DOWN THE PUB
He followed his dad
“My dad Stan used to do sprints and hillclimbs in a Buckler. I’d go to school then come home and help on the car. I raced bikes from 1973 and I raced a Honda, which I’ve still got. I’d ride it to work then change it for the weekends and put it on a trailer behind dad’s Vauxhall Viva or Ford Anglia and off we’d go to Silverstone, Brands, Mallory, Lydden, Cadwell or wherever.”
It went wrong at Brands
“I did that for three or four years until it came to an end at Paddock Hill Bend. It was the first time that my mum came to watch me race and she was standing at Paddock when I highsided and completely wrecked it.”
He moved to cars
“Eventually, I bought an MGB GT V8 and started racing it. I’d drive it to the circuit, race it and then drive it home. Then I bought another V8 as a wreck and converted it for the modified road-going class and had quite a lot of success with that. I won the BCV8 championship against people like Barry Sidery-smith, David Franklin and Ron Gammons. Then I did the Honda CRX Challenge and Uniroyal Production Saloons.”
Sailing came next
“We were trying to expand the business and didn’t have much money. I’d reached what I could do and couldn’t afford to do any more. I’d always fancied racing a boat, so we bought a sailing boat and did that from about 1987. That was great and we did things like the Fastnet Race.”
Formula Junior came along and impressed
“We went to the Autosport Show in 1998. Alan Baillie had his Lotus 27 on show and it was beautiful. It was a bit out of our league but it sparked my interest and we started looking at Formula Junior. We bought our first Formula Junior, but back then it was just a hobby.”
The business side is busy
“Then someone came and asked if we could help them and that’s how the racing business started. We’ve got three units: a storage unit, the main Rolls Royce and Bentley workshop and the race workshop. There are 12 of us and we mix and match between the two sides of the business. Andrew heads up the racing team and it has grown and grown.”