Martin Plowman

Martin James Plowman (born 3 October 1987) is a British professional racing driver from Tamworth currently competing in the British GT Championship for Paddock Motorsport, which he co-founded with Kelvin Fletcher. In 2013, he won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LMP2 class and was 2013 FIA WEC World Champion in the LMP2 class for drivers and teams.

After several extremely successful years in karting, Toyota signed Plowman to a ten-year contract to their young driver program. He made his professional debut in 2006 driving in Italian Formula Renault for Prema Powerteam, finishing fifth in the Italian Series, claiming rookie of the year.

Plowman returned to the same team and series in 2007, finishing joint seventh with Team-Mate Henkie Waldscmidt in Italian Formula Renault. A disappointing end to the campaign for the Prema Powerteam after holding 1–2 in the championship halfway through the season. Plowman was dropped from the Toyota young driver program at the end of 2007.

In 2008, Plowman became an official Volkswagen junior driver where he was assigned to the newly re-formed RC Motorsport team and drove in the first seven rounds (fourteen races) of the Formula Three Euroseries where he failed to score any points and only managed a best finish of seventeenth. He also drove in the Masters of Formula 3 with Signature-Plus where he finished fourteenth.

In 2009, Plowman signed to drive for Panther Racing in the American Firestone Indy Lights series, the feeder series to IndyCars. Martin finished eleventh in the points standings in his inaugural season with Panther Racing, while achieving two top five finishes and eight top-ten finishes.

After the 2009 season, Martin signed on board with AFS-Andretti Autosport to compete with teammate Charlie Kimball in the 2010 Indy Lights season. Plowman won from the pole to capture his first victory at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. He captured another pole two races later at Chicagoland Speedway but was knocked after making contact with former teammate Pippa Mann while leading the race. He finished third in the championship, one spot ahead of Kimball.

In 2011, Plowman made his IndyCar Series debut with Sam Schmidt Motorsports as a part of their partnership with AFS Racing. Plowman competed in the events at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Infineon Raceway, and the Baltimore Grand Prix, driving the number 17 car featuring the logo of Snowball Express, a volunteer organisation created to assist the children of military personnel who have died while on active duty since the 9/11 attacks. In each event, Plowman improved upon his starting position and upon his previous results, culminating in a near top-ten finish at the Baltimore Grand Prix. In the off-season, he has continued his involvement with Snowball Express, speaking to military families and touring with a show car.^{[citation needed]}

On 24 February 2012, the Conquest Endurance racing team announced Plowman, David Heinemeier Hansson, and Francesco Dracone as co-drivers for the team's brand new entry in the LMP2 division of the American LeMans Series for the 2012 season. The No. 37 Judd-powered, Morgan-badged car debuted at the 60th Anniversary running of the 12 Hours of Sebring on 17 March 2012. The team finished third in the ALMS P2 class (44th overall), despite having to replace Dracone with Jan Heylen just twelve hours before the race due to illness. On 10 April 2012, the team announced a partnership with Nissan North America to supply engines for the No. 37 car for the remainder of the season, beginning at the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach. Plowman and Heinemeier Hansson achieved their first P2 class pole and victory (third place overall) at the Grand Prix of Mosport on 22 July 2012. This was also the first victory for the Conquest Endurance team in ALMS competition.^{[citation needed]}