Nicholas John Halstead (born 9 April 1972 in Kent) is a British racing driver, software engineer and entrepreneur who is set to compete in the British Touring Car Championship for Steel Seal with Power Maxed Racing. Halstead has previously competed in British GT and the Ginetta GT4 Supercup. He won the AM title in the 2018 Ginetta GT5 Challenge, and made his British Touring Car Championship debut at Croft in 2021, substituting for Rick Parfitt Jr. at Excelr8 with TradePriceCars.com.

Halstead is the founder of companies such as Infosum, Datasift and TweetMeme, the latter of which was the first site containing the retweet feature, before it was sold to Twitter in 2010.

Career

Fav.or.it In October 2007, the Fav.or.it company was founded, a proposed blog commenting system founded on principle that consumers and businesses both need content curated. The site was launched in 2008, and quickly built to 500,000 monthly users.

TweetMeme In January 2008, the first prototype of TweetMeme was released, a site founded by Halstead which tracked trending topics on the social media giant Twitter. The site would find new topics being talked about, and would track numbers talking about them to rank them, an aggregator. The full site was then launched to the public in July the same year.

In February 2009, the retweet button was released onto the website, a feature allowing users to share posts they liked. Although this feature was founded on the TweetMeme website, it soon became a standard feature of almost all forum and social media sites, with approximately 1.6 billion retweet buttons across different pages on the internet.

On 12 August 2010, the retweet feature was sold to Twitter, and the website was shut down in September 2012, when it still had 3 million users at the time.

DataSift Halstead announced DataSift in September 2010 at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference, a social data platform that provides brands and enterprises with access to content from the likes of Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and dozens of other social networks. The software was officially released in November 2011.

Halstead stepped down as CEO of the company in October 2015.

InfoSum In late 2015, Halstead founded Cognitive Logic, a data collaboration company. It was rebranded to InfoSum in September 2017. WPP bought InfoSum in AI push in April, 2025.

Racing career

Ginetta GT5 Challenge In 2017, Halstead would make his professional racing debut in the Ginetta GT5 Challenge with Fox Motorsport. Competing in the AM class, in this year he would pick up ten podiums in the class to finish third in the AM standings.

Halstead would continue with Fox Motorsport in the AM class in 2018, where with four in-class victories he would go on to win the AM title.

In 2019, Halstead made the switch to the Pro class, still competing with Fox Motorsport, where he had a best finish of 11th.

Ginetta GT4 Supercup Competing in a handful of races in series such as TCR UK and the Renault Clio Cup UK alongside his Ginetta GT5 campaign across 2019, in 2020, Halstead would step up to the Ginetta GT4 Supercup, competing in the Pro-AM class still with Fox Motorsport. Across this season in his class he racked up three wins, 15 podiums, three pole positions and four fastest laps on his way to third in the championship standings.

With Fox Motorsport, Halstead would compete in the rounds at Oulton Park and Brands Hatch in 2021 in the Pro-AM class, scoring a second-place finish at Brands Hatch.

Halstead continued in the championship with Fox Motorsport in 2022 in the G55 Pro class alongside his British GT campaign.

British GT Halstead made his British GT debut in 2021, racing a McLaren 570S in the GT4 Pro-AM class alongside teammate Jamie Stanley. The duo achieved two wins in class over the course of seven races to finish second in the GT4 Pro-AM cup and tied 8th overall in the GT4 category.

Halstead continued with Fox Motorsport in the series in 2022, this time switching to the GT3 category.

British Touring Car Championship

Halstead made his British Touring Car Championship debut at Croft in 2021, substituting for Rick Parfitt Jr. at Excelr8 with TradePriceCars.com. Over the course of the weekend, Halstead finished in a better position every race, driving home to 21st position in Race 3. Halstead will make a surprise return to the series at the 6th round of the 2026 season at Knockhill with Power Maxed Racing. He is expected to complete the rest of the season after Knockhill.

Halstead returned midway through 2026 with Power Maxed Racing.

