5. Living life 100 miles per hour at a time

Road rage changed Andy's life completely.

He was heading for band practice, but his final destination was hospital. The prognosis was not great.

Please take note of the trigger warning around mental health at the start of this podcast as Andy is very vivid in explaining how he felt at the time.

After 6 years of surgeries, Andy got behind the wheel of a racing car which was adapted to his disability. He drove for Team Brit, but when he didn't need the hand controls any more he made the decision to racing a car without adaptions.

Now the speedster, regular beats non disabled people, which as a disabled person he takes great pride in.

Listen to the highs and the lows of Andy's story here.

If you want to follow Andy, you can do so on linkedin

(1) Andy Tucker | LinkedIn

Transcript

Andy Tucker: 0:00

Hi guys, I'm Andy Tucker.

0:01

And this is overcoming adversity, real stories, real people, real life. I'm your host, Scott Whitney, and every two weeks, I'll be bringing you an interview with someone who's faced adversity, overcome battle diversity now, please, please, please subscribe to our podcast, give us a rating, share it with your friends. It will help us be more visible and help more people. So let's get back to the interview.

Andy Tucker: 0:38

I'm the UK's number one disabled race driver, a little bit of a strange career path, but we'll go into that a little bit more detail now.

Scott Whitney: 0:46

For this episode, we've got, we've got a trigger warning, which we're going to be putting out, which will be in and around, mental health and, PTSD, medical detail as well. I'll say probably language, Probably is a good word, would you say Andy, or definitely?

Andy Tucker: 1:02

I think so. You know, being from South Wales and Newport in particular, it does tend to slip out now and again. So I'll try and watch my P's and Q's as best as I can. But if it happens, I do apologise.

Scott Whitney: 1:12

the adversity with yourself really started with a road incident. Do you mind talking people through what it

Andy Tucker: 1:21

was that happened? Yeah, so it was, it was an absolute bizarre when I still You know, nearly 11 years later, can't really wrap my head around it. I was on my way to band practice on my motorcycle. everyone gets the, the impression that, you know, being a biker, you're, you're an aggressive, angry guy. And, you know, that wasn't the case. I just enjoyed listening to heavy metal music and riding a motorcycle. so I was on my way through Newport on the Col de l'Orangerie. And this Gentleman, if you can call him that, was in the left hand lane, I'm in the middle lane and he's just moved over onto me. no damage done to the bike at the time really, apart from the bar end that got knocked off the handlebar. But this gentleman tried getting out of the roundabout, you know, getting out of his car on the roundabout and starting a fight in the middle of the roundabout. And I'm not about that life. So I pulled off. this roundabout's got several sets of traffic lights on it, and this incident happened just after the first set. I've come up to the second set of roundabouts, still in the middle lane, and this gentleman's just driven his car straight through me like I wasn't even there. Good 40 mile an hour, sent me flying up into the air, and after that it was six years in and out of hospital for the sake of two minutes of madness on that gentleman's behalf. And, you know, I still don't understand why he chose to do that, but at the end of the day it's given me a career path that is I think it's very different to most people's journeys in life. You know, I spent all of that time dealing with medical issues and mental health issues and thought, you know what, I've got to turn this into a positive situation. As you can see behind me, I've done quite well out of it. I become the UK's number one disabled race driver in the space of five years now coming into my fifth season of racing. So it's, yeah, it's been a journey and a half. Six years in and out of hospital, five years of racing, you know, coming up to six years of racing. So it's almost overtaking the bad stuff now, but yeah, it's been, been a wild ride. I'm still here. There's bits of me that are missing bits of me that aren't really the same as they ever were before, but it's life. It happens. And. I'm glad I went through that crazy circumstance because at the end of the day, it's made me a stronger person. It's made me a better person. And on top of that, it's made me a really bloody competitive person.

