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Written by Adam Waddell
So, Mark Webber has announced his retirement from racing. As he walks away from a tremendously successful career, I like to think that Top Gear played its part in that success. Let me explainBack in the mid-90s the then boss of Top Gear magazine Stuart Snaith hatched a plan to offer both sponsorship and coverage in TG mag to ten up and coming racing drivers at the start of each season. He provided a fund of 5,000 to sponsor these stars of tomorrow and told me to draw up a shortlist. They would get 500 quid each as a contribution to their year"s racing. Like that was going to make a difference. All they needed to do in return was to carry a Top Gear magazine patch on their overalls and a small sticker on their race cars.Working with the British Automobile Racing Club we put out a few feelers each March and came up with ten names. Over three years from 1995 we selected 30 drivers, most of whom were no doubt jolly good fellows who went on to become accomplished racers but ultimately slipped off the radar. However, four of them were very much in our minds here at Top Gear over the following 20 years.First up was Fergus Campbell, who still races with modest success in the MG Trophy series but is better known at TG Towers for being a leading light of our advertising sales team for several years.
Date written: 16 Oct 2016
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 5450
So, Mark Webber has announced his retirement from racing. As he walks away from a tremendously successful career, I like to think that Top Gear played its part in that success. Let me explainBack in the mid-90s the then boss of Top Gear magazine Stuart Snaith hatched a plan to offer both sponsorship and coverage in TG mag to ten up and coming racing drivers at the start of each season. He provided a fund of 5,000 to sponsor these stars of tomorrow and told me to draw up a shortlist. They would get 500 quid each as a contribution to their year"s racing. Like that was going to make a difference. All they needed to do in return was to carry a Top Gear magazine patch on their overalls and a small sticker on their race cars.Working with the British Automobile Racing Club we put out a few feelers each March and came up with ten names. Over three years from 1995 we selected 30 drivers, most of whom were no doubt jolly good fellows who went on to become accomplished racers but ultimately slipped off the radar. However, four of them were very much in our minds here at Top Gear over the following 20 years.First up was Fergus Campbell, who still races with modest success in the MG Trophy series but is better known at TG Towers for being a leading light of our advertising sales team for several years.
Date written: 16 Oct 2016
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 5450
