By comparison with his earlier career in touring cars that yielded titles in four consecutive seasons, the four World Endurance Championship GTE Pro wins Andy Priaulx scored as part of the Ford GT programme appear small fry. Yet the Guernseyman regards his first three-and-a-bit years of his ongoing relationship with Multimatic as one of the most enjoyable periods of his career. And that goes some way to explaining Priaulx’s choice of Harry Tincknell as his favourite team-mate.
A hat-trick of World Touring Car Championship titles with BMW, coming after he’d won the 2004 European crown, established Priaulx as one of the world’s best drivers, rated at number nine in Autosport’s 2005 top 50. It was “definitely one of the most successful parts of my career,” Priaulx acknowledges, before adding “it wasn’t one of the most enjoyable” as he was still building his name and “had an awful lot of pressure from BMW” to keep performing.
