Chris Buncombe
| Chris Buncombe | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationality |
 British | ||||||||||
| Born |
Christopher James Buncombe 5 May 1979 Taunton, Somerset, England | ||||||||||
| |||||||||||
Christopher James Buncombe (born 5 May 1979 in Taunton, Somerset, England) is a British racing driver currently signed as an official factory driver for Aston Martin Racing in their Le Mans programme. He joined Aston Martin Racing at the end of the 2009 season when he drove in the Le Mans Series scoring a podium finish on his debut with the team at Nürburgring driving the 008 Aston Martin LMP1 car. Chris won the 2007 24 Hours of Le Mans in the LMP2 class driving for Binnie Motorsports in their Lola B05/40-Zytek.
Career
Chris Buncombe began his career in schoolboy motocross in the early '90's before moving across to the Super 1 British Karting Championship in 1993. Shortly after his 16th birthday, Chris won a national scholarship to race in the Formula Vauxhall Junior Championship. In 1997 & 1998 he raced in the British Formula Renault Championship before signing for the factory Nissan Motorsports Europe (NME) Team when he raced the Nissan Primera in the Benelux Championship during 1999 and the RJN Motorsport Nissan Primera in the 2000 Spa 24 Hours. In 2001 Chris joined reigning Formula Renault Champions, Manor Motorsport to again compete in British Formula Renault. He rejoined the RJN Motorsport Team in 2002 for select races in the FIA European Touring Car Championship.
He joined JMB Racing in 2004 driving their Ferrari 575M GT1 car in the FIA GT Championship. Teammates included Karl Wendlinger, Tarso Marques and Bert Longin. In 2005 Chris remained in the FIA GT Championship driving the Red Bull sponsored Maserati MC12 for JMB Racing, driving with Philipp Peter and Roman Rusinov. He raced in the 2007 Spa 24 Hours for Team SRT in their Corvette C5-R.
In 2007 Chris drove in the Le Mans Series for US based Team, Binnie Motorsports driving with Bill Binnie and Allen Timpany in the Lola B05/40-Zytek LMP2, winning the LMP2 class at Le Mans on his debut. In 2008, Chris raced in the Speedcar Series alongside various outings for JD Classics in their Group C Jaguar XJR-9 & XJR-11. He joined Aston Martin Racing in the LMP1 car number 008 for the final races on the 2009 Le Mans Series where the Team scored an Aston Martin 1-2-3 at the ADAC 1000 km of Nürburgring, 50 years on from Aston Martin's 1959 win at the classic German endurance race in the DBR1.
Family History
Chris grew up from a motorsport family. His grandfather, John Buncombe, competed during the 1950s & '60's. His father, Jonathan Buncombe raced in saloon cars for over 20 years. Chris' brother, Alex is currently driving for RJN Motorsport Nissan Team in the PlayStation GT Academy Nissan 370Z in GT4 European Cup.
24 Hours of Le Mans results
| Year | Team | Co-Drivers | Car | Class | Laps | Pos. | Class Pos. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2007 |  Binnie Motorsports |
William Binnie Allen Timpany |
Lola B05/42-Zytek | LMP2 | 318 | 18th | 1st |
| 2011 | Jota |
Simon Dolan Sam Hancock |
Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT2 | GTE Pro |
74 | DNF | DNF |