The Inside Track
In a recent interview with local Channel Islands lifestyle magazine "Guernsey Now" Jo and Andy Priaulx were dubbed as Guernsey's Posh and Becks. Its easy to see why with Jo's immaculate all designer fashion and sexy sunglasses combined with Andy casual 100-watt smile and trendy trademark hairstyle. Here are excerpts of the interview, which is a personal insight into their lives and motivations.
Understandably in Guernsey Now, Jo and Andy extol the virtues of Guernsey as their 'comfort zone' where no one interrupts or makes a fuss: "It's great coming home. It puts everything in perspective. I don't get any hassle. I love the way people will come up for a chat. But I also love the way I can relax and just get on with enjoying precious time with my family. I don’t feel on show all the time."
Guernsey certainly shines as their anchor, and in one of his softer moments Andy also claims his greatest win was not Dubai or Macau, but on Guernsey … at the Golden Monkey nightclub where he met Jo. For her part, Jo describes "a lovely Christmas wedding" before spilling the beans: "Andy was so busy with racing that it was the only time we were free to fit it in."
The Guernsey label can have its downsides though. ‘One of the problems I had was that some people thought that my family paid for everything for me. While abroad they thought I was extremely wealthy, a tax exile. Neither was true."
In fact the reality was that in the early days they had to sell their home and live in a caravan in England. Jo worked at Silverstone racetrack for £4 an hour in the ticket office, in part to get people interested in Andy's driving and drum up funding.
"Right from the start I wanted to help him achieve his dream too - and that hasn't changed,", Jo reveals. "But it hasn’t always been easy. There are a lot of lows – other couples might have given up. But we never did."
And Andy is certainly not the only one in action either. Jo's diary is pretty packed as well. As well as being a full-time mum, she also helps run Andy's office and PR work and a local baby charity after both their children were born premature. She is also planning to launch a children’s story book.
Another Guerney link is local firm SG Hambros, which has been sponsoring Andy for 10 successful years. But Andy is at pains to point out that although life is fine now, things haven't always been so easy. "To get to this stage, where I am a fully-paid professional driver, I have had to find £2m in funding through sponsorship. That alone is a major achievement. I am one of the only drivers in Britain to have made it on my own and I'm so proud of that."
"This is why we don't feel 'lucky' to be where we are today," Andy says. "Because we know we had to put so much into it. My family believed in me, which was a great help. But we had to work very hard. The thing is that you are either good at racing or you're not - there’s no in between. Second isn't anywhere."
It's an individual test in other ways too because of the time he is forced to spend apart from his family and friends. Jo joins him as much as possible, but with a young family it's not always easy. ‘We have to spend a lot of time keeping in touch by webcam. It's not unusual for me to be away for 250 days a year. Really, that's the toughest part of the job." Tougher than hair-pin bends at 200mph? "Miles tougher," he smiles.
So is he never worried about the dangers? "I'm never bothered by that. Racing is an intuitive thing. If you're moving really well you don't feel there is any possibility of crashing. You just don’t think about it."
But then Jo laughs out loud. "But don't let him anywhere near your car … he backed mine into a wall once and we had to tell everyone I'd done it!"
But Andy is more than happy with his achievements so far. "The fact is that there are very few opportunities in this game because motor racing has always been a rich man's sport. But I took one of them. I am one of the few paid drivers in Britain – there are less than 10. Even if I were to never sit in a racing car again, I'd feel that Jo and I have really done something amazing with our lives."
adaped from 'Guernsey Now' magazine Autumn 2006, with permission of Guernsey Press. Original article by Suzanne Heneghan with photos by Zoe Ash