James Kirk

**James Kirk**

Nationality	British
Year Joined	2013
First Race	2013 Challenge Turkish Grand Prix
Series Entered	None
Current Team(s)	Wauters Automotive, Draig Racing
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	2
Poles	1
Fastest Laps	0

James Kirk is a British simulation racing driver and commentator from England currently racing for Wauters Automotive and Draig Racing. He is also the owner of the Enterprise GP outfit and co-founded TheSixthAxis Racing. Though half-Welsh he chooses to race under an English licence as he was both born and bred in the country.

Kirk is one of few drivers to use a DualShock 3 controller to race with. Though many have predicted what great feats the Brit could achieve with a wheel, Kirk stubbornly sticks with his controller citing money, his driving style and "the challenge" as the main reasons why he does not 'upgrade'.

Pre-GPVWC

2012-13

Gentlemen's Racing Club

Kirk began in simracing career at the (now defunct) Gentlemen's Racing Club. Taking part in the final round of the eleventh season of its touring car championship, Kirk's debut at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza with the team he co-founded (TheSixthAxis Racing) showed potential but also rookie errors which led to minor points scores.

Season 12 of the GRCTCC would prove to be a season of initial highs but big lows for Kirk. Taking part in Division 2 of the field, at the season opener at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca he secured Division pole position and took a Division podium and win to boot. However, from there on in a plethora of retirements and incidents marred the season with Kirk even electing to sit out of the crucial triple points round at Bahrain International Circuit. Things went from bad to worse for Kirk as in the aftermath of another disastrous round at Autopolis Circuit, a lengthy ban was imposed on the Brit following abuse against competitor, Ihab Abbas.

Forced to sit out of the seasonal Trophy Race and the first half of the Season 14 pre-season, Kirk returned for a second consecutive season with TheSixthAxis Racing; though this time in Division 1. Kirk's anger problems persisted but overall this season turned out to be much more productive than the previous. Two front row starts proved highlights for the Brit as well as a highest finish of fourth at Barber Motorsports Park. After ending up P10 in the Drivers' championship and helping TheSixthAxis take P4 in the Teams' championship, it was clear that Kirk's relationship with his own team was becoming strenuous though still the running of the team continued. It was around this time that the first suggestions of a new junior team for TheSixthAxis (run by Kirk) were brought up. The tentative name for this outfit; Scuderia L'Asse Sesto.

GPVWC career

2013

GPVWC Beginnings and the Birth of Enterprise GP

In mid-2013, Kirk decided to join only his second ever series by taking part in GPVWC's 2013 Formula Challenge season. Signing for Backmarker Brigade, Kirk enjoyed relative success in the open wheeler category by scoring on his debut. It was also at this time that Scuderia L'Asse Sesto evolved into Enterprise GP, a completely independent outfit. Kirk signed fellow Brits Scott Berrisford and Matthew Allington to his new outfit and entered the two into the 2013 World Sport Series season in which both were on the whole successful.

With the good results of Enterprise came decent results for Kirk himself equaling his highest ever result of fourth at the 2013 Challenge Belgian Grand Prix after letting David Fidock pass on the final lap of Race 2 as a "sorry gesture" for causing the title contender grief in the previous round at Monza. Competing in only six rounds of the eighteen round strong 2013 calender though, Kirk never set his targets championship-wise too high. That said, his unhealthy drive for perfection ended in yet more anger outbursts and he left BRB disgraced after one of the biggest yet during the 2013 Challenge United States Grand Prix.

The End of Gentlemen's Racing Club

Just one day before the infamous round in the USA, Kirk partook in the final ever race to be held at the Gentlemen's Racing Club with the league closing its doors for good and merging with GPVWC to become the International Touring Cup. The Brit endured yet another difficult event at his home circuit finishing mid-table in both races following both mistakes from himself and contact from others. Driving for Playseat® Racing, this would prove to be Kirk's final round for TheSixthAxis contingent. Following the difficult event, Kirk vowed to take a lengthy break from touring car action, despite the ability to take part in the inaugural ITC season.

