The first motorsport event I ever witnessed was a banger race. The second time I encountered it, I was already behind the wheel, competing at the Clearways Oval at Brands Hatch. I spent six years racing bangers, eventually culminating in a National Championship win.

Growing up on a farm, I always had access to fields where I could drive tractors or an old car—drifting sideways quickly became second nature.

After a few years away from racing, I missed it so much that, in 1982, I bought a Clubmans sports car. I won the championship in my first year, which led me to step up to British Formula 3 in 1983. Unfortunately, a major crash during the British Grand Prix support race left me with a concussion and sidelined for three months, effectively ending my season.

In 1984, I switched to Formula Ford 2000 and achieved both a first and a third place finish in two different championships. However, by then, we had two young children and couldn’t afford to continue racing at that level.

Several years later, I returned to competition, racing a Lotus Elan, then a Rover 216 GTi, and made a few more appearances in Clubmans before concluding my racing career in 1997.

My father had always assumed my passion for driving came from him—until my mother revealed a surprising family connection: her cousin was Gordon Johncock, two-time winner of the Indianapolis 500.

To me, pure racing means either karting or single-seater racing. I don’t see the point in compromising performance by adding space for a second seat. In my view, proper racing cars are the likes of F1, F2, F3, FF2000, and FF1600.

Aside from Formula 1, I rarely attend motor racing events — I find it too frustrating to just watch. However, I had made an exception to meet my dear friend Clive Wood at Brands Hatch. At the time, I was deeply focused on cycle time trial racing, but the pull of motorsport proved too strong. Within a couple of months, I had bought my first F2 car.

I exchanged this car for my first Formula 2, a Ralt RT1.
The first time I ever laid eyes on it was at Pau, where our team had brought it for me to race. We quickly made a seat for me right there in the paddock, and off I went. The car was incredibly easy to drive — I loved it from the very beginning.

This March 73B-09 originally appeared in North America, competing in the Formula Atlantic series.
In 2008, Mike Finch (from Austin, Texas) sold the car back to the UK, where it was purchased by Terry and Greg Caton. They restored it, raced it themselves, and eventually sold it to David and Marc Mercer. The Mercers raced it in the UK during the 2017 and 2018 seasons, before trading it with me in 2022 for my Formula 2 Ralt RT1.