I remember when I was a kid watching my mother jam herself into her girdle - a piece of equipment so rigid it could stand up on its own - and I remember her coming home from fancy parties and racing upstairs to extricate herself from its cruel iron grip.

I think there's a lot of deep-rooted history in England with racing. Lots of Formula One teams are based there. Formula One is obviously a huge sport over in England and Europe.

In closing I wish to say that while I was sorely beset by a number of white riders in my racing days I have also enjoyed the friendship of countless thousands of white men whom I class as among my closest friends.

Fitness will be a major factor in the first race and I think that will play into the hands of drivers who have been racing recently rather than people like me who haven't raced properly for a decade. I'am not one of the favourites to start with.

I work six months and get three or four with the family. I've stopped racing to get to the red light.

I am healthy my family is healthy. That is the important thing. After that we go racing.

Experience has taught me how important it is to just keep going focusing on running fast and relaxed. Eventually it passes and the flow returns. It's part of racing.

Americans don't pay much attention to environmental issues because they aren't sexy. I mean cleaning up coal plants and reining in outlaw frackers is hugely important work but it doesn't get anybody's pulse racing.

By means of tracing-paper I transfer my design to the wood and draw on that.

Over the past 20 years I have noticed that the most flexible dynamic inquisitive minds among my students have been industrial design majors. Industrial designers are bracingly free of ideology and cant. The industrial designer is trained to be a clear-eyed observer of the commercial world - which like it or not is modern reality.