Leaving TheSixthAxis Racing

On September 20th, Kirk held crisis talks with co-team principal Cameron Brewster about the Brit's future at TheSixthAxis Racing. Though tensions had been simmering following the final season of the GRCTCC, these feelings were brought to the forefront after Kirk had discussed the team's problems in World GT when commentating on the 2013 San Marino Touring Cup. Not content with how the team viewed him, Kirk quit his position as co-team principal to focus fully on the development of Enterprise GP.

Early Return To Action

Though Kirk had planned to break from simracing until the 2014 Formula Challenge season, instead he was roped back into action to try and help Woods Racing to ITC glory. Joining in at the third round at the Botniaring Racing Circuit, Kirk was already ruffled as expected team mate Oscar Hardwick was banned from GPVWC. Instead, he was to partner Oskari Kantonen and though Kirk's qualifying form had not dropped off (qualifying P6 after over a month away from touring car racing), neither had his bad luck; the Brit only scoring four points following contact with numerous drivers and being thrashed by Kantonen who took two podiums. In his final round of 2013 however, Kirk (now partnering Dave Carr-Smith) had a much more positive experience. At his home circuit on the calender at Snetterton Motor Racing Circuit, he took a sixth and his first ever podium in simracing.

2014

Finishing The Job At Woods

The second half of the 2013/14 International Touring Cup season proved to be much more painful than Kirk had hoped. Barring a couple of top fives at Watkins Glen International, he claimed no significant results and failed to score points in all three races at any of the remaining rounds. The identity of his team mate at Woods Racing was also a concern as it constantly changed until Kyle Williams was signed for the final two rounds. Though this didn't affect Kirk's driving itself, it did hurt preparation for most events during the season. The Brit endured a miserable run at the end of the season failing to score in seven consecutive races by getting caught up in accidents, enduring more contact and even a disconnection. Kirk took the run as a sign of him needing change; vowing to work on his anger during races, his driving style and his setup knowledge.

Formula Challenge

Though faced with time constraints at the start and potentially the end of the year, Kirk still managed to sign a contract with Bastvik Grand Prix for the 2014 Formula Challenge season. Making his debut for the Finnish team at Malaysia, Kirk was average at best, struggled to deal with the temperatures and ultimately failed to score. Returning in China, he got on the board with a ninth in Race 2 and continued the trend of inconsistent mid-points scoring finishes until his final event of the year at Circuit of the Americas. Kirk was unable to improve on his highest finish in Formula Challenge (let alone simracing) with his season best being sixth in Race 1 at Germany. He was however able to best his qualifying record in Formula Challenge securing P6 on the grid in his final round of the season.

International Touring Cup

Though enduring a difficult end to the 2013/14 season, Kirk was signed for the 2014 International Touring Cup season with high-flying outfit Triple Twenty. Set to partner 5th placed in 2013/14 Bart De Vos, Kirk was looking for a solid season of playing wingman to the star of the Croatian outfit. In typical fashion for Kirk however, things did not turn out as planned. Once again, qualifying remained strong with Kirk inheriting his first ever pole position at the 2014 Australian Touring Cup following the exclusion of previous pole sitter Harley Hamnett from all 2014 events. Once again, races proved troublesome though with multiple incidents leaving Kirk both frustrated and with a lack of points. The huge drop off in form of De Vos did nothing to consolidate the Brit and Triple Twenty fell from a top five outfit to a mid-table scrapper. Ultimately, Kirk left the team with destination unknown before the season had even reached half-way; the team's lack of faith in his ability proving to be the breaking point.

