Suffolk racing driver Ollie Taylor has spoken of his shock after he upset the odds to become the Superlight R300 Championship winner.

Having not raced for the last two years, Taylor took the 14-race competition – which is competed over seven race weekends from April onwards – by storm to emerge as champion.

In a field of 35 drivers and after trips to all the biggest race tracks in the UK including Donington and Silverstone as well as Zandvoort in Holland, Taylor came out on top to achieve a remarkable feat.

Taylor, who lives in Bildeston, admitted himself that the result came as a complete surprise.

“I can’t believe I’ve won to be honest,” said a bewildered Taylor.

“I entered the competition going into the unknown. I hadn’t raced for two years for a couple of reasons and just wanted to see how I could do.

“I didn’t know what the competition would be like but I got off to a fantastic start and just carried that through to the end.”

Taylor, with no other experience in motorsport other than motocross previously, began car racing in 2009 but stopped in 2011 after work and university commitments.

But after winning the first four races at Snetterton and Angelsey, Taylor built up a substantial gap at the top of the leaderboard early on and consistent performances in the other meetings saw him finish on 280 points overall, 29 points above his nearest competitor in second place.

“The first four races gave us the platform to move on really,” recalls Taylor.

“We’d done the majority of the work by then with everyone else playing catch up. I just needed to be consistent and calm in the other races to win and fortunately I managed that.”

It could have been so different for the 24-year-old though.

A nasty accident in race one at Brands Hatch left Taylor in hospital overnight but, after a quick recovery, he returned to the track the following day and turned in a fantastic performance to finish third in Sunday’s second main race.

“I just got taken out,” recalled Taylor. “One way or another, I got shoved into the barrier at about 100mph and ended up getting knocked out.

“The next thing I remember was waking up on Saturday evening in hospital!”

After having a brain scan among other tests, Taylor was given the all-clear before showing great determination and desire not only to get back in the car but to also race brilliantly and finish third.

Taylor finished the Championship, which was shown live on Motors TV (Sky channel 447), in style on the weekend of October 19 and 20 as he raced to victory in race one at Silverstone, home of the British Grand Prix, before finishing third in race two.

Taylor has a presentation night of awards at Effingham Park, Sussex to look forward to on November 23.

And the Bildeston driver, who works in a family business as a trainee financial manager, still doesn’t know what is around the corner.

“I think I’m going to take a year off and try different things,” said Taylor.

“I’d quite like to get into racing sports cars in the future so I’ve already got one eye on that and a few events in 2015.”