DOWN THE PUB

He’s the fastest man ever round Castle Combe “It’s incredible that it is 20 years ago that I set the Castle Combe record, but I remember everything about it – it was a fantastic day. I’d not driven the Tyrrell 022 round the circuit before race day so we got what we thought would be a reasonable set-up.” He smashed the lap record “First practice was torrential rain with standing water and I was aquaplaning everywhere, but was still under the lap record. For qualifying we were on wets but the track was drying so we went quicker still. The first lap on slicks was the first lap of the race. From the standing start we broke the lap record and then went quicker and quicker.”

There was more to come “For a lot of the lap the car was airborne and because we’d been bouncing around so much we ended up stuck in fifth gear. But I loved every second of it. What was great was going round the track and seeing everyone enjoying it so much. It was a great moment.” Driving an F5000 car was a long-held dream “As a kid I can remember going to Mallory Park and standing on the bank watching the start of an F5000 race. It was people like Bob Evans and Peter Gethin and Teddy Pilette and as a kid it blows your socks off! From there on I’ve always loved Formula 5000 but never had the chance to drive one.” He’s worked with Neil Glover “I did a couple of laps at Donington in the Chevron B37 earlier this year. Simon Hadfield, who runs F5000s for Neil Glover, asked me to help with some coaching and he invited me to do a few laps in the Chevron during testing at Donington.”

He drove a Lola on Saturday “Rodney Gooch at Castle Combe was looking for some cars for demonstration sessions at the Autumn Classic so we went with Neil in the Chevron and me in the Lola T332 which, for me, is the ultimate car. I remember reading about T332s in America with Brian Redman, Mario Andretti, Al Unser Snr, Danny Ongais and all those guys. It’s an incredible car.”