For Britain, Kirk secured a last-minute drive with struggling team Wauters Automotive; at this time yet to score a single point in 2014. Though qualifying proved to be a disaster, the round overall was anything but as Kirk secured the second podium of his career and (along with the help of team mate David Jundt) lifted Wauters off the bottom of the table. Following the return to the podium, Kirk inked a deal with Wauters for the rest of the season. Though finding better stability in both his driving ability and feeling in the team, Kirk suffered further bad luck with poor qualifying laps and technical issues hindering his progress for the final stages of the season. Nevertheless, he still managed to finish in the top twenty of the Drivers' Championship.

Supercup

Prior to the United States Grand Prix week and in the knowledge of his impending departure from Formula Challenge, Kirk signed yet another deal with Wauters but of a very different kind. Joining the team's Supercup team as Technical Director, his job would be to help the drivers improve their setup; an area which Wauters felt they were severely down on in comparison to other teams. The results of the signing were instant as Jarl Teien not only took pole position but a race win also at the Circuit of the Americas. With Enterprise GP set to move up to Supercup the following season however, Kirk stepped down from the role to focus fully on his own outfit. Wauters finished 9th overall in the Teams' Championship.

2015

Formula Challenge

Despite not actively looking for a drive, Kirk was unveiled as one of Fanatec Draig Racing's drivers for the 2015 Formula Challenge season. The Brit was to partner Hungarian prodigy Balint Hammer with the aim to take Draig back up the Career Ladder.

Outside GPVWC

2014

SimRacingPro

Leading on from his drive at Wauters Automotive in the GPVWC International Touring Cup, Kirk would also drive for the team in the second season of SimRacingPro's TopStep series. With the category set as Super GT, the Brit looked forward to the new challenge of what would still only be his third different league entered and alongside the talented young Spaniard, Fran Lopez. The campaign proved an overall success for Kirk with a pole position and two podiums in the third round at Zhuhai; the Brit ended up 5th in the Drivers' championship and aided Wauters to 3rd in the Teams' Championship just a few points behind close rivals THR.

Commentary

2012

Debuting alongside Liam Jenkins for the second season of the RaceDepartment Open Wheel Championship, Kirk found the experience useful but yearned for lead commentary duties. GPVWC offered that chance and gave Kirk the helm of two series for the 2013 season. He would helm the first ever broadcast season of World GT with Mike Pitman alongside him and would take over from Simon Smith to lead the 2013 World Sport Series season with Bradley Vanian as co-commentator. He would also be called upon as a reserve commentator if Nick Rowland could not make a Supercup round.

2013

Initial impressions of Kirk's commentary were hugely positive with his excitable style keeping viewers on the edge of their seats. He also would indeed deputise for Rowland in the Supercup at the Spanish and Canadian rounds once again drawing a positive reception. During the 2013 Korean Grand Prix week, Kirk would make his commentary debut on Formula Challenge as well as deputising on Supercup once again. It was during this week however where Kirk was paired for the first time with Lewis McGlade a fresh commentator transferring over from Formula SimRacing. The chemistry was instant and the two would go on to form a hugely successful partnership which would also move over to the World Sport Series.

Following this week, Kirk would make his Endurance Racing commentary debut at the site which gave him his debut; RaceDepartment. Commentating on 10 Hours of America, the Brit didn't feel right with the lack of action on track but nevertheless, after another week on Supercup duty, returned to helm the RaceDepartment 24 Hours of Le Mans for a 4 hour stint. After the following week and Rowland's final commentary of a Supercup round, the 2013 British Supercup Grand Prix, Kirk and McGlade were named as the new permanent commentary duo of the 2013 Supercup season until the end of the season. The two would also appear alongside each other and Simon Smith in GPVWC's final broadcast of the year; the 2013 Race of Champions.

2014

For 2014, Kirk would continue to host the Supercup alongside Lewis McGlade however was set to man the 2014 World Sport Series season alone. With World GT's future unknown, Kirk was forced to sit out on his third commentary role. Come this year, Kirk's style was noticeably more composed though still retained the excitement during action on track which viewers had come to love.

