Community Interview: Callum Bethell

Callum Bethell has been one of the most active people in the PitCrew community for the past few weeks. He took part in several one-off events such as the monthly ACC endurances. The next one is our Halloween Special 2.4H Of Spa, which he will be attending. He also is currently involved in several on-going championships: British GT4 and RSS F3 on Assetto Corsa. It’s a busy season 3 for our dear Callum!

Let us know a bit about yourself, Callum.

I’m Callum, I’m 20 and a proud Brummie (which is why my cars have the Birmingham coat of arms on them sometimes). I study Automotive Engineering at University and am hoping to go and work in motor racing in the next few years.

All in with motorsports, then. How long have you been simracing?

Since lockdown pretty much – I saw an ad from our University Formula Student team looking for drivers for the Virtual Formula Student UK events, put my name down not thinking much of it, and was given a space on the team. We had a really good time of it, and it was so nice to be involved and working towards something for the first time in a while. The rush of having a driver on my tail was insane and I caught the bug.

How and when did you join ThePitCrew.co.uk ?

I joined the day after the Formula Student UK events ended – As I said, I’d caught the bug for sim racing from my experiences representing the university in Formula Student’s virtual events and told myself I’d find a racing league. After a fair bit of looking, I joined ThePitCrew and it’s been a nice place to race and chat motorsport since then.

Great ! What’s your favorite memory of racing with this community ?

Definitely the first (and so far only) podium I’ve had in the Tatuus at Nurbs. As usual, after qualifying, there was the chat about fuel and tyres for the race. I saw everyone talking about mediums or hards, and there I was contemplating the softs. In the end, I was told “You’re gonna die” trying to complete the race on the softs, but I took that as a dare. It definitely made the race tenser and I couldn’t really push after the first few laps but it was my first fully clean race with no spins or contact, and definitely the best I’ve driven with the wheel and pedals.

That was a great drive indeed. We noticed that you enjoyed making your own liveries for our races. Can you tell us more about BB Racing and maybe the choice of colours and sponsors? 

Well, I’d already agreed with Dean to run the 6h Silverstone race sharing a car with him and we’d often share advice with regards to setup. Then I noticed we were both running Astons in the GT4 series, so I offered to make Dean a livery using my one as a template and altering the colours and sponsors as Dean wanted. Then one night we ended up deciding on making BB Racing a team and it was just nice to have a teammate to be honest (I’d worked with a teammate for the Formula Student races but never shared the track with them due to the nature of the events).

I’ve always liked blue and white as a Birmingham City fan from a young age and a lot of my designs on Forza were blue, white and red, so I just stuck with it. All the sponsors on my cars are either societies I’m part of at University, or bands or student radio shows that my mates are part of (Here’s an example, Behind the Barriers, that you can listen following this link: https://www.mixcloud.com/emmawilkes)

Can you pick one livery you did that stands out, that you’re the proudest of?

I’d either go for the unraced version of the Tatuus (I’d planned it for Season 3 before the car choice was made for this season (indeed, management picked the RSS F3 to replace the Tatuus)). Or, if we’re talking about one that was raced, probably the Aston from Silverstone with the guitar as the stripe. Although it didn’t come out the way I intended (I’d kinda gone off the idea by the time I’d finally made it fit) it was something unusual.

Those are, as I’ve told you already, good looking liveries! Is there a race track or race car that you love very much and that you would like to tell us about?

Donington is probably my favourite track on any game with it being my local track and one I’ve been to for touring cars many times and even cycled around. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to drive the Craner Curves on any sim without screaming internally from how scary it is under pedal power. The run from the Old Hairpin to Coppice as well is steeper in person than it looks on the sim or as a spectator.

To conclude this interview, what should we wish you for the British GT4 and F3 races to come ? 

I just want to have fun, clean races and get through in one piece to be honest – I’m not super-competitive so for me to enjoy and finish the races, even if I finish miles from the field, is always the goal.

And that’s all ThePitCrew is about: giving the opportunity for anyone to have good, thrilling and clean racing. It really does not matter if you’re a beginner, a good driver or some kind of alien. You will find what you’re looking for, and we will always work for you all to have fun every time you’re racing with us. Thank you, Callum, and then, as expected, we wish you tons of fun through our Season 3 leagues!

If you want to be the next driver on the interview list, let us know in the comments below, we will pick one of you at random!