During the British Touring Car Championship rounds 21 and 22 staged at Oulton Park in Cheshire on 9th and 10th September 2000, our interviewer managed to finally meet up with Alan. He turned up all smiles and eager to answer any questions that our expert interviewer put forward to him. They settled down with a couple of drinks and the questions were fired at him fast and furious!

How does it feel to be answering the questions - when you are the one normally asking them?

"This is a lot easier answering the questions because I am not having to keep the conversation going which is probably the hardest thing about interviewing people. This is good, I could get used to this!"

How long have you been a commentator?

1993 - "I first commentated in 1993 when I stood in for someone at Thruxton. I did the commentating for the presentations of a club meeting (Historic Grand Prix Cars). It was my friend (Old English Teacher from School) who initiated it. We were talking on the phone the week before and he was telling me how this person hadn't turned up for the previous meeting. I asked him what he was going to do? I suggested that if he spoke to the person in charge and if they were really stuck, I would have a go and try my hand at it. (I had heard people before and I reckoned that I could have a go)"

"I then helped out at the next meeting at Thruxton which happened to be BTCC Meeting - I just did Interviewing and presentations."

1994 - "The next year, the big boss of commentary wanted to come down and listen to me and a group of people. So at Thruxton during a club meeting we all had a go at a voice test. Which meant commentating during a race, and interviewing/presenting garlands to the winners afterwards. As a result they were quite pleased with me. So the following year I got my first booking."

Bank Holiday 2nd May 1994 - "This was a staggering day because firstly it was the day after my birthday and secondly it was the day after Ayrton Senna died and he was a big hero of mine. It was possibly one of the most difficult things I have ever done in my life! Mainly because everyone who was in the crowd, the drivers, the teams were just gob smacked by what had happened that weekend."

How did you get into commentating?

"I was working as someone who talks to the crowd by working as a DJ in nightclubs."

"I was in a band when I left school, and then I had various boring day jobs in order to get money together to get a recording studio together (I worked in a hospital, then I managed a Music Shop). I became self employed when I was 20 and I started my studio by recording music, writing adverts, jingles and radio stuff."

What sports do you commentate?

"I present radio for horse meetings and I commentate and do radio stuff for motorsport. From Formula 1 right down to club level."

What is your most famous interview?

"I interviewed Mark Knopfler this year, which was a big thing. Possibly the interview that I am proudest of is, one of the touring car drivers is quite reluctant to give information. He also thinks that journalists are going to write bad things about him so he is fairly cagey. Possibly the first couple of years I worked with BTCC he was really guarded and I only ever got very short answers. Then there was one podium interview that I did with him, I think at Donington, and all of a sudden I got the feeling that this was the very first time that he ever trusted that I wasn't going to say anything nasty about him, and I wasn't going to lead him down a dodgy road. He gave me a really trusting answer and I really felt that I had cracked something there because I felt he obviously respected me and this has been hard work, but well worth it!"

What's your most memorable moment?

"Getting soaked in Champagne this year on my birthday at Thruxton. When the three touring car drivers, Yvan Muller, Jason Plato, and Alain Menu leapt off the podium they held me down (they had already organised it). One of the team was holding me down, and they poured Champagne all over me!"

What's your least favourite interview?

"I did a lot when I first started. I would do my homework during the week and maybe I would have got my homework wrong. I would go up to a driver and say "You must be delighted with your first win of the year" very confidently and the driver would turn to you and say "no actually that's my seventh win of the year". That would have been because I have looked at the wrong championship or something stupid like that, and I've done lots of them. Fortunately I do not do too many of them now. It must be very difficult because there could be any one of what a hundred drivers to choose from during a weekend meeting. "You go through Autosport, Motoring News, writing out results and it takes a long time". Is it worth it? If you go into a meeting, some meetings that I only see once in a year, I probably won't have done a great deal of homework for them and I feel at a distinct disadvantage if you have not got the facts and figures in front of you."

Has it become easier over the years?

