AN OGWELL boy is on the verge of claiming the Motorsport UK Junior Rallycross Championship for the second year in a row.

Max Langmaid, 17, is the provisional champion of the racing series but must wait for his car to pass scrutineering before the result is made official.

‘Max has literally been driving since he could walk,’ said Chris Langmaid, Max’s father. ‘I think the first time he got behind the wheel of a vehicle, he was about six.

‘He had quad bikes from the age of three, so he has always been on wheels. He drove quite a big vehicle when he was five or six, and it went from there.

‘He got into short oval racing, so aged 10 he started on a loose surface up at a motor club in Dorset. Aged 11, he started Ministox racing, which is a full-contact motorsport; it is stock cars for kids and it’s a very steep learning curve. He kept doing that until 13, when he won the local points championship.

‘At 14, it all changes; you can go from stock cars or motor clubs to a Motorsport UK Junior licence. We looked at the Junior Saloon Car Championship; we went up to Croft and Max was part of the scholarship day they had. Max did alright but it was quite clear that the likes of us from down in Devon – who turned up in our family car – weren’t going to win it, and we were put off by that. We were heartbroken because the odds would be always against us financially.

‘We were in a hotel for the night and I said: ‘right, we can do junior rallycross.’ I’ve always loved rallycross. The following day, we went to see some family and over lunch we were talking about it. They said: ‘we’ll pay to hire a car and get his first event under his belt.’

‘We were amazed – we couldn’t offer him that because we didn’t have that kind of money. That’s where the rallycross journey with the BTRDA [British Trial and Rally Drivers Association] started.’

Rallycross combines rallying and circuit racing on a mixed-surface track, usually dirt and asphalt. Races are short and thrilling, with close, wheel-to-wheel action while the drivers wrestle the cars around the short circuits.

‘We didn’t have any success in the hire car and it kept breaking down. We rushed to sell everything he had from his Ministox career and from that money we rushed to build him his first Swift, which was for the BTRDA.

‘We did two seasons, but in the second season we were struck with COVID and that halted progress a little bit. We then decided to go for British Rallycross, which is the same car with the same specs but you buy the parts from them, so it’s a one-make championship. That levelled the playing fields up because money talks and we realised we didn’t have the contacts to get the stuff that the other competitors were using.

Max moved to the Motorsport UK Junior Rallycross Championship, part of the Swift Rallycross Championships. Swift Rallycross Championships were created to offer a level playing field based on talent rather than budget, and has created champions who have stepped up to win other British championships and even compete on the World Rallycross Championship stage. Every driver in the series must use a championship-spec Suzuki Swift Sport ’06-’10.

‘Going over to British Rallycross was probably the best thing we’ve ever done,’ Chris explained. ’He’d never driven the British Rallycross car we had built for him and Max was still at school but he’d come home to the car in the garage and he’d be with a heat gun and a scraper cleaning all sorts off the car.

‘Max put hours and hours of his own time into it, which I strongly believe is part of his success because there’s so many families that don’t do it themselves and pay someone to do it for them, so for Max to have all that hard work invested in his own car was a massive thing. He went for his first event and he won some heats on the first day, then the second day he won the final.

‘He didn’t win every race last year but it was nearly every race, so by the time we went to Lydden Hill for the last round he had already won it – we were a country mile ahead.

‘[It was] very much the same this year,’ Chris continued. ‘We had an unfortunate round two at Lydden Hill where Max had a coming together with another car, so there was a lot of damage and it cost him a lot of points for the day because it was the first heat and we didn’t manage to get the car back out until the final.

‘He limped round the track but still managed to finish third or fourth – the car was a mess. But he fought back all year and he fought really hard. Until recently, I thought there was too big a gap and he wouldn’t be able to do it, but he managed to.

‘Max really has a knack for it, and he is so cool behind the wheel. If you watch his on-board camera, he is so calm – nothing fazes him. It’s like he’s out for a Sunday drive. He blows my mind.’

The next step for Max is the BMW Mini Rallycross Championship. It will be Max’s first full season in an adult formula, having only compete in full-time juniors until now. But the youngster does possess some experience in the supercharged cars.

‘Next year, we are going up to the supercharged Minis,’ said Chris. ‘He was given the loan of a supercharged Mini to have a go with in the BTRDA during the summer. They are twice the horsepower of the Swifts and are a totally different handling animal – they are very different cars and it is a fully-adult category.

‘He went out and won it on only his second day.’

Max has his sights set on the global stage. The 17-year-old hopes to make a move to stage rallying soon, with the view to progressing through the ranks to compete in the World Rally Championship, the premier level of rally racing.

‘He wants to end up on the World Rally stage,’ Chris said. ‘The goal for next year for him is to secure a bit of funding so that we can get him onto rally stages – ultimately, that is the next step.

‘There will eventually be a move away from rallycross – in an ideal world we would get him into a supercar in the Rallycross but you’re talking house price figures just for one year in supercars. We’ve got to start making some inroads to get him on the rally stages, else it’s never going to happen.

‘He could end up coming back to the rallycross but he wants to get out on the stages and give that a go, so I think we’ll be looking at some one-make championships for rallying. This time next season, we would hopefully have had a go on a rally stage, so we’ll have a bit more of an idea where we are going.’

At most levels, motorsport is self-funded. The financial strain on drivers and their families can be seismic, and it only gets worse as drivers get higher up the ranks. One way to get around the costs is to bring sponsors on board.

Max has the backing of multiple local sponsors. Max and his team would like to thank VMS Torbay Ltd, GSF Car Parts Torquay, Torque GT JDM Import Specialist, Just Logistics (SW) Ltd, Goodridge Ltd, Milber Salvage and Spares, Callum House Photography, Auto Dynamix Tuning Specialists, Torquay Transmissions Gearbox Specialists and R&M Bodyworx Automotive Paint and Repairs for their support.

‘For us, the hardest thing for us is celebrating the sponsors we have got. We have got some great small businesses behind us locally who really believe in him and really have gone a long way to helping him because without them we wouldn’t be where we are today. We cannot thank them enough.

‘Going forward, we need to get more people that believe in him and will support him. It’s really difficult to get funding. Down here in the South West is probably one of the most difficult places to get people excited for the racing because there’s nothing down here locally.

‘My wife, Emma, and I are immensely proud. He’s achieved – and he keeps on achieving – and we are so, so proud of him.’