Toro Verde saloon car racing

MORPETH ROTARY MEETS TORO VERDE PORSCHE RACING TEAM

David Fairbrother brought his Carrera Cup Porsche GT3 racing car and some of his team to Morpeth, at the request of Rotary member and fellow road haulage owner, Alan Moody. He was taking the long way round to Castle Donington Race track. The car, costing over £220,000, was brought up on a trailer from Elland near Halifax and parked at Morpeth Golf Club. Members and friends took every opportunity to gather round, examine every line, look into the engine, listen to the roar and ask questions. Owner/driver David then gave a talk assisted by his Toro Verde racing team manager, Jules Westwood. David is owner of A. D. D. Express Ltd., road haulage and logistics, delivering pallets across the north. He has a new main depot at Rochdale and has had a base at Elland, for 30 years. The company has 75 vehicles and 143 staff. David was instrumental in a buy out of Pall-Ex and is a major shareholder. Pall-Ex is a pallet shipping network that covers the UK, Europe and the world.

He was well known in Ducati motor cycle racing, then moved on to high performance cars, starting with VW Scirocco and Porsche. He tried Mercedes and Lamborghini but is back with Porsche. He has been in crashes, including the biggest Porsche crash in the UK, although after one crash he came in second.  Motor racing is expensive so it is not enough to be talented, any driver must also have access to money. If careful a car can last three seasons, but a three year run would cost around £250,000. There are eight meetings in the season with two races at each. The Porsche cars are built in Stuttgart, only for motor sport and modifications are not allowed. They can never be used on domestic roads. After the last race in the UK they will be going on to endurance racing at Abu Dhabi where they previously finished third, and to Dubai. 

David was asked to draw the weekly raffle and by pure chance drew Alan Moody’s ticket.