Racing record Racing career summary

Season Series Team Races Wins Poles F/Laps Podiums Points Position 2017 Ginetta GT5 Challenge - AM Class Fox Motorsport 19 0 ? ? 10 ? 3rd 2018 Ginetta GT5 Challenge - AM Class Fox Motorsport 15 4 ? ? ? ? 1st 2019 Ginetta GT5 Challenge Fox Motorsport 13 0 0 0 0 0 ? TCR UK 6 0 1 0 1 82 4th Touring Car Trophy 6 0 1 0 1 184 5th Britcar Endurance Championship - Class 4 Maximum Motorsport 2 0 1 1 1 87 9th Renault Clio Cup UK Westbourne Motorsport 2 0 0 0 0 10 17th 2020 Ginetta GT4 Supercup - AM Class Fox Motorsport 18 3 3 4 15 477 3rd 2021 British GT Championship - GT4 Fox Motorsport 8 0 0 0 1 66.5 9th Ginetta GT4 Supercup - Pro-Am 5 0 0 0 1 151 6th British Touring Car Championship Excelr8 with TradePriceCars.com 3 0 0 0 0 0 34th 2022 British GT Championship Fox Motorsport 9 1 0 0 2 81 7th Ginetta GT4 Supercup - G55 Pro 17 0 0 0 1 276 5th 2023 British Touring Car Championship Bristol Street Motors with EXCELR8 30 0 0 0 0 -5 30th Asian Le Mans Series - GT Garage 59400001113th2023-24 Middle East Trophy - GT4 Century Motorsport100000NC† 2024 British Touring Car Championship Team Bristol Street Motors 28 0 0 0 0 7 22nd 2025 British Touring Car Championship Motor Parts Direct with Power Maxed Racing 23 0 0 0 0 4 27thLe Mans Cup - GT3Optimum MotorsportMcLaren Trophy EuropePaddock Motorsport2025-2624H Series Middle East - 992ARMotors by HRT Performance 2026British Touring Car ChampionshipSteel Seal with Power Maxed Racing 12 0 0 0 0 0 26th* † As Halstead didn't complete more than one round, he was not eligible for points. * Season still in progress.

Complete British GT Championship results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) Year Team Car Class 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 DC Points 2021 Fox Motorsport McLaren 570S GT4 GT4 BRH1 SIL1 DON1 SPA1 SNE1 SNE2 OUL1 OUL2 DON1 9th 66.5 2022 Fox Motorsport McLaren 720S GT3 GT3 OUL1 OUL2 SIL1 DON1 SNE1 SNE2 SPA1 BRH1 DON1 7th 81

Complete British Touring Car Championship results (key) Races in bold indicate pole position (1 point awarded – 2002–2003 all races, 2004–present just in first race) Races in italics indicate fastest lap (1 point awarded all races) * signifies that driver lead race for at least one lap (1 point awarded – 2002 just in feature races, 2003–present all races) Year Team Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 DC Points 2021 Excelr8 withTradePriceCars.com Hyundai i30 FastbackN Performance THR1 THR2 THR3 SNE1 SNE2 SNE3 BRH1 BRH2 BRH3 OUL1 OUL2 OUL3 KNO1 KNO2 KNO3 THR1 THR2 THR3 CRO1 CRO2 CRO3 SIL1 SIL2 SIL3 DON1 DON2 DON3 BRH1 BRH2 BRH3 34th 0 2023 Bristol Street Motorswith EXCELR8 Hyundai i30 FastbackN Performance DON1 DON2 DON3 BRH1 BRH2 BRH3 SNE1 SNE2 SNE3 THR1 THR2 THR3 OUL1 OUL2 OUL3 CRO1 CRO2 CRO3 KNO1 KNO2 KNO3 DON1 DON2 DON3 SIL1 SIL2 SIL3 BRH1 BRH2 BRH3 30th 2024 Team Bristol Street Motors Hyundai i30 FastbackN Performance DON1 DON2 DON3 BRH1 BRH2 BRH3 SNE1 SNE2 SNE3 THR1 THR2 THR3 OUL1 OUL2 OUL3 CRO1 CRO2 CRO3 KNO1 KNO2 KNO3 DON1 DON2 DON3 SIL1 SIL2 SIL3 BRH1 BRH2 BRH3 22nd 7 2025 Motor Parts Direct withPower Maxed Racing Vauxhall Astra DON1 DON2 DON3 BRH1 BRH2 BRH3 SNE1 SNE2 SNE3 THR1 THR2 THR3 OUL1 OUL2 OUL3 CRO1 CRO2 CRO3 27th 4 Cupra León KNO1 KNO2 KNO3 DON1 DON2 DON3 SIL1 SIL2 SIL3 BRH1 BRH2 BRH3 2026 Steel Seal withPower Maxed Racing Audi S3 Saloon DON1 DON2 DON3 BRH1 BRH2 BRH3 SNE1 SNE2 SNE3 OUL1 OUL2 OUL3 THR1 THR2 THR3 KNO1 KNO2 KNO3 DON1 DON2 DON3 CRO1 CRO2 CRO3 SIL1 SIL2 SIL3 BRH1 BRH2 BRH3 26th* 0* * Season still in progress.

Complete Asian Le Mans Series results (key) (Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap) + Year Team Class Car Engine 1 2 3 4 Pos. Points 2023 Garage 59 GT McLaren 720S GT3 McLaren M840T 4.0 L Turbo V8 DUB1 DUB2 ABU1 ABU2 13th 11

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