Early stages...Growing up on a farm, Ben started driving tractors and then cars from an early age, but it was a trip to Brands Hatch in the family's 1939 Railton that gave him the motor racing bug, probably helped by the fact that he is distantly related to Reid Railton, one of the foremost racing car and land speed record car designers of the 1930s. He attended the Brands Hatch Racing school for an initial trial at the age of 15, but finance limited early attempts to go racing to grass-tracking a Mini which failed at the first hurdle.
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After working for a local Formula Ford team as a 'gofer' and mechanic and being a minor part in the team winning three consecutive Champion of Brands titles for Andy Ackerley, Karl Jones and Chris Ringrose, his first full season as a competitor was in 1987 when he won the inaugural Formula First Championship. The series was covered by BBC's Top Gear and at the end of that season Ben recorded his first ever TV commentary alongside Tiff Needell. He went on to race across Europe in the Formula Vauxhall Lotus championship, up against the likes of Mika Hakkinen, Allan McNish and David Coulthard. In 1992 he won the Caterham Vauxhall title but his career as a commentator was beginning to take over.
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His work behind the microphone really began in the commentary box at Brands Hatch where he learned from the legendary Brian Jones. TV opportunities were scarce, but it was with Eurosport in 1991 that he started on a path that would lead to his big break: in 1995 he was selected to become lead English language commentator on Eurosport's F1 coverage alongside John Watson. When Eurosport lost the F1 rights in 1997 he covered Champ Car racing in the States and then 10 years of the British Touring Car Championship for ITV. In 2002 he spent another year commentating F1 for the Sky+ Digital service, once again with John Watson and when that was closed down he went on to work on A1GP, GT World Championship, Le Mans and Superleague Formula, while also voicing the highlights of British F3 and GT for several years on Channel 4. In 2012 he became the BBC's F1 commentator alongside David Coulthard.
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