Scott Whitney: 3:34

we gave that trigger warning about the medical side of things to when you woke up in hospital, what was the

Andy Tucker: 3:43

diagnosis? It was pretty bleak. so The issue being it didn't break bone. If it had broken bone, it would have been a lot easier to heal from and recover with. everything was soft tissue damage, ligaments, joints, tendons, nerves. So, not the greatest of outcomes really. for me, my hand, as you can see, it will never open up or straighten out. There's nerve damage all the way through my wrist up to my, the elbow. On top of that, I cannot to this day still. Raise my right arm. The shoulder was smashed forward. The shoulder blades actually sat around on the side of my ribcage. It's quite handy if I was a police officer because I have This arm much longer than the other, so I could literally be the long arm of the law. there was scoliosis, spondylitis in my spine, where it's just curved it from the impact. trapped nerves in my neck. Then there was significant damage to the lower leg. my ankle to this day is still inverted, so essentially sits around on its side rather than sitting nice and flat when I walk. It's Essentially paralyzed from the knee down, there's nerve damage all the way down to my foot. So, essentially, not a great prognosis. You know, I'm sat there being told that I'd never walk again, that I'd never be able to ride a bike again, that I'd never play football, I'd never play roller hockey, you know. I'm basically being told all of these things that I'll never be able to do and I'm sat there thinking, there's got to be something. You can't just go from having a highly active life like I did to sitting around and doing Jack shit at the end of the day. so that was January, 16th, 2013. My last surgery was November 7th, 2019. To give you an idea of how long I make the time I was in and out of hospital for. I was quite lucky in the fact that I'd already found Team Brit and got my start in motorsport before my final surgery. but that final surgery was on my hand and it left it in a state where I've only really got the use of these two fingers, my index and my middle finger and my thumb. but I was requiring my hand to drive the cars with Team Brit, because obviously they use hand control technology. A lot of their drivers are paraplegics. So to go from being able to take part in what I'd found and, and, reigniting a love for life and a passion for motorsport, I then had to relearn again how to drive because it took away the use of this hand and it was a another traumatic time because I'm sat there thinking I've been given this brilliant opportunity to go and race with a team of disabled athletes and now I'm potentially not going to be able to do it so it was double adversity if anything you know I've gone from Broken to fixing myself and being on the right path to having to deal with another surgery just as I'm about to go racing. And it, it was tricky because it meant how do you do it when your hand doesn't work and you're relying on hand controls? You've got to rebuild your leg and you've got to push with that because it was the logical thing to do at the time. Yeah, it was tricky. I'm not going to lie. It was painful to start with the first four or five months of driving a race car with my leg. it's, I'm at a slight disadvantage because my leg obviously doesn't have the reaction time as other people. As I say, it's essentially paralyzed from my knee down. The nerves just do not function and fire in the correct, correct way. the prognosis for my leg overall was just, you know, substantial muscle damage that is beyond. Uh, surgical repair due to the fact that the link between the nerve and the muscle was damaged. If it was the nerve that was damaged, you can bypass it and send a signal to another nerve. But when it's the links that connect all of the nerves up together that are damaged. What do you do? There's not a lot that can be done about it. So it was a case of working really, really hard to be able to race a car again. and I was very lucky that my first race weekend, after all of that hard work, we went out there and secured a double podium. So it goes to show that pushing yourself and, and trying to keep a, a mental mindset of I can do this. It's much healthier for you than just sitting there in a world of depression, like I was the whole time that I was in and out of hospital of I don't want to be here. I don't want to do this. I can't survive. I don't know what I'm going to do with the rest of my life. You know, it's, it puts you in a real messed up situation when you sit there and just think on the negatives and don't try and focus on a positive. So, yeah, it's, it's, it's been hard, but at the same time, it's been a blessing in disguise.

Scott Whitney: 8:18

And when you got that, initial diagnosis, kind of mentally, was, was, was there support around you to, to help you or, and was everything just in a, in

