From washing cars to running McLaren
As a teenager Zak Brown went to Indycar's 1987 Long Beach Grand Prix and met one of his heroes. He asked race winner Mario Andretti how to get a job in motorsport. Andretti gave him some advice and thirty years later Brown has gone on to become chief executive officer of one of the most successful teams in Formula 1. JAMES ROBERTS picks up the story...
Zak Brown wanted to be a racing driver. The problem was, he had no money.
As a teenager, he appeared on the TV gameshow Wheel of Fortune then sold the watches he won to fund enrolment at a karting school. A few years later he left his home in California and flew to the UK, to pursue the dream of so many young drivers.
His first job in motorsport was washing cars at a Donington Park racing school while lodging on an air mattress at a mate's house in Sheffield - a life Brown now describes as "torture."
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