In this year, Kirk made three appearances on GPVWC's inaugural 24 Hours of Le Mans; two as team manager of LYNX Enterprise GP and one as lead commentator. He would also form a new partnership with Ben Hackeson who joined as co-commentator for the World Sport Series from Monaco onward.

Near the end of the year, the Kirk-McGlade combo was broken up to become a more temporary team as a change of circumstances for McGlade proved to be too much to continue commentating on a regular basis. In his place came Sam Jones who also had a one-off stint in place of Hackeson at the 2014 Belgian Sport Series. McGlade did return for one last broadcast in 2014 however and witnessed the madness of the 2014 United States Supercup Grand Prix.

Racing record

Career summary

Year	Series	Team	Races	Wins	Poles	Podiums	Points	Position
2012	GRC Touring Car Championship	TheSixthAxis Racing	2	0	0	0	4	43rd
2012	GRC Touring Car Championship - D2	TheSixthAxis Racing	17	1	1	2	263	6th
2013	GRC Touring Car Championship - D1	TheSixthAxis Racing	24	0	0	0	233	10th
2013	Formula Challenge	Backmarker Brigade	12	0	0	0	21	47th
2013/14	International Touring Cup	Woods Racing	17	0	0	1	62	21st
2014	Formula Challenge	Bastvik Grand Prix	21	0	0	0	66	22nd
	International Touring Cup	Triple Twenty	26	0	1	1	93	19th
	International Touring Cup	Wauters Automotive	26	0	1	1	93	19th
	SRP TopStep	Wauters Automotive	12	0	1	2	102	5th

* Season in progress.

GRC Touring Car Championship

(Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) (Races with a '^' indicate highest climber)

Year/Season	Entrant	Chassis	Division	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	DC	Points
2012/Season 12	TheSixthAxis Racing	BMW 1 Series E-87b	N/A	KEN R1	KEN R2	KEN R3	POL R1	POL R2	POL R3	AUS R1	AUS R2	AUS R3	SCO R1	SCO R2	SCO R3	CAN R1	CAN R2	CAN R3	MEX R1	MEX R2	MEX R3	AUT R1	AUT R2	AUT R3	ITA R1 18	ITA R2 20	ITA R3 DNS	43rd	4
2012/Season 13	TheSixthAxis Racing	BMW 320si E90	Division 2	USA R1 2	USA R2 5	USA R3 1	BRA R1 8	BRA R2 4^	BRA R3 4	CZE R1 Ret	CZE R2 Ret	CZE R3 DNS	BAH R1	BAH R2	BAH R3	GBR R1 4	GBR R2 6	GBR R3 6	GER R1 9	GER R2 9^†	GER R3 11	JPN R1 8	JPN R2 9	JPN R3 8^†	NZL R1	NZL R2	NZL R3	6th	263
2013/Season 14	TheSixthAxis Racing	BMW 320si E90	Division 1	HAM R1 7	HAM R2 11	HAM R3 10	SCO R1 16^†	SCO R2 13	SCO R3 6	AUT R1 15	AUT R2 18	AUT R3 13	CHE R1 6	CHE R2 9	CHE R3 12	USA R1 Ret	USA R2 10	USA R3 4	ITA R1 16	ITA R2 17	ITA R3 Ret	FAN R1 7	FAN R2 6	FAN R3 7	POR R1 9	POR R2 11	POR R3 8	10th	233

