Sam Hignett

Le Mans racer, co-founder of Jota Sport and supercar geek

- Interview by Tamara Hinson

MY FATHER HAD a BMW dealership and at the time - around 1979 and 1980 - BMW had something called the BMW County Championship, and his dealership ran a car in that competition. They were the early 3 Series, although I don't think they were even called 3 Series then. The first picture of me was as a baby, asleep in one of those cars in the paddock. I was at Goodwood a while back, talking to a former driver - I think it was Nigel Mansell - and he said: 'You were the baby in the photograph!' So that was my first foray into motorsport.

Later I did an internship at McLaren. Internship is a strong word - I terrorised them by continually writing to them until they agreed it would be easier for me just to come in. It was in the composites department, supporting design work on McLaren F1s, the road cars. I then went to university, but only because someone at McLaren said I needed a degree to get a job. The easiest course to get on at Imperial College London was Materials Engineering. During university I worked part time at Brands Hatch’s racing school as an instructor and I was doing some racing but couldn't afford to continue, so I started my own motorsports team. I managed to get a mechanic and a sponsor - a flooring company that gave me a corner of its factory in Tunbridge. That’s how Jota started.