'For Flux sake: Beer, fags and opposite-lock’ book review

For Flux Sake: an open goal, that title, especially as his visor strip said the same thing (best mate Tiff Needell’s doing), but it’s a flavour of the way Ian Flux treats life. And he has stuff to reveal that you’ve never read in a driver’s memoir before.

The racing is an old tale. Fluxie drove so many things in his career – Formula Vee, Formula 3, saloons, Atlantic, Thundersaloons and -sports, XJR-15s – but despite some great wins and series titles he never properly broke through. Well, he got to Formula 1, but as a mechanic/engineer with Token and Embassy Hill – he drove Graham once who swore “never again”. He also recalls engineering Agostini in Aurora Formula 1 – “nicest guy ever”, who drove to Harrods from Donington to get some delicacies Flux fancied.

If you want someone guaranteed to liven up the paddock and the pre- and post-race partying, Flux is your man. Known for his love of beer and fags (the cover shows him indulging in both) they’ve given him much fun and some pain – example, the F3000 drive he was offered, only to lose it an hour later once beer got involved. Among his 754 races he reckons his big honour was being invited to join the Gerry Marshall/Tony Lanfranchi drinking club. Despite his self-described piss-artist reputation – he spent a night in jail after flooding a hotel with a fake fire alarm – he was determined, and serious about absorbing lessons, notably from ‘Doc’ Ehrlich, whose cars he drove in Formula Atlantic. Similarly he’s been keen to coach young talent, steering the BRDC Rising Stars programme.

For Flux Sake: Beer, Fags and Opposite-lock  Ian Flux  Evro Publishing, £25 ISBN 9781910505694

And all along he had what he calls “his dark secret”. He has already related it in Motor Sport so it’s no news now, but he kept quiet for years, he says, not because he was embarrassed about turning tricks for racing funds but because public knowledge might spoil his chances at F1. No ‘might’ about it, I’d say. But more eye-opening are his schooldays. He’s completely unapologetic about the shoplifting and other things: “LSD was very popular at school” (no, he didn’t) but is equally open about the sexual abuse he experienced.

However he makes no trauma claims; the impression is that it was a dark thing that happened in a good life. He doesn’t think there’s another driver of his time who’s just had to make a living by racing with no funds, concluding it just couldn’t happen today. “I guess that makes me the last of a generation.”

Frank and funny, this is a memoir like no other you’ve read before.