Andy Tucker: 8:30

a spiral? On the mental health side of things, no, there really wasn't the right kind of, what's the best word to use here? The right process is in place, essentially. the waiting lists here to see anyone in regards to mental health in Wales was ridiculous. You know, you were looking at 18 months before you'd even get seen by anyone. so I was quite lucky in the fact that I went. private through my insurance company at the time because we were still dealing with the the litigation process from the incident. that process itself took eight years, you know, it was an incredibly long and stressful period. but I was quite lucky in the fact that my insurance company put me in touch with a gentleman who's a, not just a mental health professional, but a biker himself. Um, so he understood. How something as severe as someone purposefully driving their car at you can impact them. Because he'd, he'd been clipped off a motorcycle himself by somebody not looking, and that put the craps up him, you know. But when it's somebody that quite literally drives through you with no regard whatsoever, you know, it's, it's different. You don't view it as, that was an accident. You view it as That dickhead just tried to kill me, you know, and, and that was the mind space I was in. I was very angry about it because I watched my life completely change. You know, as I say, I was in a metal band, I was on my way to practice at the time and that was it. No more, you know, my life from that moment, my friendship circle, everything that I did just vanished away. You know, this is 11 years ago now. I haven't picked up a microphone since I'll never be able to sing in a band and jump around on stage like I used to. So to make up for that, I, I turned to drink, you know, I got. Paralytic every single evening because that was my way of dealing with things. and it was a stressful trigger in time. The, there was nothing in place really to help me. apart from what I've received through my insurance company, but that was still even 12 sessions of just CBT therapy. And then if I wanted more, it was going to cost me another two and a half days of payments through the insurance. And sadly thinking I can't. physically afford this. You know, I've got no income. I've got no sustainability in my life. How am I going to be able to afford two and a half thousand pounds to speak to a mental health therapist? You know, it just, it was unfeasible. So I went back onto the NHS and started doing more through that. But again, it was a, such a drawn out process that it really wasn't working for me. I'm also being told that at the same time, a lot of these issues with my body were some sort of issues or, you know, things weren't as they were, which just wasn't the case. At one point, I was told by a mental health specialist that it was all in my head and that I wasn't waiting on a knee reconstruction or, you know, a surgery for the muscle to be removed from the lower half of my leg. And I'm sat there thinking, I am. I'm on the waiting list. I can see all this. Why are you? Arguing with me on this, you know, it almost seems like a process where they didn't have the information from the hospital of what was actually going on with my health. So they couldn't understand that I was angry about that and everything that I was going through with the health side of things as well as the mental health side of things. They just say, well, you know, you've got an issue with your leg, but it can't be as bad as you think it is. Thank you. It's pretty bloody bad if I'm booked in for three separate surgeries on it. You know, they couldn't find the information. So there was a lot of back and forth where I'd end up getting more wound up by the mental health service because they were telling me one thing. And I knew the truth of the matter. I knew that I was waiting on these surgeries. And when it's a long drawn out process that spans six years. Trying to talk about it all. There's so much to try and fit in and explain how this happened and why it ended up taking six years of surgeries and mental health treatment to actually Get back out there and live my life again And and the reality is there was a lot of issues caused by the NHS there were several times where I was put on waiting lists and taken out and Put back on one and taken off another put back on another and it just seemed a bizarre way to go around things so that in turn then It made me angrier. It made the mental health worse and the fact that the professionals just weren't communicating with each other made that situation worse. So I was really thankful when I had my final surgery because it meant that I could step away from that. I didn't have to focus on everything that I've been through finally. Because that's the other side that people don't tell you is when you go through a harrowing experience like that, and you're in and out of hospital 24 7, you're not, you've got nothing to look forward to. You know, there's, there's no joy in your life when you're literally going from one appointment to the next appointment to the next appointment, and you've got upwards of 8 to 10 appointments in a month. Sometimes, you know, it just gets to the point where you, as I did in my circumstance, four years in. Went and put a rope around my neck and just tried ending it because I didn't want to be here. I didn't want to have to face it and deal with it. And that was at the time where I went, do you know what? I've got to get out. I've got to try and rebuild my life somehow. And maybe it revolves around my old hobbies and my old interests, which were motorsport. And here we are, crazy times. And

Scott Whitney: 13:57

it seems like, you know, hearing you speak there and looking at my own experiences and things. There's a, there's a massive gap in the mental health side that the NHS offer. So there's mental health, which people need and require for everyday life. But that's completely different. Uh, if there's been a diagnosis or if there's been an incident like yourself, there's. That's caused it. And, and that is a huge gap where help straight away could make a huge difference and

