James Kaye
James Peter Kaye is a British auto racing driver. He has been a stalwart competitor of Hondas in various championships since 1995, and has had 2 lengthy spells in the BTCC. He won the BTCC independents' championship in 1992 and 1994.
Racing career
Image:James Kaye 2006 BTCC Brands Hatch.jpg|thumb|left|Kaye driving for Synchro Motorsport at the Brands Hatch round of the 2006 British Touring Car Championship season.After racing in the British National Production Saloon Championship with several championship in the late 80s and early 90s, Kaye entered the BTCC as an independent in 1992, winning the independent title in his Toyota, and again in 1994. In 1993, he raced a semi-works Toyota for the Park Lane Racing team, ineligible for the Total Cup for Independents. In 1995, he was hired by Honda for their BTCC programme, racing there for 2 seasons.
Kaye had an assortment of sports car drives for Honda from 1997–1999, returning to touring cars in the National Saloon Championship in 2000. The same cars were eligible for the newly created Class B of the BTCC that year, and Kaye was runner up in a Honda Accord. This was renamed the Production Class for 2001, and Kaye again finished second, before winning the Production Class title in 2002 for Synchro Motorsport, a team of Honda employees working in their spare time at the Honda factory in Swindon.
The team moved up to the Touring class of the BTCC for 2003, defined as an Independent team as they had no financial or technical backing, James classified as Independent runner-up and 14th overall. Remaining with Synchro, Kaye was 11th overall in 2004 and 2005. He took his first series podium at Oulton Park in 2006 after 14 years of trying. For 2007, the team pulled out, leaving Kaye without a drive.
Kaye returned to the BTCC for the 2013 season, driving the AmD Tuning.com Volkswagen Golf in the Jack Sears Trophy.
For the final round of the 2018 Dunlop Endurance Championship, Kaye raced with Matt Le Breton in an Audi RS3 TCR, finishing 11th in race one and 4th in race two.
In 2023, Kaye returned to racing in the final meeting of the inaugural Racing Hondas Championship at Snetterton. Driving a Honda Civic of the same model he had driven in the BTCC from 2002 to 2006 in Class C, he won his class in Race 1 and came third in Race 2. This placed him equal 4th overall in the championship in his class.
Career highlights
- 2006 BTCC with Synchro Racing, once again back in the Civic Type R. Scored in four of the first six races, and then at Oulton Park qualified a fine fourth and converted it into his first BTCC podium finish.
- 2005 BTCC with Synchro Racing, Honda Civic Type R. Quietly began racking up points finishes but constantly in the wars. His best finish was at the Indy round at Brands Hatch, where he was 4th in race three. He even resorted to changing his race number in the final round to see if it would bring a change of luck. Perhaps it worked: he finished all three races in the points, making a season total of 58, 11th in the championship.
- 2004 BTCC with Synchro with the Civic again. A quiet year by James' high standards, but 3rd in qualifying and 4th in the first race at Brands Hatch was a high point. Ended up 11th in the championship with 49 points, 5th in the Independents.
- 2003 BTCC with Team Synchro, Honda Civic Type R. His season seemed to lack consistency but still led to 2nd in the Independents' cup.
- 2002 BTCC Production Class – Honda – Champion; Macau Grand Prix – 6th in second heat
- 2001 BTCC Production Class – Honda – 2nd; Spa 24 Hours; Macau Grand Prix – 4th
- 2000 BTCC Production Class – Honda – 2nd
- 1999 Belgian Procar Championship
- 1997 FIA World GT Championship
- 1996 BTCC – Honda – 12th
- 1995 BTCC – Honda – 18th
- 1994 BTCC Independents' Cup – Toyota – Champion; Australian Touring Cars
- 1993 BTCC – Toyota Junior Team – 20th; Japanese Group A Touring Cars
- 1992 BTCC Independents' Cup – Toyota – Champion
- 1991 British National Group N Championship – Honda Civic Vtec
- 1990 Honda CRX Championship
- 1989 Ford Fiesta Championship – Champion; Renault 5 Turbo Championship; Honda CRX Championship; Uniroyal Production Saloon Car Championship
- 1988 Uniroyal Production Saloon Car Championship – Class Champion; Renault 5 Turbo Championship; Honda CRX Championship
- 1987 Renault 5 Turbo Championship – 2nd
- 1986 Uniroyal Production Saloon Car Championship – Class Champion
- 1985 Uniroyal Production Saloon Car Championship – Champion
- 1984 Uniroyal Production Saloon Car Championship – Class Champion
- 1983 Uniroyal Production Saloon Car Championship
Personal life
Kaye's father Peter Kaye was a Hillclimb/Sprint driver, which was a great influence on James growing up. James is the oldest of 5 children, and his younger brother Richard Kaye, has also raced professionally. James is married and has five children.Racing record
Complete British Saloon / Touring Car Championship results
Races in bold indicate pole position Races in italics indicate fastest lap† Event with 2 races staged for the different classes.
‡ Kaye won in class but was awarded no points due to less than 3 class cars starting the race.
Complete World Touring Car Championship results
| Year | Team | Car | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | DC | Pts | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1987 |  Complete Japanese Touring Car Championship results
Complete Bathurst 1000 resultsComplete Britcar results(Races in bold indicate pole position in class – 1 point awarded just in first race; races in italics indicate fastest lap in class – 1 point awarded all races;-
Complete British GT Championship results
† As Kaye was a guest driver, he was ineligible for points. |