"6000rpm along the Mulsanne was 200mph.I thought I was going jolly fast, then a Jag came past like I was standing still"

Sports car ace Andy Wallace has a record to be proud of, even if he never fulfilled the F1 dream

- RICHARD HESELTINE

He rolls his eyes at the memory, all the while straining to be heard over fellow diners in a highdecibel Buckinghamshire pub. That win almost didn't happen. Andy Wallace, victor at Le Mans first time out, wasn't receptive when invited by Tom Walkinshaw Racing to join the fold. He wasn't interested in becoming a works Jaguar driver, but fortunately for him the team was persistent. "At the end of 1986, I was sounded out about doing the 24 Hours in '87. I told them thanks, but no thanks," he recalls with mock-horror. "I am going to drive in Formula One."

Few wheelmen were more deserving of a shot than Bugatti's test pilot, who had bagged major scalps in junior formulae. A man prone to stretching self-deprecation to breaking point and quick to smile, Andy is great company.

He is living proof that nice guys sometimes do finish first, although his rise to prominence was far from preordained. "I didn't have money behind me," he says. "My family wasn't involved in motor racing, but Dad took me to watch the British Grand Prix in 1968 and that got me hooked. I grew up 30 miles from Silverstone and would cycle to every meeting I could."

Andy disliked school, though. "I left when I was 16," he continues. "I joined British Gas as an apprentice and qualified as a service engineer. It was a means to an end: I had already decided I was going to be a racing driver. The route to Formula One is obviously to start in karting then switch to cars. But I had watched a few pre-1974 Formula Ford races and it was something I could just about afford. It was a big leap for a teenager, though. In 1979 I went to the banks and attempted to get a loan, but they didn't consider me a safe bet even though I insisted I was going to be world champion."