DOWN THE PUB WITH
NICK EDEN
Age: 62 Lives: Wormingford, Essex Blind speed record contender
He started competing as a teenager “I raced for 20 years before the accident. When I was a teenager I learnt to drive at home and as soon as I was 17 I went rallying at club level. I stopped when I was 20 as I had to go and earn a living. When I was 17 and 18 I used to marshal at Silverstone. That was the way you used to get free tickets. I remember one night after everyone had gone home I went round the grand prix track in my Ford Escort 1100, which I did some rallying in.”
He returned when he was 40 “By the time I was 40 I had enough together and had enough sense to do the thing I always wanted to do. I carried on earning a living until my crash. Being blind is not as bad as being totally deaf because at least I can hold conversations with people and get away with giving the impression that I can see.”
He challenged the ‘Blind Adventurer’ “Miles Hilton-barber, who is also blind, is about 67 but he and his brother both went blind in their early 20s as a result of a hereditary disease. He is a motivational speaker and when it came to the question and answer session at the end, I managed to get my question in first. He said he’d been round a circuit and I challenged him publicly to a race around a track. But he declined, even though he said he’d been round a track in a racing car. He’s also broken the sound barrier at the controls of a jet.”
He’s starting to practice “I’ve still got an Ace Bristol, which I’ve had for a few years and I don’t want to part with it. I do drive that out of the garage. My next door neighbour has a grass airfield and he is happy for me to drive up and down that. I want to build up the speed gradually. I’ve found a two-mile runway at RAF Woodbridge, which you can hire.”
He’s been around Silverstone again “The plan is in its early stages but I felt that I still had a love for motor racing. At the HGPCA test day last April I went round the national circuit at Silverstone as a passenger and I still had the feel. I knew where I was in terms of braking points and gear shift points and so on. My real wish was, and still is in a way, to drive round a circuit. I still think I’ve got that in me and I think I’ve got a good sense of where things are.”
He’d love to drive on a track “I’d like to break the speed record without having someone else in the car and I’m not sure what type of car it will be yet. All this straight line business is fine but I think it is far more of a challenge going round a circuit.”