This is Maurice Hamilton.
I was lucky enough to meet him last year at a talk he did at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu hosted by The Friends Of Beaulieu about his 40 years as a journalist in Formula 1 and much more.
For those of you who don't know about Maurice Hamilton, here is an introduction.
Maurice is an award winning journalist and author of over 30 books. He has attended over 500 Grand Prix. Maurice attended his first motorsport race aged 7 with his dad and uncle attended the Tourist Trophy at Dundrod in Northern Ireland and became hooked on motorsport. Maurice started attending all kinds of motorsport events while living in Northern Ireland but moved to London in 1970 due to the troubles during that time. While attending the Monaco Grand Prix in 1973, Maurice spotted the press people and thought about writing an article from the spectators point of view. He went home, wrote the article and sent it to every motorsport magazine going. Nigel Roebuck (another giant in the motorsport journalism world) was the editor for Competition Car magazine published the article. This was a big turning point for Maurice. In order to get a press pass, Maurice was told that he had to have a letter from the Royal Automobile Club. Maurice wrote to them and they refused his request as he was not a journalist. While on Victoria Station, Maurice noticed a company making security passes for businesses and went in. He spoke to someone and explained that he was seeking a press card and what it was for. After spending 50p a card was produced with his name and photo, an address and phone number borrowed from a friend due to it being more glamorous than his own address and some magazine names on the back, Motor Racing News Service would be his company name, Auto Sport (Japan) he had a photo published in, two others he had not written for, the last one listed being Cart and Track (Ireland), this was a magazine about horse and carts. With this, Maurice was able with a lot of persuasion able to gain a press pass for the 1976 Monaco Grand Prix. He then used this for a lot of the other Grand Prix throughout that year. In 1977, Maurice left his job in sales and became a freelance motorsport writer working with Ian Young. His first job was to write the James Hunt Magazine. Maurice then worked for The Guardian and The Independent before spending 20 years as The Observers Motorsport Correspondent but always being a freelance writer. Between 1979 and 1988, Maurice was the editor for Autocourse.
Maurice also commentated on Formula One for 20 years on BBC Radio 5 Live.
Below is a link to the interview I had with Maurice and a link to the talk I attended at Beaulieu.
So grab some refreshments and enjoy.
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