By Samuel Ee

Matthew Marsh never raced go-karts as a child, but a love for racing ensured full immersion in the cerebral sport.

MEET Matthew Marsh for the very first time and you will likely assume this urbane Englishman is an investment banker rather than a professional race car driver. Gracious and eloquent, it's easy to imagine him in a three-piece suit with a briefcase rather than the fireproof overalls he is wearing.

As one of the full-time drivers competing in the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia series with non-professional drivers, Marsh travels all around Asia racing his 911 GT3 Cup Car in this one-make event. He drives for SC Global Developments, the luxury property developer which fielded a car this year and is the title sponsor of the Singapore round of the race on Sept 28. Because PCCA is a support race for Formula One, Marsh will be in his SC Global car zipping around Marina Bay just before the F1 cars line up on the starting grid for the inaugural Singapore Grand Prix. But Marsh, who turns 40 this month, says he almost didn't become a racing driver.

"I first raced when I was 17 years old,"' he recalls. "This was in what is called Formula Ford 1600 in the UK."' He didn't win that race. After a couple of years and without much improvement in results, he stopped altogether. This was despite his huge love for racing, cultivated since he was eight and one that continues as he approaches his 40th birthday later this month. As a boy, Marsh remembers attending weekend races with his dad Colin, who used to compete in a Lotus Seven before Matthew was born.
Marsh blames his teenage lack of competitiveness on not having any prior karting experience.

"I had not raced go karts as a youngster. And my father is sure that I never asked to do this. Of course, most of the successful racers and, I think, every current Grand Prix driver, had competed for many years in go karts before they were old enough to race cars. Anyway, I didn't do any karting and, when I first raced, it showed!"

So he went to work in the marketing side of motorsport instead with the Benetton F1 team. "I learned a lot there and came into contact with drivers, team managers, mechanics, tyre specialists and so on. Lots of information and ideas."

But a decade after his first shot at racing, he decided to have another go at it. "This time I was immediately competitive. I still had the same number of hands and feet as before but, somehow, I had a better idea of what to do with them."

Marsh believes the transformation came after learning from business life how to break down big problems into small components that are easier to solve. "Motor racing is complicated. It's very technical, there's a lot of equipment and personnel involved. And then the actual driving is a difficult technical task. It's not about bravery. It's a very cerebral sport." On his second attempt, Marsh realised he was better prepared both by being more mature and experienced generally, and because of all the racing information he had picked up "by osmosis" in the racing world.

Over the last decade, he has raced everything from Aston Martin to Ferrari. They are certainly a far cry from his first race car - a relatively antiquated 1974 Crossle 25F. "It was 1986 and I raced it in a championship for older machinery. I think I would have struggled to win even with the latest model! I chose it because it was suitable for the championship I wanted to enter - which was quite low cost - but probably mostly because it was available and quite near to where I lived."

Today, Marsh is based in Hong Kong where he lives with his Singapore-born wife. SC Global calls him "one of Asia's best known motorsport personalities with an extremely impressive track record"'.

"He is one of only a handful of drivers from the region to have competed in some of the world's greatest Grand Touring races: The Le Mans 24-Hours in France; the Daytona 24-Hours in the USA; the German Nurburgring 24-Hours; Australia's Bathurst 24-Hours; and the FIA GT Championship," says a spokeswoman. She adds: "He has raced on just about every Asian race track, and has won on both the sweeping Formula One tracks as well as some of the region's most demanding and difficult shorter tracks. Matthew comes from a very strong racing heritage, you could say it's in his blood. He has an amazing passion for the sports and an uncompromising drive, which has resonance with our own corporate values."

And while there are those who wonder why a developer has entered the motorsports arena, Marsh says he sees great synergy between Porsche and SC Global. To him, both are companies led by design and built on a bedrock of engineering expertise.

"Sorry if this sounds like marketing speak, but I find it very exciting when companies enter motorsport and really use it. It's exciting because it means they will derive real value and thus want to stay involved - and that's important if you are a driver." After all, he views motor racing as "a complex sport involving man, machine, technology, tactics, marketing and politics". All of these elements interest him - "apart from the politics". But at the end of the day, it boils down to just one thing for him - the driving.

"The reason I do all that is for the bit where I get sweaty behind the wheel - rather than at the desk."

This article was first published in The Business Times, September 13, 2008.