From B71 to F1

Let's get tenuous.

A decade ago I worked for a motor racing publication covering Formula Renault and Formula Three.

It was a bit like covering football in Leagues One and Two - a select few competitors eventually made it big but most others disappeared from view.

It was during this time that I spent an evening out with media colleagues, drivers and their advisors following the opening night of the annual Autosport Show, held at the NEC.

One such up-and-coming driver went in search of more entertainment. Where he and his entourage ended up I honestly don't remember.

But I do recall that while en-route, the driver's advisors, apparently big Baggies fans, instructed the taxi driver to detour and pull up outside The Hawthorns.

The two men, solicitors specialising in sport during their working hours, got out of their black cab and started bowing down in front of the glass doors of the Halfords Lane stand, while the racing driver sat in the taxi and laughed.

That same driver ended up in Formula One by 2000, while I had ventured over into football and started to lose touch with that particular circle of contacts.

Still, I often wondered whether the driver - Jenson Button - stuck by the same advisors and became some kind of honorary Albion fan following his fleeting visit to B71. I suspect not.

But, in any case, I would like to thank him for getting this morning off to a good start by taking the chequered flag in Australia and, more importantly, winning me some money in the process.