Anyone who has been to a British Touring Car Championship meeting for the last three decades will be familiar with the gravelly-toned talker Alan Hyde. The roving pitlane reporter is always there on the scene, sticking his microphone under the noses of anyone who has done anything notable.
Hyde has been a mainstay of the trackside talking team for nearly 30 years. With a background in music production and local radio, the motorsport passion burned within him from a young age and marrying his two dedications – broadcasting and racing cars – was almost signposted as his destiny.
But it isn’t all about tin-tops for Hyde, even though he also produces an internet-based radio programme – Tin Top Tuesday – after each round. He has used his skills to host for BMW around the world, is a regular at Macau and can be found at myriad other national race meetings around the country, as well as hosting awards evenings. He is also now the face of the main stage at the Autosport International Show.
But most of all, Hyde is known as one of the cheeriest people in the pitlane and has formed many lasting friendships with drivers and officials over the years. That is just a mark of the man. He kindly took time out of his schedule to tackle the Motorsport News readers’ questions, and we are grateful to him.
Question: How did you get into commentary? And what was the first race meeting you went to?
Barry May Via email Alan Hyde: “The first race meeting I went to was the European Grand Prix in 1985. It was Nigel Mansell’s first grand prix win. And then for the following year, when it was the British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch in July, I didn’t go – even though the track was very local to me.
“I worked in a music shop at the time and on the Friday night before the 1986 weekend, I was delivering a piano to someone. I was in my Talbot Sunbeam. I got distracted as I was driving when I went passed a dealership and saw this brand new, very sexy, BMW on the forecourt. Then I when I turned around to look in front of me, all the traffic had stopped because it was queuing up to get into Brands Hatch…Unfortunately, I catapulted myself and piano into the car in front of me. That scuppered my plans and I couldn’t make the big race.”
MN: When you went to your first meeting, did your dad take you? Or did you go on your own?
AH: “I went with a friend from school. Dad, who was into golf, had zero interest in motor racing so I really had to wait until I could drive, or my friends had a licence, before I could go racing regularly.”
MN: So where do you think your interest in motorsport came from then?
AH: “Well I had watched F1 on the telly in the 1970s whenever it was on and I think it was my perception that it was just a cool sport. I remember I had an Embassy Racing with Graham Hill sticker on my little suitcase when I was a kid. I was probably only five years old.
“To begin with, my mum was more into motor racing that I was. She’d used to go and watch speedway
