

! 32nd

! 6

! 20th

1991

! BMW Team Listerine

! BMW M3

!

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| SIL
6

|style="background:#DFDFDF;"| SNE
2

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| DON
6

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| THR
7

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| SIL
5{{ref|1|1}}

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| BRH
7

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| SIL
4

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| DON
1
6

|style="background:#DFDFDF;"| DON
2
2

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| OUL
6

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| BRH
1
14

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| BRH
2
Ret

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| DON
4

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| THR
5

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| SIL
6

|

|

! 5th

! 90

|

1992

! M Team Shell Racing with Listerine

! BMW 318is

!

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| SIL
9

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| THR
Ret

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| OUL
10

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| SNE
12

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| BRH
Ret

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| DON
1
7

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| DON
2
10

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| SIL
6

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| KNO
1
6

|style="background:#DFFFDF;"| KNO
2
8

|style="background:#FFFFFF;"| PEM
DNS

| BRH
1

| BRH
2

| DON

| SIL

|

|

! 13th

! 15

|

1993

! Team Dynamics

! BMW 318is

!

| SIL

|style="background:#EFCFFF;"| DON
Ret

|style="background:#FFFFFF;"| SNE
DNS

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| DON
18

| OUL

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| BRH
1
13

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| BRH
2
12

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| PEM
17

|style="background:#CFCFFF;"| SIL
14

| KNO
1

| KNO
2

| OUL

| BRH

| THR

| DON
1

| DON
2

| SIL

! 29th

! 0

|

colspan="24"|{{center|{{small|Sources:{{cite web|title=Ray Bellm race results|url=https://www.touringcars.net/database/driver.php?name=Ray+BELLM|publisher=TouringCars.net|access-date=10 June 2023}}}}}}

  1. {{Note|1}} – Race was stopped due to heavy rain. No points were awarded.

References

{{Reflist}}

External links

  • [https://web.archive.org/web/20061126005747/http://www.btccpages.com/driv/bellmray.php Brief career summary at btccpages.com]

{{s-start}}

{{s-sports}}

{{succession box|title=BPR Global GT Series
Champion|before=Thomas Bscher
John Nielsen|after=Bernd Schneider
(FIA GT Championship)|years=1996 with:
James Weaver}}

{{s-end}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bellm, Ray}}

Category:1950 births

Category:Living people

Category:British Touring Car Championship drivers

Category:24 Hours of Le Mans drivers

Category:World Sportscar Championship drivers

Category:BMW M drivers