Benjamin Rhys Pryor (born 16 February 1995) is a Welsh racing driver who has raced in FF3M under AndrewF1’s driver academy and is currently one of the two test drivers for FJR.
Early history[]
Born in Anglesey, Pryor started racing at the Glan-y-gors go-kart track an hour away from his home town of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch before moving onto single-seater racing at the Trac Mȏn circuit on the Anglesey Island itself. He took part in a few invitational FFFordM races in 2010 and while he quick, he proved to be rather erratic with a number of incidents including an almighty accident going into the notorious Island Bend at Oulton Park. Pryor described this as a “necessary wake-up call.”
Pryor was signed by Rutland Racing to compete in his first full season for the 2011 FFFordM National Championship, and after a season-long rivalry with good friend James Clark, Pryor won the championship in the final race at Brands Hatch.
2012 SEA[]
A lack of funding for Pryor meant that he was unable to find a drive for the 2012 FF4M Europe series, but luckily for him, he was invited to race for Team Kikuchi in the SEA series on a race-by-race deal. His best result was 2nd place at the Sepang circuit, but Pryor found the team surroundings and the language barrier difficult. Nevertheless, he finished 5th in the championship, which allowed him to race in the upcoming FF3M championship.
FF3M (2013)[]
2013[]
For the inaugural FF3M season in 2013, Pryor signed for AndrewF1’s driver academy to race for Bellini with Mattia Alfonsi as his teammate. Contrary to his single-seater debut, Pryor was making a more consistent name for himself as he finished every single race and only once outside of the top ten.
During the fifth meeting at the circuit where he flipped his car, Pryor took his first FF3M win after holding off Cooper Lee. He finished the season 6th in the championship, tied on points with Itsuki Yoshida but behind on countback as Yoshida had two 4th places compared to Pryor’s one. Although only the top 5 were eligible for FF2M graduation, Pryor was given special dispensation by the AFIA to be allowed to race in FF2M.
FF1M (2014)[]
2014[]
Pryor was initially unable to find a drive for the 2014 FF2M season, but he was signed by FJR to be one their test drivers for the 2014 FF1M season. He took part in the end of season young drivers test at Interlagos where he compared the 2013 Honda engine in the morning session with the 2014 Judd engine in the afternoon. Although he was 7th quickest out of 11 drivers in both sessions, his time in the afternoon session was nearly a second quicker than in the morning, and he later described the difference between the two engines as “noticeable.”
For 2014 FF1M season, Pryor took part in five of the eight pre-season test sessions and was praised by team boss James Brickles for his speed, particularly during the second day at Barcelona when he set the 5th fastest time. He would take part in a number of practice sessions during the 2014 season and was evenly matched on pace with former Horizon driver Sam Bird throughout the season.
FGT3 Supercup (2014)[]
2014[]
Shortly before the start of the 2014 FF1M season, the AFIA announced a new support series as an outlet for unemployed and retired FF1M drivers, which included those unable to race in FF2M and FF3M. As Pryor wasn't able to find a drive in FF2M, he was eligible to race in the Fantasy GT3 SuperCup series alongside Gojira's 2nd test driver Roberto Merhi at Canary Racing. He qualified 8th for the first race at Melbourne and finished 9th having been comfortably quicker than his teammate. Although he would very quickly receive a call-up to race in FF2M, he participated in a further three FGT3 races and finished in the points for all three before concentrating his efforts on his FF2M campaign.
FF2M (2014-2015)[]
2014[]
Pryor was given his chance in FF2M after a disastrous first round for STV Racing saw team boss James Brickles unceremoniously drop Jolyon Palmer in favour of the Welshman. His debut at Estoril was promising as he showed good speed against teammate Max Chilton, but both races would ultimately yield no points after a spin resulted in a rear wing change in the feature race, while contact with Stoffel Vandoorne left Pryor down in 8th at the finish. The next meeting at Monaco saw him take his first points of the season with 7th in the feature race. This left him starting on the front row for the sprint race, and he made use of the tight street circuit to finish 2nd, his first podium of the season. Unfortunately for Pryor, those would be his only points of the season, despite a few more promising performances, but Brickles would keep him for the 2014-15 Asia Series.
2014-15 Asia[]
At Macau, Pryor qualified strongly in 5th for the feature race with his teammate, Cristobal Alvarez, on pole. He was running in 2nd having yet to stop when he crashed out at Lisboa under pressure from Pierre Gasly. This left a poor grid position for the sprint race which resulted in a double non-score. Dubai was just as difficult as STV Racing battled set-up and tyre issues for the feature, but Pryor put in a decent drive in the sprint to finish one place off the points. His breakthrough came during the second Bahrain meeting. Although he grappled with the hard tyres in the feature race dropping from 3rd to 7th, this became 2nd on the grid for the reverse grid sprint race and on the soft tyres, he and teammate Alvarez dominated to take a 1-2 for STV Racing, with Pryor taking his first win. He would finished 12th in the championship, while his teammate won the championship.
2015[]
Pryor and Alvarez were teammates again at STV Racing for the 2015 FF2M season. When asked what the Uruguayan was like as a teammate, Pryor noted that he was a "very quiet individual who is happiest doing his own thing," but Pryor also mentioned that Alvarez becomes "more talkative with a couple of pints in him," and that the two drivers "get along alright." Contrary to the 2014-15 Asia series, Pryor managed to outscore his teammate with two meetings remaining before his season was cut short by an opportunity to race in FF1M. Pryor also scored a pole position at Hockenheim with his teammate on the front row, but both drivers failed to score due to collisions with other drivers.
