PADDY LOWE WORKED IN FORMULA 1 for 32 years, winning constructors’ titles with Williams, McLaren and Mercedes, and drivers’ titles with Mansell, Häkkinen and Hamilton, but F1 wasn’t his first or even his second love. ‘The East African Safari Rally used to come past our house every year and I was absolutely crazy about it,’ he recalls. ‘These were the days when it was a proper Safari, when you might only get seven finishers out of the whole field. Pro cars used to come from Europe, Porsche and the like, and generally got beaten by the locals, drivers like Joginder Singh. The only old car I’d love to own is a Datsun 240Z.’
Patrick Allen Lowe was born in Nairobi to parents who were Irish missionaries, and lived in Uganda until the age of 12. ‘We were on our bicycles all day, exploring the neighbourhood, which was quite remote. I grew up with tyre spanners, inner tubes and chains. Then it got a little bit difficult because this was 1974, Idi Amin was in power and it was starting
