I had a long-term plan when Andy started with his RallyCross. In the first year with his Mini, I did it with no JG support although I did put some JG livery on the car just to say thank-you for what they were doing at the time. But it was always a dream of mine, and Carl’s, that this could be a fantastic thing for us to do as a father and son team. It is something that I will look back on in the future and it will outweigh all the lows. This is the start of a huge career for him and it is thanks to these guys.
Crash.net:
That’s the string in the bow really isn’t it; that Andy is coming through and there will be a time when you decide to hang up the helmet and he will be there to keep the relationship going.
MJ:
John Guest is a family company. Mr Guest is the chairman and there are three sons, Robert, Tim and Barry, and they are very close family people. We have built a fantastic relationship because they realise that that is what we are as a team as well. If you had one of these flash touring car teams in the paddock with their marketing consultants went in to see them, I’d give them two or three minutes before they would be politely shown the door because they aren’t those kind of people. It just wouldn’t work for them like that.
I did say to them in the beginning that I thought Andrew could go a long way and about two years ago, I said to them that I honestly believe he could be the next Andy Priaulx; and he has every indication of showing all the right things at the minute. They are very excited to have seen him come from a 14-year-old who had a little John Guest sticker on his Mini to now be doing this. If you were a real family company, how good would that make you feel? I’m sure they will have sat their today watching his performance in race three and they’ll be happy with it.
Crash.net:
How exciting is for John Guest to see Andy coming through in the way he is?
CG:
When we started with Mike, Andy used to be riding round the paddock on his BMX and now he is out there in the car which in itself is pretty decent. In the first EuroCar race we did at
Brands Hatch, we gave out sweets to the kids that were in the hospitality unit and Andy got a bag of sweets and then wrote a letter to Mr Guest and did a picture of the EuroCar. I still have that picture at work and I often think that it’s been a long time.
