When Button swapped F1 for rallycross
Jenson Button is known as F1's smoothest driver. ROBERT HOLMES watched him pay tribute to his family's history in a 600bhp rallycross Beetle in a sideways fashion
The scene is one of Stygian murk: gloomy skies, lashing rain, mud. But no matter, for the Kent countryside is cheered by the rorty rumble of a hopped-up flat-four engine, and the gale brings a tinge of hyperactive hydrocarbons. Today Jenson Button's personal and professional lives come full circle in more ways than one.
Not only is Jenson sliding behind the wheel of a monster Volkswagen Beetle rallycross car similar to the one in which his father campaigned during the 1970s, but we also find ourselves at the Lydden Hill rallycross circuit in Kent, a frequent John Button stamping ground back in the day, later bought by Jenson's McLaren team with a view to developing it into their equivalent of Ferrari's Fiorano test track.
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