There's no doubt that motor racing is one of Lawrence Tomlinson’s great passions.

The evidence is all around you when you walk into the office of the Batley-born chairman of Leeds-based LNT Group. There are stacks of motorsport magazines on the table and the shelves are heavy with silverware won driving racing cars on some of the UK’s best-known circuits.

But for the real proof, look through the internal window down onto the factory floor. This is the home of Ginetta – the barely chugging-along car company Lawrence acquired in 2005 and turned into one of the UK’s most inspiring manufacturing success stories.

“I started racing in 2002 – and that was in a Ginetta,” says Lawrence. “I also raced TVRs for a while. I drove for TVR at Le Mans in 2004.”

Ginetta was established in 1958 but was building only one or two cars a week from a shed in Sheffield before Lawrence seized his opportunity to take over the business.

Since 2005, Ginetta has built seven types of car, its own engine and sells road and race cars are sold all over the world, with Australia, Brazil and Japan among the key markets.

With the new racing season only days away, the factory near Garforth has been busy preparing the vehicles, parts and spares for the race teams who will compete in four Ginetta championships at venues including Brands Hatch, Donington Park and Thruxton.

And Lawrence will be among them. Four years ago, Lawrence drove as team-mate of former F1 champion Nigel Mansell, when he returned to top-rank racing in a Ginetta. And he has no intentions of vacating the grid just yet.

Ginetta is just one part of Lawrence’s LNT empire, however. The group has interests in cars, construction, car homes, chemicals and computers – the five Cs as Lawrence puts it.

LNT Group operates 35 care homes, including Greenacres at Meltham, under the Ideal Care Homes name, while LNT Construction builds care homes for that business and for other care home operators.

LNT Software devises software for care home management while LNT Solutions makes products such as de-icers for airport runways, airplane wings and railway station platforms.

His business may be based on an industrial estate on the outskirts of Leeds, but Lawrence – a regular on the Sunday Times Rich List – has strong connections with Huddersfield and retains an affection for the town.

The former Batley Grammar School pupil studied mechanical engineering at Huddersfield Technical College and gained a degree in engineering. He worked at Holset, now Cummins Turbo Technologies and undertook its graduate management programme before a change in direction and a new career as “serial entrepreneur”.

Says Lawrence: “I left school when I was 15 having done my O-levels, but I ‘drifted’. I used to be interested in software and computers and computer games – which in those days wasn’t considered quite ‘normal’.

“A friend of my father said I should go into engineering because there were so many people doing computer courses there wouldn’t be enough jobs for everyone. He didn’t think computer games would take off!

“Mechanical engineering gave me some discipline in my life. I did a diploma at the technical college. Part of the course was working in industry, so I learned all about industry – and I learned that I didn’t want to be doing that! I enjoyed learning about milling and turning, but I didn’t want to be working on a lathe for 40 hours a week.

“My parents had set up a care home and they were going to sell it. I wrote some software to help run the home and at that point – at the age of 23 – I decided to buy it. It was a question of continuing to climb the corporate ladder or doing something for myself.”

It’s a decision he has never regretted. “Running your own business gives you freedom. There are no rules and there is no structure. It is all up to you. New entrepreneurs find it difficult to cope without the corporate structure. Suddenly, you don’t have to be up at 7am to get to work by 8.30.

“But, equally, you no longer have the support structure around you – someone to pay your wages, someone to do the accounting, someone to make sue you have a company car to drive and someone to manage the business generally.

“Many people leave this environment and set up in business when they have a wife and kids and a mortgage and if it doesn’t work you are running a huge risk.

“At 23, I was single and didn’t have these worries. I borrowed £526,000 and got on with it. I haven’t got everything right, but I have had the opportunity to do what I want.”

Lawrence launched LNT in 1987. The purpose-built offices at Garforth were opened by former F1 champion Damon Hill. Today, the group has 2,000 employees around the country, including hundreds in Yorkshire.

Lawrence’s loyalty to his home county is demonstrated by LNT’s policy of using regional suppliers wherever possible – and by singing its praises when meeting politicians such as Vince Cable and George Osborne.

He says: “We work closely with Government to try and give them some idea of what businesses need. There is a lack of funding available to businesses. That’s the biggest single issue I hear from everyone in business. Regional bank managers are unable to make a decision on lending to business. They have to go to a central committee to get approval. There are issues around red tape and other barriers to growth in the SME sector.

“But the SMEs provide the engine for growth in the UK.”

Says Lawrence: “I try to help businesses in Yorkshire wherever I can because we seem to be one of the more high-profile businesses in Yorkshire.

“There’s a real issues about skills shortages – which is another area where businesses seem to be struggling.

“We have a strong relationship with Huddersfield University. I remember the university when I was a student and drinking at the College Arms. When I went back to get my doctorate the campus was unrecognisable – in a really good way!

“We have had some really great students join us from the university and develop their careers. We have two ex-students who are designing a Ginetta range of menswear.”

Another former student is now LNT’s full-time videographer – fulfilling a role that reflects Lawrence’s continued interest in technology.

Last year, all employees were presented with iPhones with an app enabling them to keep up with news about the LNT businesses, see videos of people and events in the group, check their hours worked, book their holidays – and contact Lawrence directly with any issues concerning them. It also enables messages to be send to specific people in the group.

It’s a high-tech version of the company noticeboard that helps keep Lawrence’s team on track in a fast-moving business environment.