GETTING TO KNOW ERNIE

WHO IS COLIN’S NEW TEAM MATE?

A hugely successful entrepreneur and he’s been winning rally championships since 1992 but now Ernie is stepping fearlessly into British GT at over 60 years of age! 

Who is Ernie Graham? 

EUROPEAN HISTORIC RALLY LEGEND

Over 3 decades of experience

Ernie’s 30-year motorsport journey is defined by extreme car control, an almost tangible ambition and an adaptability required to win across multiple decades and disciplines.  He’s been winning rally titles since 1992 and won the FIA Middle East Rally Cup in 1994.  Ernie made a handful of WRC appearances before switching to and achieving success in the code’s classic ranks. Highlights include three FIA European Historic Rally Championship titles and a silver medal for Team UK at the FIA Motorsport Games in Valencia with his daughter Anna.

Debut on UK circuits

Ernie made his circuit racing debut in April 2025 driving a BMW 3 Series in the BMW Car Club Racing Championship and took nine podium finishes on his way to second place in the Cup class points. He then joined Colin for the first time to share a BMW M3 E30 in the Motor Racing Legends Historic Touring Car Challenge at the Silverstone Festival in the Summer and later at the an MRL historic event at Silverstone in November.

 Ernie’s expertise

Ernie brings a wealth of experience to the WSR Flexifly GT4 team aside from his incredible car control.  As a proven multiple champion, Ernie’s resilience and grit are the products of over 30 years spent in one of the most unforgiving arenas in sports: high-level rallying. Ernie has displayed championship-winning pace from 1992 (Australia) to 2024 (FIA Motorsport Games) which requires a level of physical and mental stamina that few athletes possess. He has sustained his peak performance across three different decades.  Surely Ernie can tell us a few secrets to his vitality!

Natural leader

Added to this is Ernie’s ability to lead a team and inspire.  Not only has Ernie been hugely successful in many professional environments but he has also led his family team to FIA Historic Rally championship successes!  Simply by his presence, Ernie will effortlessly demand a high-performance culture around him and this will only further enhance the expected output from the Colin Turkington / WSR team.  A self-confessed ‘performance obsessive’ Colin himself is a detail driven perfectionist, renown for his consistent precision on track.  This will undoubtedly complement everything Ernie brings to the project. 

Hear from Ernie

“Pairing up with Colin for a couple of historic races last year really helped lift my performance and after he introduced me to the team at WSR, and I saw everything they’d achieved with Ayrton Senna, Mika Hakkinen, Nigel Mansell and so many other drivers, my mind was made up that I wanted to come to British GT and have a real go. 

“It might sound strange to leave a world I know, and have been successful in, to take a leap into the unknown, but I’ve always loved new challenges, so I feel ready for it and think we can represent ourselves well.”

Rookie and master

So, although a relatively ‘unknown’ entering one of the UK’s highest levels GT race series, Ernie arrives on the scene with a wealth of experience, desire to learn and inspiring ambition that will surely extract the most from the team he has assembled around him.  So while Ernie Graham may be a “rookie” to the series, he is a “master” of man and machine.

To be continued…

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