GPVWC Formula Challenge

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

Year	Entrant	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	31	32	33	34	35	36	DC	Points
2013	BackMarker Brigade	AUS R1	AUS R2	MAL R1	MAL R2	AUT R1	AUT R2	HUN R1	HUN R2	ESP R1	ESP R2	MON R1	MON R2	CAN R1	CAN R2	KOR R1	KOR R2	TUR R1 16	TUR R2 15	GBR R1	GBR R2	ITA R1 Ret	ITA R2 Ret	BEL R1 15	BEL R2 4	FRA R1 20	FRA R2 Ret	GER R1 10	GER R2 17	USA R1 Ret	USA R2 Ret	UAE R1	UAE R2	JPN R1	JPN R2	BRA R1	BRA R2	47th	21
2014	Bastvik Grand Prix	AUS R1	AUS R2	MAL R1 25	MAL R2 16	BAH R1	BAH R2	CHI R1 20	CHI R2 9	ESP R1 8	ESP R2 DNS	MON R1	MON R2	CAN R1 15	CAN R2 11	AUT R1 10	AUT R2 10	GBR R1 17	GBR R2 Ret	GER R1 6	GER R2 Ret	HUN R1 12	HUN R2 16	BEL R1 29	BEL R2 11	ITA R1 26	ITA R2 11	USA R1 7	USA R2 Ret	UAE R1	UAE R2	JPN R1	JPN R2	BRA R1	BRA R2			20th*	66
2015	Fanatec Draig Racing	AUS R1	AUS R2	BAH R1	BAH R2	ESP R1	ESP R2	POR R1	POR R2	TUR R1	TUR R2	MON R1	MON R2	CAN R1	CAN R2	GBR R1	GBR R2	AUT R1	AUT R2	HUN R1	HUN R2	BEL R1	BEL R2	ITA R1	ITA R2	SIN R1	SIN R2	JPN R1	JPN R2	UAE R1	UAE R2	USA R1	USA R2	BRA R1	BRA R2			TBC	TBC

GPVWC International Touring Cup

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

Year	Entrant	Chassis	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	31	32	33	34	35	36	DC	Points
2013/14	Woods Racing	BMW 320si E90	SAN R1	SAN R2	SAN R3	POR R1	POR R2	POR R3	FIN R1 12	FIN R2 16	FIN R3 Ret	GBR R1 6	GBR R2 18	GBR R3 3	CAN R1 14	CAN R2 8	CAN R3 Ret	USA R1 5	USA R2 5	USA R3 26	AUS R1 Ret	AUS R2 Ret	AUS R3 DNS	JPN R1 Ret	JPN R2 21	JPN R3 Ret													21st	62
2014	Triple Twenty	Lexus IS	BAH R1 9	BAH R2 8	BAH R3 14	NZL R1	NZL R2	NZL R3	AUS R1 Ret	AUS R2 24	AUS R3 Ret	RUS R1 8	RUS R2 Ret	RUS R3 28	AUT R1 33	AUT R2 22	AUT R3 Ret	GBR R1	GBR R2	GBR R3	GER R1	GER R2	GER R3	CZE R1	CZE R2	CZE R3	ITA R1	ITA R2	ITA R3	USA R1	USA R2	USA R3	JPN R1	JPN R2	JPN R3	BRA R1	BRA R2	BRA R3	19th	93
2014	Wauters Automotive	Audi RS4	BAH R1	BAH R2	BAH R3	NZL R1	NZL R2	NZL R3	AUS R1	AUS R2	AUS R3	RUS R1	RUS R2	RUS R3	AUT R1	AUT R2	AUT R3	GBR R1 21	GBR R2 14	GBR R3 3	GER R1 13	GER R2 9	GER R3 23	CZE R1 10	CZE R2 Ret	CZE R3 19	ITA R1 12	ITA R2 9	ITA R3 7	USA R1 9	USA R2 DNS	USA R3 21	JPN R1 Ret	JPN R2 DNS	JPN R3 17	BRA R1 13	BRA R2 12	BRA R3 Ret	19th	93

SimRacingPro TopStep

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

Year/Season	Entrant	Chassis	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	DC	Points
2014/Season 2	Wauters Automotive	Honda HSV-010	MPR R1 7	MPR R2 6	OPR R1 8	OPR R2 9	CHI R1 3	CHI R2 3	GBR R1 7	GBR R2 Ret	BEL R1 Ret	BEL R2 10	POR R1 C	POR R2 C	ŌPR R1 C	ŌPR R2 C	SPR R1 6	SPR R2 5	5th	102