Saluting a driver who helped boost Britain's modern F1 influence

The mid-1980s was a terrific time to be a teenaged motorsport fan in the UK.

The British Formula 3 Championship was bursting at the seams after an early-1980s slump in grid numbers. Underneath that on the UK ladder, Formula Ford 2000 had turned into a white-hot arena of talent after its first few years of being populated mainly by FF1600 graduates who hadn't quite been good enough for F3.

For 1985, FF1600 had been rationalised - and enriched - at its top level by the pruning of its four major national championships down to two, with two junior series sitting beneath. Add to that many circuits hosting their own single-venue FF1600 championships of varying quality, with the Champion of Brands arguably the pick of them all.

Into that hotbed stepped a young Hertfordshire lad named Mark Blundell who, like many of his racing peers of the time, sported a haircut that made him look like a cross between a member of Spandau Ballet and a graduate of a second division football club's academy playing in the reserves.

The mane on this ex-motocross ace was lairy, and so was the driving between Blundell and his contemporaries during that mid-1980s era.

Damon Hill, Johnny Herbert and Bertrand Gachot would go on to become the most famous, but there were other great talents around in the forms of Paulo Carcasci, Dave Coyne and John Pratt.

Beating Blundell, Hill etc to the 1984 junior FF1600 titles was Jonathan Bancroft, while Ross Hockenhull, Tim 'Son of Brands commentator Brian' Jones, Andy King and Allan Seedhouse could all ace them on their day.

The rivalry between Blundell and Gachot was particularly ferocious.

Blundell had won 25 of the 70 races he'd contested in his novice FF1600 season in 1984, while Gachot had been racing in the same category on the continent.

For 1985, Blundell secured a works Van Diemen drive for the move to senior FF1600, while Marlboro-backed Gachot lined up with the ambitious Pacific Racing squad. Along the way, Gachot drove Blundell off the track and almost into a massive shunt at Castle Combe.

When Blundell punched Gachot through his open visor in the paddock, he was apprehended by some west-country coppers who happened to be passing by and held for breach of the peace.

Blundell's driving career probably went on a bit too long, but he was a great talent

Blundell won the Esso championship, while Gachot won the RAC British crown - but only after triggering a startline shunt in the Thruxton finale that sent Blundell into the barriers and confirmed the Belgian as champion.

The feud continued into 1986 in FF2000, where again it was one title each. Once more, Pacific-run Gachot ended up with a British championship, while Blundell, who was run by Ken Stanford's Anglo European Racing, was victorious in the EFDA European series.

At this point, Blundell made the ambitious move onto the international scene for 1987 to compete in Formula 3000 with the family Fleetray Racing team, while Gachot - as every proper Marlboro-backed continental should do - lined up in British F3 with West Surrey Racing.

Together with the brilliant Herbert, who'd been driving for the tiny Quest constructor in FF1600 and FF2000, you'd have said that any of these three - and not Hill, who'd just come out of a trying maiden F3 season - would be most likely to become a future Formula 1 world champion.

All this is why it's worth saluting Blundell, who last weekend announced his retirement from the cockpit after a poor single season in the British Touring Car Championship in 2019 with a Trade Price Cars Racing Audi.

• Blundell's BTCC season lowlights
• Announces retirement
• Explains BTCC season call
• The pain of 2019
• Criticism from rivals

He's the last member of his mini-generation - who massively raised the ante in British single-seater racing and made what was going on within our islands the focus of the international teams in the higher ranks - to attempt a full racing programme at a significant level.

His driving career probably went on a bit too long (we'll forget his British GT exploits of a few years ago...), but he was a great talent.

He's also kept his influence in the single-seater arena that brought him to prominence, originally as a management partner with his friend Martin Brundle in the 2MB company, latterly on his own as MB Partners, with drivers including Mike Conway, Tom Blomqvist, Callum Ilott and Jordan King among his stable.

Some will remember Blundell's 1993-94 F1 podiums with Ligier and Tyrrell, or his scarily committed '90 Le Mans 24 Hours pole lap with Nissan, or his late-90s stardom in Indycars.

But for this fan who revelled in the furious battling of a golden crop of talent, the memories revolve more around the anticipation of a BBC Grandstand FF2000 Winter Series (he won that too, in 1985) grid lining up under a blinding low November sun, slippery patches off the racing line, at Brands Hatch. And by the way, I was yet another with a bit of a mullet.