Andy Tucker: 14:39

probably save

Scott Whitney: 14:40

the

Andy Tucker: 14:40

NHS a lot of money in the long run as well. Well, it's, it's not just that. If you, if you look at the statistics, it would save a hell of a lot of lives as well. You know, I, I'm quite open about the fact that I've tried to commit suicide twice during that period because I just didn't know how to handle everything I was going through. You know, when you look at it, I was sat there trying to rebuild my life. I was sat there going through litigation with a gentleman that knocked me off my motorcycle and tried killing me as far as I was concerned. I'm in and out of hospital, waiting on surgeries and having to constantly relive that experience of being knocked off my motorcycle essentially, because it was so drawn out. It was just dragged out for years and years and years and years, where they could have just gone, okay, we've got the surgeries booked in, we're going to get them done, and that's it. In the first year, job done. When it's six and a half years, and it's such a long, drawn out process, partly because the injuries are so complex as well. You know, there is no quick fix to any of my injuries that I had at the time. These were life changing injuries that We're constantly evolving as well when you take muscle and damage it, it's going to weaken and weaken and weaken and get worse and worse and worse, which then creates an area where your ligaments and your tendons start warping and moving in different ways and working in different ways because the nerves are not firing to say to them, look, this is what you meant to be doing. This is this is how your leg would normally work. You know, it doesn't react like that and fire like that. So it causes a lot of extra pain. You know, I, I, the damage was mainly to the back and to the side of my leg, but I've had to have, intervention with, Botox injections down the front of my leg to try and Rebalance some of the muscle and that didn't work. So when you're told you're going to have this surgery done or this procedure done and it's going to make your life easier, it's going to help with it. And it doesn't. Yes, kind of there going, well, where do we go from here next? And it's the same with mental health. When you're told you've got an issue and you know what the issue is. And you can see that there's a way to fix it, and it's something as simple as, say, getting the appointments lined up, getting everything done and, and dusted, but it's dragged out because of the way that the NHS is. It's not anyone's fault within the NHS, it just has no funding. That is the simple reality of it. So, every single service within the NHS then seems to suffer. And that was the issue that I was facing was, there wasn't the investment in the areas where it needed to be for the, the injuries that I have. There wasn't the investment in the areas where I need it for the mental health side of things. I mean, I can remember going up to St. Caddix in Newport, and being told by a mental health professional there that, You know, the only reason I was angry was because of the circumstance I'd gone through with the gentleman that knocked me off the bike. I said, well, actually, no, that's not the case. That was one day of my life. We're four years here down the line and I'm still waiting on surgeries, do you not think I'd be a little bit more angry about that than the fact that this gentleman's knocked me off my motorcycle four years ago in two minutes of his time? That was a two minute slice of his day and that was a two minute slice of my day. It's been four years since that moment and I can remember having a huge argument with him to the point where I said, look, it's fine if you don't actually want to listen to The patient, and what the problem is, what's the point in continuing the sessions? There's no point in me being here, banging my head against a proverbial brick wall. And that's what happens with a lot of people that have got, you know, mental health issues themselves. The specialists don't want to listen to what the problem is. The patient then gets more stressed. The patient leaves the session and ends up doing something stupid like drinking themselves to death or putting a rope around their neck. It's, it's a perpetual cycle, and it would be so much easier if we were treated straight away, we were taken at face value, we were given that little bit of dignity, and when we know what the problem is. Just listen. It's as simple as that. That's how wild that situation was for me. If that gentleman had just listened and gone, Actually, I can see how four years of waiting and annoyance is causing the issue, rather than two minutes of your life on, on, you know, January 16th, 2013. We can see that. There's the issue here now, 2017, because it's four years later where you're still waiting on surgery. You're still waiting on treatment. You're still waiting to get your life underway again. And it was, it still happens to this day. I know plenty of my friends that have, are struggling with mental health and they're trying to see someone through the NHS and they just can't get the access to it. So what do we do? How do we help that situation? I'm, I'm stuck with it because it just, it baffles my head. If I hadn't found motorsport and I hadn't pushed myself. The way I was, I don't think I'd even be able to think that clearly on it, but the reality is I knew what my issues were. I knew how to solve my issues. It was just a case of getting my bloody surgeries done so I could go and, you know, have my life again. I was 24 years old when this happened. It was several weeks before my 25th birthday. I had to wait until I was nearly 30 to get my life underway again. You know, it was, no one should have to go through that, physically nor mentally. You know, so I live every single day now like it is my last, you know, I'm, I'm constantly on the go. I'm always happy even talking about this crap now. I can't help but have a smile on my face throughout it because at the end of the day, I want people to know that you can go through an absolute world of crap and can make the other side of it smelling like roses. You know, it's down to how you deal with it. This is somebody that put a rope around their neck twice. You know, I still have it hanging in my garage, just purely to remind me of what I've been through, where I came from. And there's a lot of people around me that have been Really close to me and have no idea that that's what I've gone through because I try and just focus on the positive and the next big step. And the next big step for me is always going racing. That's what I want to do. I just want to go fast. I had six years of being held back and sitting in a chair or sitting in a hospital bed. When you've been through that, you look at life in a different way and go, do you know what? Sod it. There's a lot of things out there that I could be doing. I could be, you know, sitting down and focusing on getting a full time career, being marketing, for example. Or I can choose to have a, a different life, go out there, live it to the full brace other people, and, and put my myself to the test, you know, challenge myself mentally and physically. And for me, that's what I love about Motorsport, that's what I love about life now, is I've got that opportunity to, to not sit still. You know, I can live my life a hundred miles an hour at a time. Think Fast and Furious. Dominic Toretto sat there, you know, we live a quarter mile at a time. That was his life. Well, my life is going as fast around the circuit as physically possible and beating able bodied people in the process. Can't get any better than that for me. No,

