About Ian Higgins - Captain Chaos 29

Born in Bradford West Yorkshire, Ians first introduction was to Banger racing at Sunnyvale in Halifax. The family used to go to the odd meeting and one weekend a Brisca F1 driver was there doing a display in his car. Ians mum and dad found out that these big noisy beasts also raced locally so a trip to Rochdale in 1979 was the first ever F1 meeting for the Higgins family. The family were soon addicted and travelled all over the country following the F1s.

A young Ian was more often than not found in the pits watching the mechanics working on the car and one day he was asked to get a barrel of warter by one of the teams and that was it, he was hooked. The driver Ian helped out was 29 Alex Mcdade and this is where Ian got the number which has become synonymous with the Higgins family in all the different formulas Ian has raced.

Farther Dennis was the monthly scribe in the North area for Stockcar magazine and this was where the connection to the Wainman family first began. Although Ian was a Stu Smith fan many weeks were spent up at the Wainmans where Dennis was doing a feature on a new car Frankie was building.
It was not untill Ians 17th Birthday that he got behind the wheel of an f1. He made his debuet at Aycliffe on Sunday 2nd October 1983 in a Wainman Hire car, where starting as a novice at the back of the grid he managed an 8th place finish which put him through to the final.

After a couple more meetings in the Wainman car it was decided to purchase the ex Mcdade car and that is where it all started.

Although never a massive race winner, Ian has always been popular with the crowds due to his 100% commited driving style. Ians Cv reads
Number of finals won : 5
Number of races won (inc. finals) : 51
Number of podium finishes (inc. race wins) : 154
Number of race finishes (inc. podium finishes) : 519
Number of meetings where a race finish has been recorded : 314
(Stats from briscaf1stox.co.uk)

He has also been involved in every aspect of the sport, serving on the BSCDA drivers commitee as both newsletter editor and also Chairman, He has been involved in the promotion when farther Dennis was joint promotor at Stoke. One of the things Ian is most proud of is the 2 purpose built 2 seaters that he introduced with the help of Frankie wainman Junior and good friend Tim Mann. Ian also launched the F1 Driving school which gave members of the public the chance to get behind the wheel of an F1, several of the people who took part in the driving school have gone on to race.

The name Captain Chaos was introduced in Ians first season, after wrecking the car week in and week out Ian arrived at the Wainmans farm where the car was kept, to see the original name on the car, Captain Beaky had been altered to Captain Chaos! No one ever admitted to doing it, but Ian still believes to this day that it was Frankie Wainman Junior! Over the years Ian has raced many other formulas including F2, Rebels, Hotstox, Sprint cars, Oval Legends, Stoxkarts and Grass tracking, In every formula he has raced he has won!

Despite breaking his back in a Rebel in 1995 Ian continued racing on the Ovals untill 2000. A couple of years with no racing eventually saw the Higgins name back on a race track in 2006 when eldest son Billy started racing Grasstrack minis, a couple of years later saw youngest son Joe also racing in the minis. Non contact racing was not something Ian enjoyed watching and after looking for something else for the boys he came accross a formula called Stockkarts. To cut a long story short Ian and brother Paul ended up purchasing the formula and re branding it as Stoxkarts and since their involvement it has gone from strength to strength. When Ian sold his Stoxkarts transporter to an F1 driver he was offered a go in his car and after a break of over 10 years Ian made his return to racing F1s at Coventry on 27th December 2011.
Since racing at this meeting things began to Snowball. A couple of offers of sponsorship were offered.

Now 25 years after first racing Ian is returning to racing for one last blast!

In 1988 one of Ians most succesfull years the team came up with idea of the Barmy Army! All the mechanics had names, there was Major Contributor, Corparal Punnishment, General Nuisance, Private Parts, Squabling Bleeder (who was seconded from the RAF) As part of this the team sold stickers and button badges to help fund the racing and to also raise some money for the drivers Benevolent fund.
Ian decided to resurect the Barmy Army in order to raise money both for his budget and also for the drivers ben fund again.. So the story continues!!