"Yes. Certainly for the homework that I do, I have got a system now whereby I keep it up to date week by week. Actually commentating is never easy. Like today where we have only had one race, when the cars went round on the warm up lap I was thinking this could be a really good race and we could have a great battle and the race takes care of itself. You then talk about what's happening on the track and that's fine. You recognise the cars quite easily if you have seen them before so that's alright. But if they are strung out what do you talk about? That's really hard, and you rely either on your memory and things you have seen this year or previous years, and on your homework. That's when it works when you have a dull race."

What's your favourite circuit?

"I suppose for childhood memories because it was my local circuit I like Brands Hatch. I am really proud when I work at Brands Hatch. I am looking at the people who are sitting on the bank doing what I did 20 years ago, and it is quite a spooky feeling. I used to sit there on the bank at Paddock Hill and watch and listen to the people who do what I do now. For different reasons I love Silverstone because I am really proud of working at the circuit. Everyone knows Silverstone, being the home of the GP and the minute you drive into Silverstone it is so huge and big, the banners are huge and it is so mega! And for an out and out balls track I love Thruxton, it is so awesome. I actually really love every circuit in the country, but I don't like travelling all the way to Pembrey. When you get there its alright, it's a really nice circuit, It's a heck of a long journey for me its about 270 miles and it takes forever."

When you were sitting on the embankment at Brands did you ever think you would be doing what you are now?

"I don't know really. The commentator who used to work there when I was young, was a bloke called Brian Jones and he was pretty much what got me into racing. He was so friendly, his approach, his voice on the microphone. When I first started driving I would just get in the car and drive to Brands and spend the afternoon there on my own. As a 17 year old I suppose it was quite a lonely thing to do. When you get there and you hear a friendly voice and you feel like you are surrounded by friends, so he was my chum! Although I had never met him until I started doing it myself, but then this year for the very first time I actually commentated with Brian at Donington. He was in the main box and I was in the second and that was a pretty awesome moment. That was brill!"

What's your most embarrassing moment?

"There is a driver called Niki, and I didn't know much about the driver, but I called him "she" for most of the race because it was spelt like a she."

Have you ever raced - or had the desire?

"I race go-karts. I only really only do indoor stuff but I am normally pretty good because I am quite light and little. I am a very, very compulsive character. I never want to drive a race car because I know I will enjoy it, and its lots of money, and its terribly dangerous. I have been a passenger, with John Cleland in a British Touring Car at Silverstone, and 2 x super sport cars. This year at the Snetterton night race I was taken out in a Honda Accord by Will Hoy at 12.30am and it was pitch black. I was really tired but the adrenaline buzz that I got from Will going around Snetterton in the dark was awesome. I wouldn't be any good, I wouldn't describe myself as a skilled driver, I'm alright at driving."

What have you most enjoyed about BTCC in 2000?

"This year I have enjoyed the fact that the championship has been really good against the odds. Because there has only been nine manufacturers cars people were saying it is going to be a really dull championship, and there were lots of people who would knock the championship before the year started. I am a such a huge supporter of the Touring Car Championship in this country, it is brilliant, they have proved everyone wrong because the championship is going to go down to the wire, down to the last race. That's going to be in pitch black at Silverstone, and it is going to be the most awesome final race of the year. Because of the ballast, and because every single driver in the championship is bloody good, so it has just been a fantastic year!"

Who do you think will win the BTCC at Oulton Park tomorrow?

"Alain Menu and Gabriele Tarquini will both win a race."

Who do you think will win the BTCC Championship in 2000?

"It is going to be either, Alain Menu, Anthony Reid, or Rickard Rydell. It is going to be a Ford, they are really all top drivers! I guess if you are to look on the nice side of it, it would be nice for Anthony Reid to win the championship because he hasn't done it. Alain Menu and Rickard Rydell have both won championships before so they would only be adding to what they have already got. Alain Menu has driven bloody well this year, but they are all nice guys and good drivers, so Anthony Reid because he hasn't done it before!"

If you wasn't commentating what would you be doing now?

"It is Saturday night I would be in a nightclub somewhere being a DJ, somewhere in the country, probably Essex."

Many thanks for your time Alan and I hope you enjoy the racing tomorrow :)

Quick Fire Questions

• Pepsi/Coca-Cola
  
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