{"id":496712,"date":"2017-07-01T01:49:43","date_gmt":"2017-07-01T01:49:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=47099"},"modified":"2025-01-06T00:47:17","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T00:47:17","slug":"racing-with-theodore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/racing-with-theodore\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cRacing\u201d\u2008with Theodore"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='memberful-global-teaser-content'>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I was approached by Theodore after the \u201982 British Grand Prix. I\u2019d begun the season not even knowing if I was going to make it to F3, and here I was being offered an F1 drive\u2014for three years, starting the next weekend. It sounds good on paper doesn\u2019t it? But no one was deluding themselves that this was a top drive; it wasn\u2019t. Everyone who had driven the Theodore that year had struggled in it; it was miles off the pace of the serious teams\u2019 cars, but it was an opportunity I might not get again.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">I was unsure of what to do and asked a lot of people whose opinion I respected. Most said I had to go for it. John McCambridge was one of the few who said I shouldn\u2019t, that being down the wrong end of the grid might hurt my reputation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<style>\n        .memberful-global-teaser-content p:last-child{\n            -webkit-mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 0%, transparent);\n            mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 0%, transparent);\n        }\n    <\/style>\n<div class='memberful-global-marketing-content'>\n<div class=\"a07online-global-marketing-content-wrapper\">\n<h2 class=\"a07online-global-marketing-title\">No Subscription? You&#8217;re missing out<\/h2>\n<p class=\"a07online-global-marketing-content\">Any Text Here<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"a07online-global-marketing-prompt\" href=\"https:\/\/supercars.memberful.com\/checkout?plan=86696\">Get Started<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"a07online-global-marketing-signin\">\n<h4 class=\"a07online-global-marketing-signin\">Already a Member? <a href=\"https:\/\/supercars.memberful.com\/account\">Sign in to your account here<\/a>.<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was approached by Theodore after the \u201982 British Grand Prix. I\u2019d begun the season not even knowing if I was going to make it to F3, and here I was being offered an F1 drive\u2014for three years, starting the next weekend. It sounds good on paper doesn\u2019t it? But no one was deluding themselves that this was a top drive; it wasn\u2019t. Everyone who had driven the Theodore that year had struggled in it; it was miles off the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":172,"featured_media":769283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263,16995,74,11272,261,18207],"tags":[6234,17152,11657,76,20123,20276,548,13156,22929,12286,12302,604,12392,17143,17220],"class_list":["post-496712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-car-culture","category-formula-3","category-mclaren","category-members-only","category-motorsport-racing","category-special-feature","tag-british","tag-car-culture","tag-grand-prix","tag-mclaren","tag-mclaren-featured","tag-mclaren-race-cars-featured","tag-motorsport","tag-ron-dennis","tag-race-cars-featured","tag-hockenheim","tag-oulton-park","tag-f1","tag-f3","tag-special-feature","tag-vrr-column-legends-speak"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>\u201cRacing\u201d\u2008with Theodore<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tommy Byrne recalls how his first shot at Formula One turned out to be something less than he expected.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/racing-with-theodore\/\" \/>\n<link rel=\"next\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/racing-with-theodore\/2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u201cRacing\u201d\u2008with Theodore\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tommy Byrne recalls how his first shot at Formula One turned out to be something less than he expected.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/racing-with-theodore\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Supercars.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Supercars.net\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/steve.natale1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-07-01T01:49:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-01-06T00:47:17+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/LS201707-p3.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"732\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Steve Natale\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@supercars_net\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@supercars_net\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Steve Natale\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"9 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/racing-with-theodore\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/racing-with-theodore\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Steve Natale\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/237befa83e8e5937247db55880b8cc49\"},\"headline\":\"\u201cRacing\u201d\u2008with Theodore\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-07-01T01:49:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-01-06T00:47:17+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/racing-with-theodore\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1754,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/racing-with-theodore\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2017\\\/07\\\/LS201707-p3.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"British\",\"Car Culture\",\"Grand Prix\",\"McLaren\",\"McLaren (Featured)\",\"McLaren Race Cars (Featured)\",\"Motorsport &amp; 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