MADE OF THE (PAUL) WRIGHT STUFF
The American comedian Eddie Cantor once said it takes 20 years to make an overnight success. He might have been talking about National Hot Rod new kid on the block Paul Wright.
Followers of National Hot Rods probably knew he was worth watching after he won on his debut meeting. But, Rob McDonald’s peerless title defence aside, after this year’s World championship weekend was over the talk was all about Wright’s hat-trick of wins, and how it could easily have been four but for some bad luck.
Many people would already have been well aware of Wright’s abilities from his two decades in Spedeworth’s 2.0 Hot Rods, but even that was nowhere near the start of his lengthy racing career.
“My earliest racing memory is Wimbledon, playing with the other kids – I’d have been about five years old,” he remembers. “I can’t recall my dad racing a FordAnglia but I remember his Toyota Starlet at Ipswich, where you were so close to the track you could nearly touch the cars and feel them whistle past.”
With that background, it was never going to be long before the youngster found his
