Simon Butler, the racing Reverend with eyes on Le Mans

If you think being a man of the cloth is about nothing more than preaching sermons, lending an ear to parishioners in need and raising money to fix the roof, you probably haven’t heard of the Reverend Simon Butler.

When not busy taking care of the 12 churches he’s responsible for in and around the Hampshire village of Upton Grey, the 42-year-old father of three can be found pedalling a Lotus Elan at race circuits in the UK and Europe wearing the Nomex-clad guise of his highly competitive alter ego.

Readers of this magazine will be all too familiar with the two major obstacles that need to be overcome by anyone who wants to get serious about motor racing: a) finding the time and b) finding the money.

Considering a vicar’s average stipend comes in at something less than £30,000 and that most motor sport takes place at weekends when churches tend to be at their busiest, we couldn’t help wondering how Rev Butler does it – and how he got into competitive driving in the first place. Because if a vicar can find a way, it should give hope to all of us.

“I have no family background in motor racing,” explains Butler. “My father was a very good footballer, but by the time I had reached the age of 12 it had dawned on me that I was not.”

“What I really loved from a very early age was cars, and I vividly recall watching the grand prix races of the mid to late 1980s and recording my own commentaries.

“Later, in my early teens, I persuaded my father to take me to a karting test day at Rye House Raceway in Hertfordshire. They put me in a 100cc TKM two-stroke kart and from the very first laps in it I felt so alive – it just flicked a switch in me.”

The young Butler’s enthusiasm led him to take a Saturday job in a garden centre which enabled him to save sufficient money to rent a TKM and start racing competitively – which resulted in an offer from the then fledgling BIZ Karts (an offshoot of what used to be called Builders Iron & Zinc Work) to put together a sponsorship deal that ran for several seasons.

“The more I did the more I wanted to do,” says Butler. “But I was well aware that the move from karts to single-seater race cars would result in a huge escalation in costs that I simply wouldn’t be able to manage – and I also had to focus on my studies.”

Having initially resisted a call into the clergy which led to him take an engineering degree at Oxford Brookes University, Butler made the switch to theology, studying first in London and then at Oxford University where he completed two post-graduate courses.

“During those years any opportunities I had to get behind the wheel of a competition car had been entirely ad hoc, but I was really keen to get back into racing properly so I decided to give myself an ordination present – in the form of a 1994 Vector Formula Ford that I bought for around £5000 and ran with the help of a friend who was a race engineer.”

If those early laps in the TKM had been inspirational to Butler, the Vector had him well and truly hooked. And it just so happened that something akin to divine intervention was just around the corner. “By that stage I was a practising clergyman and had got to know a parishioner who was a huge collector of cars.

“Initially we had discussed the possibility of him sponsoring me to race Formula 3, but then he said: ‘Why don’t I buy a Jaguar C-type and we can take it around the world?’ It was an offer that couldn’t be refused.”

The 1951 C-type had a notorious history. It had been entered in the 1953 Mille Miglia but crashed out near Brescia after driver Luc Descollanges lost control, causing a collision that killed navigator Pierre-Gilbert Ugnon.

“When we found the car, it had been underneath a tarpaulin in a garage near Lyon for more than 25 years,” explains Butler.

“It had been rebuilt during the late 1970s but was in a terrible state. We got it back to England and I gave it a burn along the A3 to see how it drove, and it was horrific – so the owner handed it to Jaguar guru Chris Keith-Lucas at CKL Developments, and during the next four or five seasons he helped us to make it into a really competitive car.”

Butler enjoyed success with the C-type including a second in class at the Le Mans Classic. It was subsequently sold to make way for a continuation E-type, a move that also saw Butler become the co-founder of 10 Motorsport, a historic race car preparation and development company.

“Setting up 10 Motorsport meant we had in-house facilities to make the E-type really competitive, and we had good results with it in Europe, at the Le Mans Classic and in series such as the Jaguar Classic Challenge,” he says. “For me, much of the fun lies in taking a car that is not in great shape and making it competitive – and one of the reasons I can afford to do this is that we find cars that haven’t done much, improve them and build up a racing provenance that makes them more valuable when we come to sell.”

So if you were wondering how the ‘Racing Reverend’ can afford to finance his automotive passion, the answer is that, as well as being a vicar, he’s also a resourceful businessman.

To that end, Butler has negotiated race sponsorship and enjoys an additional income stream from the family firm of Butler & Butler, which he set up to manufacture fair trade clerical shirts – a company that has grown to become one of the largest suppliers in its field.

And to further ensure his racing fund remains topped up, Butler doesn’t drive a modern car on the road but “a knackered old BMW 5 Series Touring”.

Having sold the E-type in 2020, Butler currently campaigns an early Lotus Elan Series 1 which he has modified to 26R specification and first raced in the International Trophy for Classic GT Cars at the 2022 Silverstone Classic.

“I love the historic racing scene,” he says. “There’s a balance between good, competitive racing and a great group of people.”

But as much as he enjoys classic motor sport, the Racing Reverend has his eyes on what many consider to be the ultimate prize: a place on the grid at the actual Le Mans 24 Hours. His road to La Sarthe began last April when he signed up with RLR MSport to compete in selected rounds of the 2023 Michelin Le Mans Cup series with a view to gaining sufficient experience to take part in the 24-hour race in 2024.

Driving a Ligier JSP320 LMP3 with the Bolton-based RLR MSport team, Butler had his first competitive outing with the car In July at Monza which he later described with the suitably religious analogy as “a baptism of fire”. With only an hour’s testing in the Ligier under his belt and no previous experience of the Monza track prior to qualifying Butler left the start to professional team-mate Valentino Catalano to take the car from 29th on the grid to fifth overall by mid-distance.

Although he had dropped 11 places by the time the race had five minutes to go Butler’s inaugural performance had been strong – until an excess of speed entering the famously fickle Variante Ascari resulted in a spin and a visit to the gravel trap.

“I’ve been racing for a long time, but the Monza race was a little bit more of a challenge than I had expected,” he said afterwards. “Driving the Ligier means learning new and different techniques to those I have got used to with classic cars, but I’m fortunate in having been given a three-month sabbatical by the church which should give me plenty of opportunities to practice.”

What still surprises, however, is the fact that he has been able to attend so many weekend events despite the fact that, for most vicars, duty inevitably calls on a Sunday.

“Most races fall on a Saturday,” he says. “It’s something I take as divine providence.”

Yes – it does seem as though somebody up there likes him.