Scott Whitney: 21:50

and well, you was talking about the sort of mental health and how the person was just focusing on one thing before you even mentioned that I'd wrote down, regard your mental health, the incident, the diagnosis, the litigation, all of these different things are, are sort of picking away at it. And that's, that's obviously not good, but so you had your operations. And you then still got to get driving, get racing. So what was the sort of process there? Because obviously you've, you've been thinking about this for a while. You've been sitting on it. Um, did you start work before the operations were finished? How, how did that all go?

Andy Tucker: 22:37

Yeah, so I, I, I couldn't wait for the operations to finish. You know, I'm sat there and I'm thinking. There's got to be something in the world of motorsport for me. You know, I, I was a mechanic in my younger years. I was very, very lucky to be head mechanic of a quad racing team in the British quad racing championships. still to this day hold the record for being the youngest chief mechanic in the British quad racing championship at the age of 16 years old. I'd always had a love for motorsport as well. I've done go karting in my younger years. So for me, it seemed a logical thing to do. And it was something that I really wanted to get back into whether it. role or as a driver or even just somebody in the background helping a team out. so I searched about on the internet and found this team called team Brit. they, the number one. Or disabled team in the world. Essentially, they've got some cracking technology that allows folks with all sorts of different disabilities to drive the car. and I just sent them a message on Facebook saying, look, you know, I've gone through this and looking to get involved in the world of motor sport. Is there anything I can do with you guys? And they replied very quickly saying, well, actually, we've got an academy. Um, you're more than welcome to come along and try your hand controls and. Try your hand at racing. And I thought, for me, brilliant. Brilliant situation. You know, I couldn't have jumped at it any quicker if I'd tried. I took them up on the offer straight away, and I think it was within the next week, I was out in a race car at Donington, trying something completely new. You know, I'd never driven a car with hand controls before. Partly because Throughout this process, the DVLA decided to take my driver's license away from me. You know, I was told I'd never be allowed to drive a car again and that was it. So yeah, I had to fight to even get my driver's license back. And as soon as I did that, that spurred me on further. And I went even further with the academy because I managed to get my driver's license back. And I thought, well, what better way to prove a point? I can actually drive a car and that you shouldn't have. Put your hand in my life and take my driver's license away than going out there and racing cars, which is exactly what I did. And, you know, my family laugh at me and we always joke about it because they just say, you're, you're mad. There's not many people that would go through what you've gone through and, and go racing just to prove a point that one being disabled doesn't mean you have to stop enjoying yourself and living life to the full, but two, you're not going to tell me that I can't do something. You know, I'm not that type of person. The DVLA had no right to take my driver's license away from me as I thought. And we proved that right. It was a very short legal battle with them. They folded very quickly. So to then get my driver's license back, be able to go in and. Try this car with these hand controls for the first time was fantastic. And I can remember sitting there with the owner of the team and him saying, well, you know, we've, we've got a spot for someone to go racing. If you can raise the money, you know, you just need to find sponsors and, and that's it. Off you go. We go racing. And that was it. I was hooked. Straight on LinkedIn, talking to all these different professionals, which was really bizarre considering I'd spent six, six and a half, almost seven years with no real contact with other people at that point. So I found it a massive challenge. I had to relearn how to talk to people. You know, I, I'd never talked to owners of businesses or marketing executives or anything like that. And trying to contact these people to get a little bit of money to go racing out with them was, was tricky, but it turned out there were some that were. We're quite on board with what I was doing and promoting the message of, you know, it doesn't matter what you've gone through, you can still go out there and do anything. So I've got some sponsors on board and that was it. Off we were going. We went racing. that was back in 2019, you know, right at the back end of 2019, just as, as COVID was hitting. So it was a very challenging time whilst the rest of the world was, was stuck indoors. I felt incredibly lucky and incredibly privileged to be out there. On a racetrack, you know, hundreds of miles from home doing what I'd loved and what I'd waited to be able to do. It was, it was incredible. But I spent several years there with team Brit, started off in a little BMW 116, which was the slowest car in the world. I'd never owned one. I'd never raced one again. If anyone ever tries giving me the opportunity, it's getting turned down straight away. Cause it was just. So slow, u, ut it was a brilliant stepping stone. You know, it taught me how to drive a car incredibly fast on track because you had to carry the speed through the corners because there was no speed to make up down the streets. So I went from that to driving a BMW 240 with close on 500 brake horsepower in the space of a year. And that just doesn't happen. It simply doesn't. and that car was problematic at times. I had my first fire in it, quite a big one with 40 foot flames shooting out the back of it. But what a way to make yourself feel alive after six and a half years of crap, seven years of crap. To jump in a race car, flying down Silverstone with 40 foot flames out the back of it. You know, if I'd let my mental health get to the point that it was reaching, I would have never experienced that, you know, which is, is wild. I'm, it, it blows my mind that I'm able to go out there and, and do this. You know, I, I, I never thought it would happen. we've gone on into an Aston Martin GT4. that was racing in British Endurance Championship. We did. Pretty damn well with that. So that's the big cup in the middle there, became second in the championship, which is my best result. but at the same time, I also felt incredibly guilty being a part of Team Brit. I worked myself to the point where I didn't need the hand control technology. it was unfair of me to stay there, so it was That year, although we were doing fantastic on track, I was, I was in real turmoil with myself because I felt as though I was taking up the space of somebody that would be more deserving of the car and the technology that the team had. So I made the tricky decision at the final round to, to leave, which was, was tricky, you know, three years of making new friends and trying to get, another new start in the world of motorsport, but this time with a. A normal team, you know, we don't use any form of adaptations on the car other than additionally wide pedals for my feet. so I now am disabled racing a conventional car. it's as close to a British Touring Car Championship spec that you can get. You know, it's a little Renault Clio, 250 brake horsepower, six speed sequential gearbox, and the gear shifts in that are instantaneous. Um, So to go from down and out, disabled, nothing to look forward to, you know, attempting suicide twice and drinking myself into a stupor to being here racing cars for a living and, and doing pretty damn well from it as well, you know, it's, it's, it's a blessing, an absolute blessing. I got to race for a standard race team this year with Max Coates, who's been in Clio Cup Championship. He's done the Porsche Sprint Challenge, you know, and he's the team owner. he was my first driver coach when I was a team Brett. So I'm. I'm lucky enough to be in a position where I'm working with a team that fully understand my disabilities, but they also understand that I just want to go out there and race and we did incredibly well last year we were leading the championship, you know, and, and for a, Non disabled race team with a disabled driver to go out there and do that. It was crazy. Absolutely crazy. If you'd sat there and told me back in 2013, look, mate, don't even stress about everything that's going to happen over the next six to seven years, 11 years down the line, you're going to be leading the championship and you're going to be the only disabled driver in that championship, everyone else is going to be able bodied and they're going to be struggling to keep up with you. I would have laughed in your face. I'd have thrown you out the window and I'd have never spoken to you again. You know, that's the reality of it. Yeah, it happened. It's just, it's, it's wild. It's absolutely wild.

