ANDY PRIAULX: “MY SUCCESS IS DOWN TO DETERMINATION – AND A MIRACLE”
Lewis Hamilton’s fifth FIAFormula 1 world title in 2018 put him truly on the tail of Michael Schumacher’s all-time record, but it also put him one clear of another highly decorated Briton Andy Priaulx.
Priaulx took four back-to-back successes in FIA-sanctioned European and World Touring Car Championships and enjoyed an 13-year career as a factory BMW driver in a range of disciplines stretching from Super 2000 tin-tops, through the DTM and international-level sportscars too. Subsequent to that, he has been one of the mainstays of the Ford GT programme in the World Endurance Championship and returned to the World Touring Car Championship.
The list of his achievements is an enviable one, but he has now decided to scale back his front-line activities and concentrate on a new role with Multimatic, the team which ran the Ford Chip Ganassi Team UK GT programme. Priaulx will be on hand as an in-house racer, development driver, advisor and ambassador as he also gets his teeth into overseeing the motorsport career of his son Sebastian. The younger Priaulx, who is just 19 years old, will race for Multimatic in a programme of events in the US this season.
MN sets the scene:After dabbling in karting – and even powerboat racing – it was inevitable that youngAndy Priaulx would take to the hills. His father Graham had been a participant in the British Hillclimb contest in the 1980s and returned in the 1990s. He shared a Pilbeam MP58 with his son in 1994 and 1995 and both were winners.Andy switched to circuit racing in the Formula Renault UK Championship in 1996 in a Startline Racing Martini MK72.
Question: “You started your career in the British Hillclmb Championship, which you won in 1995. What skills did hillclimbing give you, and did it give you any drawbacks when it came to switching to circuit racing?
“I think it really came into play later in my career, I suppose. It helped when you look at things like the Race of Champions, where I was always super competitive and won it [alongside Jason Plato for the England team in 2015]. It helps when you are going into Turn 1, dealing with cold tyres and it being
