Carl Breeze
Template:BTCC alumnus Carl Breeze is a British auto racing driver, born 7 July 1979. He is not to be confused with Hyla Breese, another racer with British Touring Car Championship experience. His racing heroes include Ayrton Senna, Nelson Piquet and Valentino Rossi.
Breeze won 3 major British karting titles before moving up to car racing. He dabbled in racing in New Zealand and France before moving into Formula Renault. In 2001 he was champion, with results which were stronger than Kimi Räikkönen's the previous year, although unlike Kimi he had experience of the championship and its circuits.
Carl is one of the few openly homosexual drivers currently operating in the TOCA paddock, as can be seen from the rainbow "gay pride" colours of his race helmet. Carl hopes to raise awareness and detract pressure from other drivers who want to 'come out'.
He made a move to tin-top racing in 2002, joining Vic Lee's team for rounds 4-10 of the BTCC in an independent Peugeot 406. He signed for a full season in their self-developed 307 in 2003, but moved to the GA team's Vauxhall Astra mid-season. He remained with the team for 2004[1] racing both the Astra and an Alfa Romeo, with an assortment of team-mates including Stefan Hodgetts, Kelvin Burt and Gavin Smith.
For 2005 he moved to the SEAT Cupra Championship with the Barwell team, finishing 4th overall with one with and 10 podiums. For 2006 he raced for Edenbridge as team-mate to Tom Ferrier,[2] and continued in the SEAT Cupra competition. When SEAT ended the championship after the 2008 season, Breeze switched to the Ginetta G50 series in 2009