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Kyle R. Tilley (born 16 February 1988) is a British professional racing driver. He mainly competes inhistoric motorsport andsports car racing such as theHistoric Formula One Championship andIMSA SportsCar Championship; in IMSA, he drives in the LMP2 class for his teamEra Motorsport. He won theAsian Le Mans Series LMP2 championship in2021.

Other sports car series in which Tilley has raced include theContinental Tire SportsCar Challenge,Pirelli World Challenge,European Le Mans Series, andNASCAR Cup Series.

Racing career

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Tilley originally participated in cycling before a knee injury forced him to quit the sport, and he begankart racing at the age of eight. He later raced inFormula Ford, a series with high financial demands that forced him to work three jobs—a delivery driver for a catering business, a mechanic for a Historic Formula One Championship team, and a sales assistant—to pay for crew members and the car.^[1] In 2010, he won the Castle Combe Formula Ford 1600 Pre 90 championship.^[2]

He moved to sports cars in 2011 and spent the next two years driving for Topcats Racing inBritcar.^[3]^[4] Plans to return to full-timeopen-wheel racing in 2013, competing in theBritish Formula 3 International Series for his own team, were aborted;^[5]^[6] in May, he made a guest appearance in Formula Ford 1600 atCastle Combe Circuit where he finished tenth.^[7]

Tilley continued sports car racing upon moving to the United States. In 2015, he and co-driver Jerry Kaufman won a 13-hourendurance race atVirginia International Raceway sanctioned by theSports Car Club of America.^[8] The following year, the two joinedContinental Tire SportsCar Challenge team BimmerWorld to race in the ST class.^[9] Tilley and Kaufman continued to drive together in the 2017Pirelli World Challenge SprintX GTS class forThe Racer's Group, where they finished second in the championship.^[10]^[11]

In 2019, Tilley started racing in Historic Formula One.^[12] Driving a 1977Ensign N177, he won atCircuit Zandvoort andCircuit de Spa-Francorchamps, both races in wet conditions, and finished third in the Fittipaldi Class standings.^[13]^[14]^[12] Tilley's vintage racing also saw him create his team Era Motorsport, which began racing in the IMSA SportsCar Championship LMP2 class in 2020. The project was spurred after Tilley befriended tech company businessmanDwight Merriman, with whom he started worked as atouring car racing driver coach in 2018.^[15]

Era Motorsport's debut came at the2020 24 Hours of Daytona, in which the team ran anOreca 07 for Tilley, Merriman,Ryan Lewis, andNicolas Minassian.^[16] The team initially formed a partnership withDragonSpeed before opting to run the full LMP2 season as a standalone operation.^[17]^[18] The car finished third in the LMP2 class, followed by Tilley and Merriman scoring three more podium finishes that year.^[19] The duo also entered the24 Hours of Le Mans forIDEC Sport alongsideJonathan Kennard;^[20] despite Merriman crashing in practice and being replaced byPatrick Pilet for the race, the car finished 15th.^[21]^[22] Although Era was second in the LMP2 standings with three races remaining, theCOVID-19 pandemic and Merriman's injuries prompted the team to withdraw from the championship.^[23]

In 2021, Era allied withJota Sport to field an LMP2 for Tilley and Merriman in theAsian Le Mans Series.^[24] Tilley, Merriman, andAndreas Laskaratos claimed the LMP2 Am division championship after winning all four races.^[25] Era also won the24 Hours of Daytona LMP2 class with Tilley, Merriman,Ryan Dalziel, andPaul-Loup Chatin.^[26] In April, Tilley and his team started competing in theEuropean Le Mans Series.^[27]

Tilley began dabbling instock car racing in May 2021 when he joinedLive Fast Motorsports for theNASCAR Cup Series'Texas Grand Prix atCircuit of the Americas. His schedule in the team's No. 78 also included races atRoad America,Watkins Glen International, andIndianapolis Motor Speedway.^[28]

