The events leading to this point were put in train by a high speed tumble from a motorcycle some years ago.  The fall signalled the end of my affair with ‘bikes and after a period of recovery I returned to the track late in 2003, this time on four wheels.  The rapid growth of track-day culture in the UK provided easy and regular access to the country’s most famous circuits and for me the lure of the track was too strong to resist.

Over the next five years, circuits, track miles and visits to various gravel traps were accumulated; a turbo-charged Golf GTI replaced a normally aspirated Alfa 156 (because, on the track, speed trumps beauty).  Interiors were stripped, cages welded, dampers dried and bushes trimmed; lines were learnt and lessons absorbed.

By 2009 I was wondering what to do next.  Having completed more than forty track days in the UK and Europe, it is fair to say that some of the novelty of track driving had evaporated and I was driving less and less.  And then FUCHS UK announced that it would be title sponsor for the Volkswagen Racing Cup in 2010.  And I looked at my Golf GTI, sitting in the workshop, as if waiting for a new challenge, and suddenly it all seemed quite simple.

At the end of 2009 I passed the infamous Association of Race Drivers (ARDS) test and obtained my Race National B (novice) Licence.  Now I was ready to learn how to be a real racer.