PRO ANNUAL 2018

BW: How long have you had a passion for motorsports? CN: I started watching Formula 1 on TV when I was a kid, I must have been five or six. It was the glorious Senna v Prost days and I vividly remember that tangle at Suzuka for the Championship. Since then, because I wanted to get involved with racing somehow my Dad took us as spectators to various local racing events. That’s where I got the urge – the smell of burnt rubber and exhaust fumes – I was hooked! BW: What is the first racecar you bought and what have you got now? CN: My first racecar was a RF99 Van Diemen Formula Ford 1600. I competed in the Scottish FF1600 Championship back in 2014. I was clueless in my first practice session at Knockhill – as I was going too slow, I got black-flagged. It was my first time on a proper racing circuit and the first time in a racecar! It got better from there and Knockhill is a terrific venue to learn. In 2015, I did the prestigious Walter Hayes Trophy at Silverstone in a Merlyn Mk20a with a mid-table finish in the Classics. I also did a couple of Scottish hillclimbs at Doune, where I won in my class in a Mallock Mk32b. Lately, I have raced a 1965 Alfa Romeo Giulia Super in the Scottish Classics and in the Silverstone Classic last year. The Alfa is a beautiful car, goes hand-in-hand with our premium Italian trailers. It brought so many smiles! BW: What do you love about racing? CN: I just love being on the grid, taking part. I’ve never been quick. For me, it’s all about being in it, the revs, the vibration. It’s all about the thrill and what it gives me! Yes, some weekends were very expensive, but looking back, I don’t regret anything, and I would do it again in a heartbeat. BW: You are the UK distributor for Turatello Trailers, how did you get involved in that? CN: In 2014, my Italian friends approached me asking about the UK market for motorsport trailers. At that stage I had already used a few covered trailers from different manufacturers and could see what was wrong and how they could be improved to make them more user- friendly. Turatello has been making trailers for over 40 years, mainly for the Italian market, and designed from their personal experience in motorsport - a bit like the Italian supercar manufacturers at the very beginning of time. Turatello was looking to expand in other markets and obviously the UK was a top target on its list because of the high demand. At that time, I was speaking to many people in motorsport about British-built enclosed trailers and everybody raised issues about poor customer service and reliability of the products. So I thought, what can we do better? That’s how Turatello Trailers UK started in 2014. We were looking to offer a much better product along with a five-star customer service. We brought the first Turatello F26 to Autosport International in January 2015 and sold it on the spot! I still remember the reps from one of our competitors crawling all over our trailer with excitement as soon as we brought it into the hall. The Italians had entered the building, in style! BW: What is unique about Turatello Trailers? CN: The concept of our trailers is unique. All the British enclosed trailers manufacturers influenced each other and therefore produced similar products. In Italy, Turatello took inspiration from its roots and developed a truly authentic, best-in-class, enclosed trailer. Italian design is world-class - just look at Italian supercars, architecture, fashion, furniture – you name it! What comes out of Italy is beautiful and so are Turatello’s enclosed trailers. You will fall in love with the Italian style – a free-flowing, perfect exterior design, built and finished to perfection. We try to source the best parts locally and have been using all AL-KO sub- assemblies for decades. The insulation panels for the body are made in-house and cut to size. Some trailer manufacturers import parts from China or India to reduce the build cost of their product, but that’s not how we do it! We’ve been racing cars for generations and design our trailers with that in mind, we’ve learned from our experience. We are racers first and engineer trailers second. Did I mention that Scuderia Ferrari uses our trailers? It can’t get any better than that! BW: What is your dream car if you don’t already have it? CN: That’s simple, Ferrari 288 GTO... one day! PRO ANNUAL 2018 71