Personal life

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A native ofBath, Somerset, Tilley lives inCarmel, Indiana.^[29] He is an alumnus ofSheldon School inChippenham.^[1]

Motorsports career results

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Sports car racing

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IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship

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(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position. Races initalics indicate fastest race lap in class. Results are overall/class)

Year	Team	Class	Make	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Rank	Points	Ref
2020	Era Motorsport	LMP2	Oreca 07	Gibson Technology GK428V8	DAY 3	SEB 3	ELK 3	ATL 2	ATL	SEB		5th	92	^[30]
2021	Era Motorsport	LMP2	Oreca 07	Gibson Technology GK428V8	DAY 1	SEB 2	WGI 5	WGI	ELK	LGA	ATL 5	7th	930	^[31]
2022	Era Motorsport	LMP2	Oreca 07	Gibson GK428 V8	DAY 7	SEB 3	LGA	MDO	WGL	ELK	PET	3rd*	328*

24 Hours of Daytona

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24 Hours of Daytona results
Year	Class	No	Team	Car	Co-drivers	Laps	Position	Class Pos.	Ref
2020	LMP2	18	Era Motorsport	Oreca 07	Dwight Merriman Ryan Lewis Nicolas Minassian	800	11	3	^[32]
2021	LMP2	18	Era Motorsport	Oreca 07	Dwight Merriman Ryan Dalziel Paul-Loup Chatin	787	6	1	^[33]

24 Hours of Le Mans

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Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.	Ref
2020	IDEC Sport	Jonathan Kennard Patrick Pilet	Oreca 07	LMP2	363	15	11	^[22]

Asian Le Mans Series

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(key) (Races inbold indicate pole position) (Races initalics indicate fastest lap)

Year	Entrant	Class	Make	Engine	1	2	3	4	Pos	Points
2021	Jota Sport	LMP2 Am	Oreca 07	Gibson GK428 4.2 LV8	DUB 1	DUB 1	ABH 1	ABH 1	1st	104

NASCAR

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(key) (Bold – Pole position awarded by qualifying time.Italics – Pole position earned by points standings or practice time. * – Most laps led.)

Cup Series

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NASCAR Cup Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	NCSC	Pts	Ref
2021	Live Fast Motorsports	78	Ford	DAY	DRC	HOM	LVS	PHO	ATL	BRD	MAR	RCH	TAL	KAN	DAR	DOV	COA 31	CLT	SON	NSH	POC	POC	ROA 35	ATL	NHA	GLN 30	IRC QL^†	MCH	DAY	DAR	RCH	BRI	LVS	TAL	ROV	TEX	KAN	MAR	PHO	62nd	0¹	^[34]
2022	Live Fast Motorsports	78	Ford	DAY	CAL	LVS	PHO	ATL	COA	RCH	MAR	BRD	TAL	DOV	DAR	KAN	CLT	GTW	SON	NSH	ROA 30	ATL	NHA	POC	IRC	MCH	RCH	GLN 39	DAY	DAR	KAN	BRI	TEX	TAL	ROV	LVS	HOM	MAR	PHO	39th	8
^† – Qualified but replaced byAndy Lally ·

Xfinity Series

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NASCAR Xfinity Series results
Year	Team	No.	Make	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	NXSC	Pts	Ref
2021	B. J. McLeod Motorsports	99	Chevy	DAY	DRC	HOM	LVS	PHO	ATL	MAR	TAL	DAR	DOV	COA	CLT	MOH	TEX	NSH	POC	ROA	ATL	NHA	GLN 40														106th	0¹	^[35]
2021	B. J. McLeod Motorsports	5	Toyota																					IRC QL^†	MCH	DAY	DAR	RCH	BRI	LVS	TAL	ROV	TEX	KAN	MAR	PHO	106th	0¹	^[35]
^† – Qualified but replaced byJames Davison ·