Andy Hoadley

00.00.02 My name is Andrew H. I’m Assembly Technician at Lola Cars. And I basically build cars, all the cars in the Lola range and some surplus assembly jobs of components on the cars. Sometimes I’m testing, with a new car we’ll go out and test it. The best thing about the job is pride when you complete a car, if you see it run and it does well.

00.00.34 When I was a little kid I always played around with cars. Originally I started with classic cars, was going to go to college to do that and the course was cancelled so I ended up doing a different course and got into racing through that. My dad was a mechanic so he always fixed the family cars so I kind of learnt a lot from there. When I was about 12 I bought a Triumph Herald and starting rebuilding that.

00.01.08 When I left school I went to college and did a BTEC National Diploma in automotive engineering. That was reasonable fun. It wasn’t as much workshop time as I’d have liked. After the first year I had to do work experience which was when I started and got involved in motor sport. I was working in a classic car garage part-time, about two days a week and then had to do work experience at college and there was a small firm local to me that built motorcycle engine single seaters. So I started there part-time and that turned into going away racing every other weekend during the summer.

00.01.54 I travelled all over the country. Did one race every year in Belgium. It was a lot of fun. As I kind of got a bit older I decided I’d like something a bit more relaxed, which Lola’s very workshop based and a lot more stable job-wise because it’s a bigger company. A good company to work for and it’s another step up the ladder.

00.02.23 I’ve never really thought about moving up the ladder. I’ve always kind of thought as long as I’m happy doing what I’m doing then I’ll stay doing it. I know at Lola some of the older guys have started off in the workshop and worked their way up through the ranks. I don’t know whether I’d like to do that. I couldn’t imagine myself with a desk job. I’m quite happy running round building cars. As long as I’m happy and I’m earning a living, I’m quite happy with that. The only meeting I would like to do is go to Le Mans and experience that.

00.03.03 A high point in my career is probably the Goodwood weekend. First time I’ve ever been there it was Lola’s 50th year so I was in charge of running Sebastian Bourdais’ champ car. With him driving it, it was something I never quite imagined myself doing.

00.03.24 The thing that’s had the biggest impact on my life is probably meeting my fiancée and getting engaged. Obviously I like spending time with the family and my fiancée so mainly that. I do play bass guitar so I like to try and make time for that which is hard sometimes. If I could do any job in the future I’d probably stay as I am now as long as I’m happy doing it I’ll stay working at it.

00.03.55 End