FF1M (2015)[]
2015[]
Having remained with FJR as a test driver for the 2015 season, Pryor was brought in to replace Charles Pic for Spa and Monza. His FF1M debut was rather anonymous as he qualified last, more than a second off of his nearest competitor, and went on to finish 15th and the last driver still running, although FJR had long-since abandoned their 2015 car and were concentrating the following season. Despite once again qualifying last for Monza, access to full ERS for the race enabled Pryor to go on the attack. He managed to survive a three-way collision with Jean-Eric Vergne and Daniel Ricciardo going into the first Lesmo on his way to a brilliant 7th place before returning to FF2M for the next Asia season.
FF2M (2015-2016)[]
2015-16 Asia[]
Pryor remained with STV Racing where for the 2015-16 Asia season, he acquired a new teammate in the form of Swiss driver Louis Deletraz. In the first race at Sepang, Pryor caused carnage at the first corner as he braked too late and caused a collision that sent James Clark spinning and polesitter Pierre Gasly rolling for a total of eight full gyrations. Having recovered from 8th to 2nd, he then collided with Kimminen and dropped out of serious contention, and then had his own flip after a collision with Sean Gelael. Things weren't much better in the sprint race after colliding with Rio Haryanto. Shanghai was just as disastrous, but Macau saw a much needed 5th in the feature race to help kickstart his season.
For Dubai, Pryor would have a different Swiss driver as his teammate, Catharina Caracciola. Both raced well in the feature race to finish 4th and 5th after qualifying poorly on hard tyres, and this included a triple overtake from Pryor. The two teammates blotted their copybooks by colliding with each other in the sprint race. Although Pryor survived without spinning, his pace on the hard tyres was poor and he finished out of the points. The Bahrain Outer meeting was a bad one for STV Racing with incidents keeping both drivers out of the points, but the Bahrain GP meeting was much more positive as Pryor led the early stages of the feature race before finishing 4th. In the final sprint race of the season, he was close to finishing on the podium but was overtaken at the final corner on the last lap by Caracciola.
2016[]
Pryor remained with STV Racing for the 2016 FF2M season, his 5th consecutive FF2M season, with Caracciola as his teammate. During pre-season testing, Pryor was asked about his teammate, and he described her as an “unbelievable talent with a heart of gold.” He also made reference to the acrimonious rivalry between Caracciola and Alfonsi, and Pryor mentioned that he and Alfonsi didn’t get on well with each other when the two were teammates in FF3M.
Pryor didn't have the best of starts to the season at the Nurburgring. He lost 8th place to Oliver Rowland in the feature race in the closing stages due to worn tyres and suffered a rare mechanical failure in the sprint race. In Mugello however, he showed his qualities as a plucky racer as he went from last to 8th in the feature race, followed by a podium finish in the sprint race. He struggled to maintain this form through the season with his remaining points scores coming in the low downforce circuits of Hockenheim and Monza. The feature of Hockenheim also included his first ever fastest lap in FF2M, and the Welshman would finish the season 14th in the championship, a drop of eight from the previous Europe season.
2016-17 Asia[]
With Caracciola on her way to an FF1M race seat, Pryor would have yet another new teammate in Antonio Giovinazzi. As has become tradition, Pryor once again had a bad start to the season at Sepang as he was outpaced by Giovinazzi in the feature race and then collided with his teammate in the sprint. Things improved from there as he took pole position at Suzuka and drove well on the harder tyres to finish 2nd in the feature. He used the opposite compound to win the Dubai sprint race, resisting a late charge from Itsuki Yoshida in the closing stages.
Racing Record[]
Summary[]
| Season | Series | Team | Races | Wins | Poles | F/Laps | Podiums | Points | Position |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | FFFordM Northern | Mini Motors | 6 | 0 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
| 2011 | FFFordM National | Rutland Racing | 20 | 7 | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | 1st |
| 2012 | FF4M SEA | Team Kikuchi | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 48 | 5th |
| 2013 | FF3M | Bellini | 20 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 76 | 6th |
| 2014 | FF1M | FJR | TD | ||||||
| 2014 | FGT3 Supercup | Canary Racing | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 10th |
| 2014 | FF2M | STV Racing | 18 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 16th |
| 2014-15 | FF2M Asia | STV Racing | 12 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 12th |
| 2015 | FF2M | STV Racing | 16 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 33 | 6th |
| 2015 | FF1M | FJR | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 21st |
| 2015-16 | FF2M Asia | STV Racing | 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 9th |
| 2016 | FF1M | FJR | TD | ||||||
| 2016 | FF2M | STV Racing | 20 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 18 | 14th |
| 2016-17 | FF2M Asia | STV Racing | 12 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 36 | 4th |
| 2017 | FF1M | FJR | TD | ||||||
| 2017 | FF2M | STV Racing | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 18th |
| 2017-18 | FFeM | Electric Eel Racing |
Race by Race[]
Canon (1950, 1986-Present)[]
| Season | Team-Engine | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | Pos. | Pts. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | FJR-Judd | AUS | MEX | BRA | SMR | EUR | PRT | MCO | CAN | USA | GBR | DEU | HUN | AUT | BEL 15 |
ITA 7 |
MYS | CHN | JPN | 21st | 2 |