Speaking to Rachael Downie.

Normally when I interview people, and I use normally in the loosest possible sense because despite the fact that I like to pretend I hang around with a lot of racing and media people on a regular basis, I tend to leave them alone unless I have a reason to interview them, such as when I spoketo Louise Goodman for my entry into the Sir William Lyons award. 

I digress. Whenever (which as you’ve just discovered isn’t very often) I interview people, it tends to be over and done within a matter of minutes: I ring the subject, we check each other is ok, I ask questions, they give answers and then I say goodbye.  Before you tell me, yes, I have just given you a dictionary definition of ‘an interview’. 

This one was a little different though. This blog post was intended to be the interview, instead of me pontificating about an interview, but due to various embargoes, I can’t talk about one of the things mentioned. Talking of ‘mentioned’, I haven’t actually mentioned who I interviewed. 

I was lucky enough to spend a good hour and quarter on the phone to Rachael Downie, the face of Britcar for 2013 (I am allowed to mention that bit), presenter, voice-over genius and all round lovely person. I’m guessing you’ve just realised why it was so different to any other interview, in the respect that I was on the phone for what my parents would say is ‘a very long time considering you were talking to a girl’. 

Anyway, as I phoned Rachael I did what I always do which is have the set of questions I want to ask on the laptop screen in front of me, have her on speakerphone and hold my iPhone over the landline to record the conversation. The conversation started out as most conversations normally do; by asking after each other. Rachael confirmed to be that yes indeed she was well and my phone call was quite timely as she needed a break. I’m guessing that either I was really interesting (unlikely) or that she was keen to skive off work for an hour or so.

It transpired that I had previously spoken to Rachael, at Brands Hatch last year while covering Formula Two for AUTOSPORT, and even more surprisingly, she remembered me. Cue a lot of surprise from both of us, and after giving my (now quite lengthy) spiel about my previous experience, I opened my mouth to ask the first question on my list only to find Rachael already answering it for me. I thought that either this was great timing on her part or that she had read my questions.

It turned out that neither of those were true. Rachael likes to talk, which doesn’t come as much of a surprise considering she is a television presenter (and no, I don’t mean it in a bad way, she admitted herself that she does like to talk a bit). In fact, I got so used to listening to Rachael’s interesting tales that I started to sit back and relax, nodding my head to what she was saying before realising that I was speaking to her on the phone and the silence when I was nodding assuming she was seeing my nodding head was pretty awkward.  So I chipped in with my own tales and repeating myself on a regular basis. 

Quite strange it was too.  I was expecting to have to direct the questions like a question and answer session, but this ‘interview’ was rapidly turning into a chat on the phone with a friend. It was strangely calming which was quite surreal. I had previously read on her blog that recently she was interviewed for the first time and ahead of that interview she was very nervous. I’m guessing therefore, that I was the second person to interview her, which goes some way to explaining how relaxed it was. Like I say, it was surreal, but in a good way: I was so relaxed that I almost forgot what the purpose of the phone call was.  During the chat, Rachael seemed very impressed by my background and my plans for the future and seemed interested in my tales of Jason Plato telling me to eff off and asking Martin Brundle about the 2014 F1 regulations amongst other things, and told me that I was very down to earth and I’m lovely. 

Blimey. Rachael also offered for me to come to any Britcar round I like to follow her around for a weekend, conduct interviews and generally get to know people. This offer confirmed me to me again that people in motorsport and the motoring industry are so, so friendly when you’re ‘in the loop’. It constantly amazes me how lovely everyone is, and once again, this is another example of someone going out of their way to help me. So for that, thank you Rachael. I know I thanked you a couple of times, but, publicly, here, on my blog, thank you for giving up your time and getting me one step closer to writing nonsense about cars for a living. 

>> Look out for the interview with Rachael in the coming days/weeks (depending on embargoes and how busy I am). In the meantime, you can follow Rachael on Twitter, ‘like’ her on Facebook, read her blog here and visit her website here.