On leaving university Sam Hignett had no difficulty deciding what to do next. In fact, he was already well on his way to becoming a successful entrepreneur and businessman. A decade later he is co-owner of the Jota Group along with Simon Dolan and Sam Hancock, and team principal of Jota Sport.

Jota Sport specialises in the preparation, management and running of professional motorsport teams in major championships and series’. As official partner team to Aston Martin Racing it represents the famous marque at the highest levels of international sports car racing. Jota Sport also looks after the racing programmes of Mazda Motors UK, running cars developed and built by Jota Design. Since 2000 Jota-prepared racing cars have competed five times at Le Mans, and taken podium places across five seasons of the Le Mans series as well as in several American Le Mans series events.

“I started Jota because I was racing at the time and decided, rightly or wrongly, that I could do a better job if my sponsors paid me directly and I ran the team, instead of them paying for me to drive with another team,” recalls Mr Hignett. However, despite his success as a professional racing driver, he says it was not too difficult a decision to quit driving in 2005 to concentrate on growing the Jota Group, which also includes a specialist design business and freight carrier Jota Aviation based at London Southend airport.

Mazda and Aston Martin have different operational criteria. Mazda commissioned Jota Sport to design, build and prepare a modified version of the MX-5 road car to compete in the 2011 British Endurance Championship. Jota Sport AMR on the other hand, runs an Aston Martin V6 Vantage that it has adapted to GT2 specification and races in the GTE category of the five-round Le Mans series and the Le Mans 24 Hours with support from the manufacturer.

However, both racing teams are subject to ongoing development that demands an engineering resource capable of responding immediately to requests for new, modified or replacement parts. A crucial part of this response is Jota Sport’s machine shop on the Jota Group site in Frant, Kent, where the installation of an XYZ Mini Mill 560 vertical machining centre has enabled machinist Chris Thorpe to take on complex machining work that would previously have been outsourced.

This compact VMC can machine a wide range of components within its 560mm (X) by 400mm (Y) by 500mm (Z) working envelope, which is contained within a 2,000mm (width) by 2,060mm (depth) footprint. The sturdy Meehanite ribbed cast iron construction ensures that full use can be made of the 15hp (11kW)/8,000rpm dynamically balanced BT40 spindle, with induction hardened and ground Turcite-coated box ways ensuring smooth operation at axis travels up to 20m/minute. A 12 station toolchanger holds tools up to 100mm diameter.

“Having this CNC capability in-house means we can save time and money, especially when components need modifying after testing,” says Mr Thorpe. “My previous experience of CNC was limited mainly to turning, but conversational programming of the Siemens ShopMill control is very straightforward and the training provided as part of the package is excellent.”

Like everyone at Jota Sport, Mr Thorpe is totally committed during the racing season. “Manufacturing components for the cars and also being involved in the race preparations is great, and then there is the excitement of seeing the end result in action,” he says. For Mr Hignett, the enjoyment comes from developing the car, staying ahead of the competition and ensuring that every time a car goes out it is set up to be faster than in the previous race.

“It’s all about coming away from each race with fresh ideas for improving our performance in the next,” he concludes. “There’s a lot of data acquisition built into our cars so we can evaluate the performances and think how best to improve. It follows that being equipped to try out new ideas quickly and cost-effectively is extremely helpful and being able to make or modify components in-house eases the inevitable pressures on our budgets.”

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