How Not to Be a Professional Racing Driver

'Pure entertainment' Guardian best sports books of 2019
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Jason Plato should not be a professional racing driver.

Yet somehow, despite almost killing Bernie Ecclestone, stealing JCBs, ending up in a Monaco prison (twice), insulting the royals, making a deadly enemy of a rival who happens to be a trained killer, by a fluke or just because he's the hottest thing on four wheels, Jason Plato is a championship-winning driver who's taken (not stolen) the checkered flag a hundred times.

This is his story. Some of it is about driving and cars. But most of it is about the kind of trouble a not-very-sensible man can get into when he isn't behind the wheel of a very fast car . . .

'A cracking read' Sir Chris Hoy

Jason Plato is one of the biggest characters in UK motor racing, and one of the most controversial. Since bursting onto the karting scene at the end of the 1970s he has gone on to either upstage or upset dozens of drivers, team owners and team managers - not to mention the odd policeman and nightclub owner. Despite that he is the British Touring Car Championship's most successful driver ever having won an astonishing 96 races and two championships, with more race wins than Lewis Hamilton.

Since 2004, Jason has also co-presented the popular motoring magazine series Fifth Gear, which recently aired its 23rd series. Jason is also a weekly regular on James Martin's hugely popular current show, Saturday Morning, on ITV.

How Not to Be a Professional Racing Driver is his first book.