PATRICK WATTS: MAYBE I WASN’T PUSHY ENOUGH
Peugeot was the plucky underdog at the height of the British Touring Car Championship’s boom time of the mid-1990s, and it had a driver who was perfectly fitted to that mould.
Patrick Watts had been a product of the hugely competitive one-make landscape in the UK and was a multiple title winner on his way up through the ranks.
There had been an early taste of the big time when he was signed by theAustin Rover Group as it sought to boost the image of the grandma’s favourite car, the Metro. The rug was pulled from under his feet whenARG backed out of racing in 1984, but Watts wasn’t finished.
The Kent racer would get another shot at the BTCC, firstly with Mazda in 1992 and then as a Peugeot factory driver for four seasons.Although it never quite delivered him the results his ability merited, Watts was a mainstay of the category during arguably its most competitive era.
Since then, he has broadened his motorsport horizons and even won the Historic Rally Championship in a Sunbeam Tiger.
He has become one of the favourites in historic racing too, hauling his Studebaker,Allard and Mini around with great aplomb.
The motorsporting challenges haven’t stopped, and there is a second-generation Watts talent to nurture in 2021. Patrick is a long way from slowing down just yet, as you can discover here.
Question: How did the motor racing passion begin in you? Was it something you grew up with?
John Charles Via email
Patrick Watts: “I started my motor racing career by hillclimbing. It was in a Mini. My dad was doing it with his friend, and I wanted to take part too. My brother bought this Mini Miglia, but he didn’t really understand the technical parts of it like pumping the tyres up and changing the spark plugs occasionally. I was only 17, but I knew about things like that so I gradually took over the car. I borrowed a van from a garage down the road and it went from there.
“I was leading the Guyson British championship in 1977 but I had no money, so the car was on the same slicks that had been fitted to it when it was bought. Eventually the front ones were down on the canvas.At Loton Park towards the end of the championship, I put the back tyres on the front to try and alleviate the wear issue a bit. The rear tyres were very grippy on the front, but the front tyres on the back were shot, so I was oversteering everywhere. I had a big oversteer moment into the first long left-hander there and I ended up upside down in the pond there after hitting a tree. I remember all the water coming into the car! I managed to escape though. But that was the end of that Mini.”
Why did you decided
