A motor salvage yard couldn’t be further away from the glitz and glamour that most people associate with the world of elite motor racing but such is the direction Dexter Patterson’s life has taken, he constantly flits between the two.
Patterson’s day job is at the family car breakers yard business in Uddingston, which he uses to fund the eye-wateringly extortionate costs that come with climbing the motor racing ladder.
The combination of working and racing make for a particularly hectic lifestyle but it’s a schedule that Patterson is happy to endure if it helps him fulfil his lofty goals as a racing driver.
Despite being still only 21 years old, Patterson has already made a significant impact in the world of motorsport, with his most significant result to date being his World Karting title, which he won in 2017, as well as successful forays into Italian F4 and British F3 in recent years.
This year, however, it’s the British Touring Cars Championship (BTCC) in which Patterson will test himself.
This isn’t the Glaswegian’s first experience of BTCC having raced it in both 2022 and 2023 but after spending last year racing in the GT4 European Series, he’s now returned to touring cars, and the Scot admits he’s delighted to be back in the high-pressure environment that is BTCC.
“The main reason I’ve returned to touring cars is to get back into some close racing. I spent a year away doing GT racing but touring car racing is just much more exciting,” he says.
“Touring cars is so much closer - in qualifying, the entire grid can be split by only a second, so the margins are extremely fine. To win or even to be successful in BTCC, you need to be right on your game.
“It’s high-pressure but I prefer having that pressure - that’s when you find out who's got it and who doesn’t.”
Patterson will race for Un-Limited Motorsport in this year’s BTCC alongside his teammate, Englishman Max Hall, and one of the greatest challenges for the Scot will be the fact he’ll be racing against drivers who have considerably more experience than himself.
It’s a challenge he’s embracing, however.
“Especially in my first year in touring cars, the experience of some of the other guys was tough to compete with because I was up against guys who’d been racing since before I was born.
“But every season you do, you learn so much so I can cope much better now.
“Even though I’m maybe 10 years behind in experience, I can make up for that with pure talent.”
(Image: Artie Chatzikonstantinou) That Patterson has reached this level in the sport is somewhat against the odds.
Despite his dad having an interest in cars, competitive racing wasn’t on the family’s radar.
But one day, his dad decided to buy himself a go-kart from his friend and father of former F1 driver, Paul Di Resta, and the rest, as they say, is history.
“My dad loves cars and I became the same as him, a petrolhead,” Patterson says.
“He was never into racing but after he bought a go-kart, I wanted one too and it all just spiralled - and within a couple of years, I began to take racing seriously.
“My dad says buying that go-kart was the worst financial decision he's ever made.”
Motorsport certainly isn’t a cheap pursuit and climbing the ladder is even more expensive, often prohibitively so.
Almost every penny made from Patterson’s job in the salvage yard goes towards his career but that’s a drop in the ocean when taken into consideration just how much financial backing is needed to progress in the sport.
“In motorsport, money is the be-all and end-all,” says Patterson.
“Unless you've got a huge sponsor funding you, you have to find money yourself and that’s hard. So we, as a family, are funding a lot of my career.
“In touring cars, the drives can range from around £200,000 to £750,000-plus but if you want to go to Formula 1, nowadays I reckon you’d need a minimum of £20 million to get through the ranks. That’s crazy.
“I know drivers who were good enough to make it to the top tier in motorsport but they never got the chance because of a financial issue, not from a lack of ability.
“So I’m just trying to do my best with what we've got.”
Patterson still has time to get the hang of his new car, with the season not beginning until April, where the championship will kick-off at Donnington Park.
A particular highlight for Patterson will be the Scottish round of the BTCC at Knockhill in August and although he’s reluctant to make too many predictions for the coming season, he’s quietly confident he can make his presence felt.
“It’s not until after the first couple of rounds of racing that you can get a proper gist of where the car is and what we're going to be able to achieve,” he says.
“But, in my mind, I'd like to try for some outright podiums.”
