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Career Summary:

Dan Welch

  • July 17, 1982
  • 42
  • United Kingdom
  • Not Active
  • 283
  • 4
  • 18
  • 6
  • 7
  • 1.41%
  • 6.36%

Daniel 'Dan' Welch is the British racing driver which has mostly driven for his family team in the British Touring Car Championship. He spent five full seasons in the BTCC between 2011 and 2016.

Dan Welch

Dan Welch

Welch began his career in single seaters

He was born on 17th of July 1982 in Aldershot. His father John is a former rallycross driver so Dan continued the family tradition and began racing in the Formula Vauxhall in 2000. He finished 4th in the standings and in the following year progressed to the Formula Renault UK. He spent six years in the series but never completed a full season. During that period Welch failed to score a single podium finish out of 56 races.

Switch to touring cars

Somewhat disappointed, Welch finally left single-seaters and switched to touring cars in 2007. As a driver of Welch Motorsport, Dan raced in the SEAT Cupra Championship and finished 5th in the standings with two race wins and other four podiums. In the following year Welch raced in SEAT Cupra Great Britain with but failed to score a victory and finished 6th overall.

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Daniel Welch, 2007 SEAT Cupra Championship

During 2009 Welch shared his duties between SEAT Leon Supercopa Spain, SEAT Leon Eurocup, and Michelin Ginetta G50 Cup but the results were modest. The season of 2010 was pretty similar to the previous one. Dan managed to score one win in SEAT Leon Eurocup but also made a one-off appearance in the 24h Series.

BTCC debut

In 2011 Welch debuted in the British Touring Car Championship again driving for Welch Motorsport. He was behind the steering wheel of Proton Gen-2 in the second half of the season and scored a maiden point by finishing 10th in the final round at Silverstone.

He stayed in the series in 2012 but missed the rounds at Thruxton and Rockingham. Welch’s progress was obvious and he was able to score points regularly. His best result was the 4th place in the second race at Oulton Park while at the end of the year he was 15th in the standings what was a solid achievement.

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Daniel Welch, Proton Persona, 2012 BTCC, Croft circuit

Dan’s results in 2013 were very close to the one has achieved in a previous campaign. In the first half of the season he picked points in 10 out of 15 races but in the second half of the season the results weren’t as good. At the end of the season Welch found himself in the 18th position in the Drivers’ Championship with the 6th place in the race at Knockhill as a season’s highlight.

Years of struggling

From 2014 started Welch struggles in the BTTC. That year he was 32nd overall after failing to score a single point. The following season again was painful. Dan missed out three rounds that year but finally ended the bad streak and earned a point in the race at Oulton Park. Unfortunately, that was the only point he has scored that year before taking the 28th position in the standings.

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Dan Welch, the BTCC driver

Slowing down with racing

Luckily, in 2016 Welch was a bit more competitive. As a driver of Goodestone Racing, he collected points on six occasions, with the 9th position at Thruxton as his best result that year. Dan moved up to the 23rd position in the BTCC Drivers’ Championship.

Welch Motorsport left the series before the start of 2017 campaign but announced plans to return in 2018. However, Welch had just one-off appearance with Team HARD in BTCC event at Snetterton and participated in a couple of rounds of Porsche Carrera Cup GB.

Video - Dan Welch quick interview

 

Photo: facebook.com/DanWelchBTCC, flickr.com