Matt George: From Lava Lamps to Motorsport
Risk, Reform, and Hidden Talent
By Brad Askew
When you meet Matt George, what strikes you first isn’t noise or bravado—it’s depth. A quiet confidence. A sense of conviction without performance. He connects passion, business, and reform in a way that feels both strategic and human. From fixing broken lava lamps as a teenager, to building bike communities in Bristol, to reshaping how motorsport talent is discovered and supported, Matt’s journey is a story of risk, resilience, and doing things properly.
“I’ve always been a risk-taker. Whether it’s riding and racing mountain bikes, making business decisions, or leaving secure jobs to start something new, that thread runs right through my life.”
This isn’t a neat success narrative. It’s layered. Built through experiments, losses, pivots, and long obedience in the same direction. But in hindsight, it all connects.
Early Hustles and Restless Drive
Matt’s entrepreneurial instinct showed up early. While other teenagers were earning pocket money, Matt was learning how value works.
“My dad used to bring home broken lava lamps from his work at Mathmos. I’d fix them and sell them in the local newspaper. It was small, but it gave me a taste of business and independence.”
At the same time, he was obsessed with bikes. Three paper rounds funded parts, upgrades, and riding trips. There was always motion. Always momentum. Always a sense that life wasn’t meant to be static.
When his mum recently gave him a school notebook that read, “When I’m older, I’m going to own a bike shop… with jumps and trails”, it turned out to be less childish imagination and more early prophecy.
Sport and enterprise were never separate worlds for Matt—they were always meant to work together.
Canada: Perspective, Community, Formation
That instinct took him to Canada, where he became a mountain bike coach at Muskoka Woods, a Christian-based summer camp in northern Ontario. Thousands of young people. Hundreds of staff. A culture built around growth, community, and formation. “It was super cool. Amazing people. I found real peace out there. It helped me understand myself and developed leadership skills and confidence.” Canada gave Matt more than coaching experience—it gave him perspective. But life intervened when his father was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer. Matt returned home changed, grounded, and clearer about the kind of life he wanted to build.
Pedal Progression: Building What Didn’t Exist
Back in Bristol, Matt founded Pedal Progression. It started as a mountain bike coaching business. It became a community.
“I wanted to celebrate people’s stories, not just elite riders. Whatever your starting point, I wanted to understand and facilitate that journey. Connecting people with nature and building community through the sport I loved.”
He wasn’t interested in extraction. He was interested in building.
Early on, Matt showed his instinct for creative partnership. He secured a deal with Evans Cycles to purchase high-end hire bikes well below trade price—creating a profitable model that benefited everyone involved. “It was a win-win-win. We profited, Evans Cycles profited, and our community got amazing bikes to ride.” This way of thinking kept coming up as we talked about his story. This ability to always look at things from other other’s perspective and have that as a winning strategy.
But the deeper impact came when Bristol’s mountain bike trails were at risk. Funding disappeared. Maintenance stopped. Decline was inevitable—unless someone intervened.
Matt did, with Pedal Progression. Working with the council, professional trail builders, and volunteers, Pedal Progression stepped in to maintain and upgrade the trails. “With that situation, we hired more bikes because the trails were better quality. The business benefited, but most people didn’t rent bikes from us to ride them—the trails are free to access. It was about serving the communityand legacy.”
“This wasn’t branding. It was stewardship. Seeing a problem. Taking responsibility. Building something better.”
Learning Through Loss: Bath Bike Park
Not everything worked.
Matt won a tender to build a mountain bike park in Bath—a major opportunity. Then the ground itself became the problem. Landfill beneath the site made the project impossible. It was long. Costly. Disappointing. Exhausting. “I learned too much in that year, including creating some amazing partnerships which would have funded the build of the park. With things not working out, I needed to do something different.
I needed to push into something new.” Instead of collapsing inward, Matt extracted the learning: negotiation, partnerships, commercial strategy, sponsorship, systems thinking. “Partnerships were really fun. I liked selling to people. It’s game theory—you create a situation where everyone walks away thinking they’ve won.”
This became the bridge to his next chapter.
Motorsport Connect: Reforming a Broken System
Motorsport had always been there—childhood trips to Silverstone and Thruxton, fascination with speed and engineering. Now it became a mission. After completing a motorsport marketing course, Matt was advised not to compete for jobs in elite teams—but to build something of his own.
“Rather than applying to Formula One teams as one of hundreds of people, I was advised to do it myself.”
That’s how Motorsport Connect was born.
Through a chance LinkedIn connection with racing driver Dino Zamparelli, Matt became the commercial engine behind a championship contending Porsche Carrera Cup team. He went on to set up Matt George Limited, trading as Motorsport Connect, supporting drivers and teams with sponsorship strategy, partnerships, and commercial growth.
“The industry needs reform, particularly around sponsorship. There’s a lot of money going around without the recipients always understanding its real value. I want to do deals that benefit drivers/teams, sponsors and of course pay my mortgage! It’s hard work but rewarding.”
This isn’t just business growth—it’s systems change.
Hidden Talent: Finding Racers No One Is Looking For
One of the things Matt is most passionate about is where real talent actually lives.
Not always in academies. Not always in funded pathways. Not always on elite circuits.
Sometimes, it’s behind a screen.
Matt talks about sim-racing communities where young people dominate online competitions but have never had access to a real track. One of the drivers Motorsport Connect supports is a gamer, who had never raced on a physical circuit before, was given the chance to drive a real car on a real track.
No karting background. No professional training. No traditional pathway. And when he did?
“He beat professional drivers and within 2 years is racing at European level in Le Mans Cup!”
And,
“I think some of the best drivers aren’t even on the circuit. They’re winning competitions online. They’ve never had the chance. They’ve never had the access.”
This is what genuinely excites Matt. Discovery. Opportunity. Reform.
“I’d love to find someone with real ability who’s never had the money, never had the access, never had the platform — and help them reach the top.”
This isn’t charity. It’s vision. It’s changing who gets access to elite sport.
Integrity, Reform, and Quiet Kingdom Values
Matt has had a strong faith in the past, though it isn’t front and centre right now. He’s open about that—and even admits he sometimes dodges the question when it comes up. But the principles that guide him are unmistakable: honesty, integrity, reform, and doing the right thing properly. “I’ve always done honest business. Integrity is a huge part of who I want to be in business.”
He wants to reform broken systems, not exploit them. To open doors, not protect gatekeeping. To find overlooked people and build platforms for them to rise.
For the Bristol Spring community, this matters. Because sometimes kingdom values don’t arrive wrapped in religious language. Sometimes they show up as reform. As justice. As opportunity. As responsibility. As quiet faithfulness.
Not everything needs a label to carry weight.
Matt George’s journey isn’t neat, religiously packaged, or driven by slogans. It’s shaped by risk, reform, responsibility, integrity, opportunity, and service — a life formed not by noise but by resolve. From fixing lava lamps to shaping motorsport futures, the thread remains demanding and clear: see the problem, take responsibility, and build something better. Call it purpose, conviction, values, or a quiet calling — the fruit looks the same: a life that chooses contribution over comfort, formation over image, and service over self.