Scott Whitney: 30:54

And you, you got trophies behind you. Do you mind just talking us through some of those, uh, some of those trophies and, and what you had to do to get.

Andy Tucker: 31:04

Yeah, right. Let's pick one out. So this is actually one of my favorites. so it's a driver of the day award, which is incredibly hard to pick up. You know, they're probably more coveted than, than championship wins and trophies for winning a race. it's just essentially. Uh, an award show that you've put in an outstanding effort on track. This was awarded to us at Alton Park back in 2023. it was the first race that I'd won outright, in a car with no additional controls and no adaptations. So it was incredibly important to me, because I felt I had a lot to prove. And I think by managing to snag this, it goes to prove that. Being disabled and being in the world of motorsport is it's equal opportunity is any trophy is there for anyone's taking it doesn't matter who you are, where you come from, what your background is, what your disability is, you know, it really doesn't. And then on top of that. I think next most important one, we'd have to talk about back with the Aston Martin that I was racing with Team Brick. I was racing with a lad called Luke Pound and he only had use of one arm, which was incredible, you know, and I'm, I'm very lucky to have driven with some incredibly inspirational people in my time. to say, with team Brit, I raced with a lad called Matty Street. He was highly autistic, but his, his brain in terms of business and motorsport. It's just incredible. He now runs a go kart team and all of the lads on that team have some form of mental health issue, whether it be Asperger's or autism. and he's now developed that into a fully fledged race team as well. So fair play to the lad. That's, that's brilliant, but. With Luke, we came so close to winning the championship. it was a bit, bit sweet because in the final round, we had a Porsche spin in front of us. and there was nowhere for the Gennetta in front of me to go apart from into the Porsche, and there was nowhere for me to go apart from into the Gennetta. So that was how our race sadly ended, you know, it was really bit sweet. And sadly, Luke missed out on the last two rounds as well. Cause he just, you couldn't get the budget. But for me, you know, this one was the whole time that I was at Team Brit, the most important trophy to me because we came so close to doing it, you know, we really did, it was just fantastic times as well, like I say, thriving with Luke, always a pleasure, never a chore, such a nice lad and the fact that he could pedal a car like he could with just one arm. You know, you try driving down the road with just one arm, you haven't got full control of the car. There's no ifs or buts about that. So for the lad to be putting in the kind of lap times that he was, and for us to do as well as we did, was bloody incredible. There's a couple of others. I've got this one here. We did a little charity go kart event. I think it was Wilton Mill. If I remember rightly, quite far away, um, b it was with a load of celebrity YouTubers, like Jimmy Broadbent was there, it was a couple of other guys, so it was a pretty big event. And that's what's been really cool the whole time that I've been doing this. I've been around loads of different people, loads of different drivers, but a lot of professional drivers as well that I've been able to learn from. Um, I was fortunate enough to teach Jason Plato from British Touring Car Championship, how to use the hand controls with Team Brit. And that was, Incredible. Cause you know, that guy who's one of my idols, one of the people that I looked up to growing up in the world of motorsport and part reason why I went go karting when I was younger, so, to have gone through everything that I went through and be able to teach my hero and my idol how to do something that I do was, was quite special, you know, and, and, and different, then I think. This would have to be my personal favorite, because this was the first outright win at, Alton Park. and that went hand in hand with the Driver of the Day award. So we were quite, yeah, we don't mess around. You know, I may be disabled, but I'm there to win races. I'm there to be taken seriously. I'm not there to make up the numbers and, you know, to be milling around at the back of the pack. I'm, I'm there to beat people and if people don't like it. Too bad they can suck it.

Scott Whitney: 35:31

