During the Goodwood Festival of Speed, Pit Debrief was given the opportunity to speak exclusively with 2021 Daytona 24 LMP2 winner Kyle Tilley. Success continued this year at Daytona 24 as well as at 12 Hours of Sebring with Era Motorsport being victorious in LMP2. This time with Tilley sticking to the pits as opposed to in the cockpit. Pit Debrief spoke to the team owner about this recent success as well as what brought him along to the Goodwood this past weekend – showcasing nine historic Shadow race cars.
Era Motorsport has deep roots in racing. Founder Kyle Tilley started racing at the age of six, following in the footsteps of his father, and he has been stateside for more than the past decade enjoying incredible success.
“11 years now I’ve been in America.” confirmed Tilley. “I started the company in 2018 for really just focused on historic racing. And then one of our clients said that he would like to do some more modern stuff. But it’s literally gone from there. And obviously now we’ve won Daytona 24 twice, won Sebring 12 hours, and I’ve had a third and a second at Daytona again and obviously done Le Mans and countless other things. We won the Asian Le Mans Series Championship. So, there’s been a lot, it’s been a fairly hectic six years.”
Tilley found his love of motorsport through his family’s influence and Era Motorsport is very much a family run business with his wife Sarah currently fulfilling Tilley’s role whilst he takes care of duties at Goodwood.
“Yep, she’s in my spot with the LMP2 team.” Tilley explained. “This weekend for IMSA with Stuart Wiltshire and Ryan Dalziel driving. And I’ve still been keeping track of all of that as well. So, it’s busy for sure, but I’m really enjoying it.”
Era Motorsport received a coveted entry into the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans back in 2020 and finished 11th in class. Quite a feat for what was the team’s first international sportscar racing outing. The team’s last foray into the event was in 2021, but unfortunately an incident in the Thursday practice saw Era Motorsport and IDEC SPORT Racing withdraw their No. 17 Oreca from that year’s competition. Therefore, our discussion then turned to whether Era Motorsport plan on making their way back to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
“No real plans to go back to Le Mans. Le Mans LMP2 is not really wanted. For me the P2 stuff is probably the best formula in ACO [Automobile Club de l’Ouest] racing. Not a fan of the current GTB, LMPH, Hypercar. But no, the P2 stuff is great. If there was the opportunity to go back to Le Mans, we would. (1:51) But it would have to be the right opportunity.” stated the Era Motorsport team owner.
Tilley famously said that he would not buy a Rolex watch as he had to win one. That momentous day happened at the 2021 Rolex Daytona 24 hours, but he quipped this past Saturday “Now I’ve won one, I’ve bought one.” The reason being he prefers the model to the one which he was awarded. A second Daytona victory came the way of Era Motorsport this year but sadly no Rolex as those go to the drivers rather than the team owner. Having not been in the cockpit, Pit Debrief asked Tilley how challenging the transition to pit wall had been.
“I was present on the pit box the whole way through it. Just let the race engineer do his thing really. Whatever happens, happens. But definitely when it comes to some of the strategy calls and things like that, I’m obviously fairly heavily involved still. But yeah, obviously most of it comes down to just putting the right people in place and once you’ve done that bit, the rest is fairly easy.”
Tilley was present at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed as he was part of the drivers who were showcasing the Shadow race cars.
Nine historic Shadow race cars were presented during this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, including Shadow Can-Am cars from the knee-high MkI Prototype to the Dodge-powered DN4B, plus a 1975 Shadow DN5 Formula 1 car, and the Shadow DN6B which saw great success in the Formula 5000 series.
The event continues to break attendance records and it is clear that the popularity F1 is experiencing at present is key to this. However, with the patrons through the door it allows them to see vehicles they may have never heard of, and it is for this reason that Tilley enjoys Goodwood events so much.
“For me, that’s what this event is all about. My favourite Goodwood event, hands down, is obviously the revival. But I also appreciate that’s not everybody’s cup of tea. So, for me, if this brings in a new bunch of fans that leave here thinking that Shadows are the coolest thing ever, then I’m all for it.” Tilley concluded.
1974 Can-Am Champion Jackie Oliver was reunited with his championship-winning Shadow DN4 at Goodwood and the crowd at his meet and greet delighted in hearing tales from the Former F1 driver concerning Jim Clark and Graham Hill. Another fan closer to home was Kane Tilley – younger brother of Kyle – who is also part of the Era Motorsport setup.
Kane shared his delight at being able to drive up the Goodwood hill climb for the first time and also being able to drive a Can-Am car for the first time having never driven anything more than 200 horsepower prior to that. “To jump in the 4B, it’s not the big, big engines but you put the foot down and it goes – it’s awesome.” Better than all of this though, for Kane, was being able to work with his hero Jackie Oliver: “Jackie signed my autograph book when I was 8. To be working with him now, it’s just incredible, he’s such an awesome bloke.”
The paddock area featuring the Shadow cars was consistently busy with a wide demographic of fans all stopping by to capture images of these masterpieces of innovation. That came no surprise to Kane Tilley though “They’re hard not to love. They’re massive, really loud things. You can’t not love them.”
Goodwood Festival of Speed is also hard not to love – hence it continues to be a sellout event. As you weave your way through a vast paddock, you witness machines from the past 100 years and are surrounded by people with a shared passion. You learn new stories, encounter incredible experiences and make long lasting memories – most often alongside family members. Era Motorsport is a family-run team of extremely talented, passionate and skillful race fans – which is why it is so pleasing to see their continued success and long may it continue.
