Collection 5 of award-winning podcast Fuelling Round has already zoomed off the beginning grid and continues down the house straight with this week’s visitor, former Formulation 1 world champion Damon Hill OBE.
Hill is likely one of the most recognisable faces in British motorsport historical past, having competed in a few of the world’s most well-known racing sequence. He’s finest identified for his 9 12 months stint as an F1 driver, most notably for Williams who he was racing for when he gained the 1996 Drivers’ Championship.
The 62-year-old tells hosts Jason Plato and Dave Vitty about his love of automobiles, motorbikes and the little identified secret that he featured as a guitarist on the Def Leppard Euphoria album. You possibly can watch the complete podcast beneath.
Damon Hill on how he obtained sponsorship funding at a younger age
Elsewhere on the podcast, Hill tells the story of how his sponsorship take care of Cellnet helped to avoid wasting his profession, after initially struggling to earn sponsorship to proceed racing. The previous F1 driver labored as a labourer and as a courier when he was younger, together with different jobs while persevering with to race. “When my dad died I used to be 15 and I carried on with faculty after which I mainly realised I’ve obtained to get some cash in,” Hill detailed on the podcast.
“My ambition was to help myself racing bikes, so I used to attempt to discover some cash to go racing. However you may nearly afford to personal your bike, run your personal bike and work to pay for all of it your self. And in case you gained a little bit of prize cash, you may truly race at a nationwide degree within the UK.
“However automotive racing, I imply Formulation Ford’s value was £70,000 or one thing again in 1984, you’re going ‘what?’ and Formulation 3 was £150,000. You’re going ‘you should purchase a home for that, what are you speaking about?’ How are you going to spend that in a single 12 months?
“Getting sponsorship was not my robust level as a result of I’d actually sit there in a gathering and say ‘I do not know the way you’re going to make this a reimbursement, or why anybody would do it of their proper thoughts.’ So I wasn’t an excellent salesman.
“Thankfully I did have some individuals who thought it might be price giving me a crack, so I obtained some cash in for a season of Formulation 3, however then I owed the cash again. And I used to be sitting there pondering ‘oh my god, what have I completed?’ I don’t know the way I’m going to pay them again.
“After which a lifeline got here, which was when Cellnet got here alongside. David Hunt – former F1 world champion James Hunt’s brother – he was good at promoting. He got here up with the Cellnet deal. Think about a time when there have been no cell phones, this was 1985, he did a take care of Cellnet and there have been solely two cell phone suppliers in these days.
“Lengthy story quick, the deal was excellent for his or her advertising, they didn’t wish to be in F1, they only needed to be within the UK and so they had an F3 staff. They provided a take care of drivers to supply everybody with £5,000 and a telephone that you may make as many calls as you’d like without cost. And David was saying in case you signal this deal, they should pay you £100,000 as a result of they’re pondering nobody is attending to F1” as Hill defined the weird gradual tier system within the deal.
Loads extra episodes of Fuelling Round to get pleasure from
Collection 5 has simply obtained going, however there’s nonetheless a wealth of earlier episodes from 4 sequence, so that you can take heed to.
A number of movie star visitors have littered the award-winning providing that has to this point produced a string of cracking episodes to take heed to.
It’s also possible to tune into Fuelling Round on Spotify, Apple, YouTube or numerous different platforms if you wish to see what all of the fuss is about.