Excellent. And it's like, obviously, yeah, it's, it's exhilarating on the track, fast impacts and stuff, but you mentioned in Luke and the budget and you, when we was talking

Andy Tucker: 35:42

before about sponsorship and things

Scott Whitney: 35:45

like that, how'd you go all about that? Cause that's. Just as tough. I can imagine.

Andy Tucker: 35:51

It's I'm not gonna lie. It's incredibly difficult. you know, especially when you consider the fact that I started this whole journey in the middle of covid, you know, businesses were shutting down. People didn't have the money to spend on on marketing budget or, you know, 1500 quid here kind of things go racing. And it was it was difficult. I'm sat there thinking, How the hell am I going to get this done? You know, I'm yeah. New to this. I don't even know how to approach a business or the right kind of thing to say So it was a huge learning curve, but I learned it pretty quickly Partly because I I really wanted this badly, you know, I wasn't gonna take no for an answer I'd spent so long in hospital that I'm there thinking I don't care if I have to go and rob a bank, I'm going racing, you know, I don't care how this happens. So I just thought, let's do it the right way. Let's not go out there and rob a bank. Let's sit down, learn a little bit about the world of motorsport and a little bit about marketing. And maybe if I can market myself off my disabilities, you know, and show to a business that look. Yes, I'm disabled, but I'm actually going to go out here. I'm going to perform. I'm going to win races and I'm going to be a serious competitor within this. So put together a sponsorship deck, highlighting, you know, what I could do and what I can offer, and it was bizarre sending it around to businesses and, you know, fingers crossed, hoping that you'd hear back from someone. And I find that that wasn't working, just sending out an email to people. So I thought, right, I'm going to have to. Find a way of contacting people direct use linkedin for the first ever time in my life created a profile on there And one of the first businesses I spoke to was a business in Newport called inspired business media Gentleman called Lee Hussein who has been Incredible throughout this entire process. sent him a message on there saying highly, you know, quite inspired by what you've managed to do with inspired business media over the last couple of years. I think my story is quite inspiring and might resonate with a few of your staff and a few of your clients, and that was it. That was my first sponsor on board. It really. Didn't take much convincing, you know, and I think part of that was because Lee's gone through some, He's had a knee surgery in the past several times I believe so he understands the process of being in and out of hospital his business partner Jason Had suffered a stroke and had had to rebuild his life as well. So our stories all kind of gel pretty well and yes now to the point that inspired business media are one of my biggest sponsors, But I've, I've, I've managed, it's still a struggle, you know, don't get me wrong, I require the backing this year to go racing and costs have gone up, things are increasing and on top of that, I'm getting offers from other race teams to go and race for them, which is something I'd love to do, I'd love to turn this into a full time career where I'm away from home every single weekend, I'm out there racing every single weekend, but to go and do that, you need a multi million pound budget and at the moment, I'm Don't have that, you know, I I'd love to, but the reality is I don't. So the next couple of weeks for me is very important. I'm going to be contacting a lot of businesses and probably annoying a lot of people in the process. But it's sadly one of those things that you've got to do. If you want to go racing, you've got to go and approach businesses. You've got to put yourself out there. And I think that's, what's. Pretty cool about this whole process for me is it allows me to speak to new people. It allows me to get out there and put myself in a situation where I don't feel the most comfortable. You know, it's not exactly easy going up to a business and saying, Please sir, can I have 50, 000 of your hard earned cash to go and spend on racing? And that's what I've got to do. I enjoy it. It's a challenge. It's, if anything, more of a challenge than going out there and winning a race. Because, at the end of the day, driving the car is the easy side of it. If we don't have the funding and we don't have the budget to go and do that, however, That's it. You're not gonna do it. Yeah. So it's

