About Us
Pro Seat really is a true professionally run family business. We have expanded over the years but the team still maintains an un-rivalled customer service that any race car driver deserves. The core beliefs and principles started by Trevor still ring true to this day. Alex and Richard have a longstanding working relationship. It is a wonderful story from working in Trevor's original race team leading to the expansion of the global business we have now become.
Our Team
Alex Powell - Technical Director
Richard Wake
During the period of Trevor's team ownership, he worked alongside the team mechanics: first cleaning and polishing, then fetching parts from track-side suppliers and finally graduating to work on Formula BMW, F3 and Sports prototype cars. At the age of 12 he could change the ratios in a Hewland FTR gearbox, having learned this skill from Rich Wake amongst others. His team membership highlight was driving the Quad bike in the pit-lane, loaded with spares and tyres, except when it was raining!
He has become one of the most experienced, requested and sought-after custom seat technicians in professional World Motorsport.
“I have seen first - hand throughout my career how important driver comfort can be in improving on track performance. You really have an affordable product that any driver looking to find that extra edge should have. It is a pleasure to be working alongside Trevor and Alex again. Our story actually began when I worked as a mechanic for Team Loctite, ran by Trevor, at the start of my motorsport career. It’s great to have come full circle and be working with them again.”
Ryan McGarva
The history of Pro-Seat
Pro-Seat Global came to life in 1990 when the first prototype seat insert was developed by our founder Trevor Powell, two further years of development took place before the first workable seat materials were produced by Pro-Seat. A year later in 1993 Pro-Seat claimed it's first big contract with driver Rubens Barrichello and the Jordan Grand Prix team with, other F1 teams such as Benetton, Ferrari, Williams, Ligier and Sauber saw the benefits and quickly followed suit. 1994 saw further growth into the Le Mans 24-hour series, providing seats for race legends Derek Bell, Robin Donovan and Juergen Loessig. This being Derek's last ever Le Mans 24-hour race.
The mid-90's brought Pro-Seat international recognition, the first seats made in Champcar USA, for Newman-Haas driver Michael Andretti. Pac-West, Penske, Team Green Tasman, Della-Penna and many more soon followed. During this period, Pro-Seat were approached by the Thrust SSC Team which sets the World Land Speed Record on 15 October 1997. It achieved a speed of 1,228 km/h (763 mph) and became the first car to officially break the sound barrier. The Pro-Seat that Wing Commander Andy Green used to set this remarkable record is also the fastest land-based seat in history and the first to break the sound barrier!
Towards the end of the 90's Trevor changed focus slightly and started Team SWR/Team Loctite alongside the Pro-Seat business. The next 15 years saw Team SWR/Team Loctite become a highly successful race team, competing in Formula BMW, Formula 3 and multiple sportscar championships.
Trevor Powell - Founder
Trevor initially trained as a landscape architect in the late 1970’s as well as obtaining an honours degree in management. He then went on to teach Engineering and became Head of Studies at Canington College in 1989.
A change of direction into motorsport led to the creation of the Pro-Seat system in 1990 and there has been no turning back since. A spell of team ownership led to the formation of Team Loctite, competing successfully in Formula BMW, Formula 3 and sports car racing. Trevor was team owner as well as race engineer.
As Pro-Seat grew to an international level, this became the main focus from 2008 and the team was disbanded. The project Trevor started in 1990 has led to Pro-Seat becoming the leading provider of bespoke race car seating worldwide.