andy priaulx - biography
(also see cv and picture slideshows)
Andy cut his racing teeth on his home island of Guernsey, and it was no surprise that by the age of 6 he was competing - the Priaulx family has a well-known racing pedigree on the island. He began in earnest on two wheels, but soon swapped his motocross bike for an offshore power boat before next moving back onto land and four wheels.
A signature year was 1995 when he took the full British Formula 1 Hill Climb Championship with a perfect record - he won all ten events and set eight hill records. Andy was just 21 and had only 2 years motorsport experience at national level.
This was not the only time he has 'slam-dunked' a championship. In 1999, Andy took the Renault Spider Cup by winning all 13 rounds from pole position and setting 11 fastest laps > racebio slideshow
The British Formula 3 Championship is regarded as one of the most competitive in the world and a training ground for future champions, so Andy turned his focus there for 2000 and 2001. His tally included 2 wins, 3 pole positions and a total of 10 podium positions.
The jewel of the F3 year is the end of season double header in Macau and Korea and Andy made the trip both years to take on the top F3 drivers worldwide - when he finished 2nd in Korea in 2001, he beat 6 current F3 champions.
2002 saw Andy move to touring cars, spearheading Honda's return to the British Touring Car Championship (BTCC) in their new Civic Type R. This car is still winning races, but Andy took its maiden win along with 3 pole positions, and finished 5th in the championship. Over the winter he drove V8 muscle cars in Australia's famous Bathurst 1000 and Queensland 500.
In 2003 Andy shifted his focus from the UK to the European racing scene when he was tapped for the BMW Team GB drive in the FIA European Touring Car Championship (ETCC).
His third place in the championship, just seven points behind the series winner and former Formula 1 racer Gabriele Tarquini, was a superb result for a rookie year. He also bagged the coveted BMW Sports Trophy for the most successful non-works driver in a BMW car worldwide.
His talents did not go unused by BMW Great Britain. In addition to flying the flag in touring cars, Andy also helped to train the champions of the future as driver mentor in their new Formula BMW UK Championship. Needless to say, his contract was extended for a further two years before the 2003 season was even over. And everyone got a better deal than they could have imagined ...
The way Andy won the 2004 FIA ETCC title deserves to go down in British motorsport history. It was a tall order to take on as a single car independent team. He was up against drivers with the same BMWs, except backed by full works resources, plus works teams from Alfa Romeo and SEAT with multi-million pound budgets.
Going into the last 2 races in Dubai, Andy had 5 victories but was 18 points behind championship leader and BMW works driver Dirk Müller. Knowing the heat would be blistering, Andy trained for a month by jogging in a sauna wearing a full race suit. Including his helmet!
This turned out to be a masterstroke as he qualified a full second faster than the other BMW drivers. The pressure built even higher when a multi-car accident had damaged both Dirk and Andy's cars and forced a full race restart. Someone had to crack.
So it was, and Andy clinched the title on the very last lap of the very last race by scoring exactly 18 points. Although equal with Müller who had scored 'null points' in 2 races, Andy took the title on a countback of race wins over the season > etcc 2004 slideshow
With a full FIA World title up for grabs, the 2005 WTCC battle was always going to be faster and even more furious. The penultimate round in Valencia had turned into a 120mph bumper car ride and ended with Andy handing Dirk Müller one of motorsport's great slapdowns live on international television.
But this time Andy set up a different type of heart-stopper for the finale. Although he recorded only one win coming into the last weekend in Macau, Andy had scored in almost every race of the season so there were only a few points separating him from Dirk Müller and Alfa driver Fabrizio Giovanardi.
In the Monaco GP street circuit, perhaps a third of F1 cars crash out over 78 laps. On the streets of the Macau GP comprising 2 rounds of 16 laps, well over a half of the WTCC cars crashed in 2005. Perhaps it's something about this high-stakes game of grasping for perfection when an inch too far will be fatal that has made Macau Andy's favourite circuit.
Müller and Giovanardi were obviously going to be wise to the need for physical preparation this time. However, they didn't appear to bank on Andy also reconnoitering the circuit in a golf cart at 2am on the night before qualifying in order to achieve millimetre-perfect racing lines.
When the watches stopped he was a full second faster than his rivals, and sat on pole carrying 60kg of ballast beside an Alfa driven by a young local without any weight penalty whatsoever.
With a sense of deja vu, Andy controlled both races to take two 2nd places. Giovanardi destroyed his car on a barrier in race 1 and Müller crashed out midway through race 2. The young local driver also failed to finish. Andy had won again > wtcc 2005 slideshow
BMW had a new 320si E90 for the 2006 WTCC and and Andy's target to win the title again was fulfilled, including winning the opening round with the brand new car. Read about the campaign in the andy in wtcc 2006 section.