Scott Whitney: 39:54

a, it's another thing to, to overcome and another thing to, to get doing what you want to be doing. So what have you got? What have you got coming up? I know you've got the, you know, you need to be, looking for more sponsorship and we'll put details if people's listening today in the show notes so they can get in contact with you. But what have you got coming up after that?

Andy Tucker: 40:21

so we're quite busy at the moment, coming up into the start of race season now. Testing is starting, which means we're heading to every single different track in the country that we're racing at this year. I'm racing in, Brick Car Endurance Championship this year. back again. I do love it there. It's actually been my, my number one staple over the years. I say, we came so close to winning the championship last year. It was just One small little problem with the throttle pedal at the final round that put us out of contention. Um,o yeah, I'm, I'm adamant that we're going to be back and causing a storm in Britcar. But at the same time, I'd like to be back in the, British Endurance Championship, which is slightly longer races, two hours, three hours, four hours at times. but again, it's, it's raising the budget for it. so I'll be racing a little Renault Clio in. The BrickHour Endurance Championship, but if I can raise the budget as well, there's the opportunity for me to go and race an Aston Martin GT4 again, which is how I managed to snag this big baby, so yeah, it's tricky times, but as I say, if it wasn't a challenge, I wouldn't be doing it, I wouldn't enjoy it.

Scott Whitney: 41:31

Okay, and then finally, what advice would you give to someone who's In a hospital bed with a prognosis that people are telling them that things aren't going to be like you want them to be. It's going to be life altering, life changing. What advice would

Andy Tucker: 41:54

you give to them? Don't stress about it. Embrace it and look forward to a new challenge. that's the best way I can put it is you're going to have to figure out a way to challenge yourself. If you sit there and let the shit hit the fan. It's going to flicker out everywhere. But if you kind of focus yourself, figure out what you need to help you, don't worry about other people, what works for one might not work for another. And what works for that person is going to work for that. So find what works for you. Listen to the professionals. Don't always follow the advice is what I've, I've learned over the years. Sometimes you'll be given bad advice and you'll be given good advice. It's down to you to figure out what is the good advice to you. It's all good and well, a mental health professional saying, well, you need to be taking 200 pills of Xanax a month to focus. You don't, you don't need that. You just need you. You need to focus on your own path in life. It's going to change. It's going to be difficult. But if you embrace the challenge. And you make it out on the other side and get back up, that's all that matters. How you do it is entirely down to you. And don't feel pressured into doing it any other way. Awesome. Great

Scott Whitney: 43:11

advice, Andy. And it's been an absolute pleasure having you on. yeah, thank you so much for coming on. People at home, thank you for, for listening. But Andy, once again, thank

Andy Tucker: 43:22

you. You're more than welcome, mate. Thank you ever so much for having me on.

43:25

Thank you for listening and I hope that this episode has managed to help you go one way or another. Whether it be helping you yourself or helping you understand what friends may be going through. Feel free to share this episode with friends, family, repost it on your social medias. And obviously if you really enjoyed it, please give us a thumbs up and erase it. It all helps. We'll be back in two weeks. We'll see you then.