Today’s speaker was John Pogson of Italia Autosport, making a return visit to tell us about his days as a racing car champion, and of his interest in all things “Ferrari”.
He has been a works trained Ferrari engineer for over 50 years, which he describes, not as work, but as a way of life, a passion!
He started his own business 30 years ago, and, despite now being 69 years of age, is determined to go on for at least another 30 years. During the pandemic he locked himself in the business premises to ensure the business continuity, and to service the needs of his valued customers and their even more valued vehicles. He admits to, or rejoices in, being a perfectionist who specialises on classic vehicles of all sorts, but predominantly Ferraris, and accepts that today’s vehicles are much changed from those which he is used to working on, so his working practices may have to change somewhat. He doesn’t train his staff and mechanics, he mentors them, and is determined that they adopt his own values to the cars they work on.
After nearly dying from covid, and subsequent pneumonia in September of last year, he aims to add to his 6 British Racing Car Championship victories, possibly entitling his campaign “Old Git Racing”! His enthusiasm for life and the sport is obvious, where he describes the adrenalin rush during the 20 minutes warm up, sat in the cockpit before the start of a race, as mind-blowing!
He has the same attraction to the vintage Vulcan bomber aircraft, visiting the exhibition at Doncaster airport whenever he can.
In short, he is an engineer through and through, and who would be bold enough to say that he will not achieve his aim to win another Championship over the next few years.