Hopkins Motorsport is family owned, funded and run business with deep roots in the racing world going back to 1984 when Reg started racing trucks in the European Championship. As the team were away from home travelling and racing all over Europe they not only had to transport a racing truck but also needed digs. In those days most teams billeted in hotels, a costly business and fraught with the problems of finding rooms near the race venues that weren’t booked solid with the influx of racers and fans and the other issues of transport to and from the various circuits. In 1996 Reg decided that it would be far better to combine his transporter with accommodation and created one of the first race transporters with living space, possibly the first. At the time Reg, the son of a farmer, paid for his racing from the income generated by the family business park and earth moving business. Most years the Hopkins team built a new and improved race transporter and sold last year’s model. Reg carried on racing trucks on circuits all over Europe until 1993.

In 1993 Reg’s first son Philip caught the racing bug, aged just seventeen, and started to compete in Formula Ford at Castle Combe and Brands Hatch. In 1994 Philip enjoyed plenty of success winning the Junior Formula Ford Championship at Castle Combe and also competed at a national level. As had become the Hopkins tradition a new transporter was built every year and the old one sold to other teams. In ’95 Philip competed in British F3 and had a good season. In ’96 season they continued to use the transporter they had built for the previous year’s F3 competition until mid season another team begged the Hopkins to sell them their trailer. Philips team transport was sold and the family built and even better one to replace it in double quick time. In 1997 Philip moved on to racing in the British GT series requiring yet another transport solution. Sadly in 1998 Philip had a serious crash in his GT car breaking both his legs cutting short this season and precluding his inclusion in the ’99 season.

When Philip graduated from his engineering degree course at Bristol University, Reg and himself decided that they could combine the experience the Hopkins family had gained in building race transporters , not only for their purposes, but also other teams, with the knowledge Philip gained from his studies to form a company to build specialist vehicles. They started by converting second hand trailers and rigid lorries in what had been the race car workshops in their business park. They started with Reg, Phillip and two employees. In the early days the vast majority of the family owned Sampson Business Park was let to other businesses, but as units became available they were converted into special buildings to construct transporters. As the business steadily grew they started building brand new race trailers on their own designed chassis and also building bodies on new rigid lorry chassis. Over the years they have branched into building hospitality vehicles and also catering vehicles. They have constructed a number of custom built trucks for the caterers who service the locally produced, long running popular TV drama BBC Casualty.

Hopkins Motorsport Ltd has now taken over the lion’s share of the family owned business park and is constantly building specialist vehicles for pretty much all aspects of the motorsport world including bikes, rally cars, formula cars, GT cars, racing trucks and even build horse boxes. Even during the current hard times the business is steadily growing partly as a result of being completely self funded. Hopkins Motorsport Ltd only goes one way and that is up.