How Not to Be a Professional Racing Driver

Description

To be a professional racing driver you need to work out, eat like an athlete and play by the rules, right? Wrong. Two-time championship-winning and record-breaking racing driver, Jason Plato is a living, breathing example of what you shouldn't do if you want to become a professional racing driver- DO NOT Almost kill Bernie Ecclestone Give Prince Charles the finger on the M42 Choose fags and booze over the gym Steal a JCB in Monaco and end up in prison there - twice Make enemies with a 6ft 6" rival who is a black belt in everything He's a rule breaker who has had more than his fair share of near-death experiences, drunken escapades and crazy stories. But, despite his hedonistic tendencies, and since joining the Williams Touring Car team in 1997, he has had more race wins than Lewis Hamilton and Stirling Moss, competed in more races than Jenson Button and set the largest number of fastest laps ever. There is nothing sensible, predictable or considered about Jason, but this is how he became a racing legend.

Jason Plato is one of the biggest characters in UK motor racing, and one of the most controversial. Since bursting onto the karting scene at the end of the 1970s he has gone on to either upstage or upset dozens of drivers, team owners and team managers - not to mention the odd policeman and nightclub owner. Despite that he is the British Touring Car Championship's most successful driver ever having won an astonishing 96 races and two championships, with more race wins than Lewis Hamilton. Since 2004, Jason has also co-presented the popular motoring magazine series Fifth Gear, which recently aired its 23rd series. Jason is also a weekly regular on James Martin's hugely popular current show, Saturday Morning, on ITV. How Not to Be a Professional Racing Driver is his first book.

Pure entertainment . . . So much fun . . . His journey from outrageous teenage hijinks to the rough-and-tumble of driver feuding tends to prompt involuntary reading noises, be they barks of laughter or gasps at his audacity * Guardian, Best Sports Books of 2019 * Hilarious and outrageous * Chris Evans * As entertaining as watching him drive, a cracking read! * Sir Chris Hoy * I read this in the hope that it would teach me everything I need to know so that one day I can become a racing driver although I think I may have left it too late... * Howard Donald, Take That * Top class chauffeur, sublime broadcaster, ultimate party honey badger. These are the qualities I know and adore about JP. He taught me how to nail a hot lap around Rockingham and I've been in a speed jive ever since. Jason can burn the candle at both ends and in the middle yet still deliver the business. * Suzi Perry, Fifth Gear * Jason Plato is one of the most gifted racing drivers of his generation! * Damon Hill * Jason is a total fruitcake! * Jody Scheckter, Former F1 World Champion * Irreverent * iNews, The best Christmas car gifts * Plato is adept at telling a story. Totally authentic. There's plenty of laughs to be had and insight on offer * Autosport * It makes for one of the great sporting life stories . . . Forget everything you thought about sports stars and any expectations of sports autobiographies. Plato is truly an unconventional sportsman, and this is truly an unconventional autobiography, but it is all the better for being so * NB Magazine * The frank autobiography of British Touring Car Championship legend * Motorsport News, Christmas Gift Guide * There's plenty of laughs to be had and insight on offer * Motorsport News * An account of a larger-than-life character whose life outside of the car is just as exhilarating as in it * NB Magazine *