TO QUOTE Welsh comedian Max Boyce - I was there. I was there that weekend in early November when Andy Priaulx needed to win in Macau to claim an unprecedented third World Touring Car Championship on the trot.
I was there when he performed disastrously on the Saturday qualifiers to find himself 12th on the grid for the first race and seemingly out of the running.
I was there the next morning when in that race he grabbed the vitally important eighth spot through great driving and unbelievable luck.
I was there when he started the ultimate race on pole and managed to hold off the ferocious pack to take the chequered flag and the world championship.
And I was there when the tears flowed from Priaulx’s eyes as his accomplishment sunk in when he stepped out of his BMW.
But to get to that stage on that Sunday afternoon, it was a real rollercoaster of a journey.
Going into the weekend at the former Portuguese colony on the South China coast it was always going to be tough for the Guernseyman.
In the penultimate round at Monza he had had a chance to wrap up the championship but crashes on the first corner chicane of the Italian track in both races resulted in him failing to pick up any points.
This put him on level points with Yvan Muller of France as the action moved to the Far East.
But Muller definitely had the upper hand as his turbo diesel Seat was better suited to the Macau circuit than Priaulx’s BMW 320si.
Macau is not your typical street circuit.
It has a number of very quick straights that the Seat could tear up.
The regulations had been changed mid-season to allow Seat to introduce their new turbo diesel and many saw this as an attempt by the FIA to dethrone Priaulx.
So there were no real surprises when Muller and his Seat teammate Gabriele Tarquini finished the qualifying round late on Saturday afternoon in second and third, while Priaulx’s other rival for the world crown, Augusto Farfus Jnr, was in fourth.
Chevrolet’s Alain Menu pulled off his usual trick of overachieving in the qualifiers to take pole position.
But what was surprising and equally disheartening for the good number of local people who had travelled over to support Priaulx, was that their man had a diabolical day behind the wheel.
His car just did not seem to be firing right.
Also a near crash in the San Francisco Hill section of the course cost him valuable seconds.
His best time was 2min. 32.685sec., well behind Menu’s quickest of 2-31.309 to see him with a 12th spot on the grid for the first race while Muller was in second and definitely having the upper hand.
There were no doubts about it - Priaulx now had a mountain to climb.
His supporters knew this and the mood round the camp was sombre to say the least.
But there was a stubborn look in Priaulx’s eye on that Saturday evening.
He was not going to give up his title without a fight, regardless of the odds.
The next morning and the plan for the first race was clear for the Sarnian.
Gain four places to finish in eighth that, with the reverse grid set up, would have him in pole position for the second race.
But that was easier said than done on the Macau circuit that despite its straights does not offer too many opportunities for overtaking.
Into the nine-lap race and Priaulx found it difficult to make any in-roads. He was stuck in the pack and far away from the elusive eighth place.
Meanwhile at the front Menu, Muller and Farfus were battling it out and the world title looked to be going the Frenchman’s way.
But on lap eight and when everything looked lost for Priaulx as he languished in 11th, what can only be described as a miracle took place.
Tarquini shunted Farfus off the track and literally seconds later Muller’s fuel pump that had been playing up finally gave away to see him retire as well.
This saw Priaulx bumped up to ninth and he took the vital eighth place when he passed fellow BMW driver Duncan Huisman.
It was truly unbelievable.
With Farfus and Muller out of the picture for the second race and their title dreams destroyed, Priaulx now had to hold onto his pole position in the second race to take the crown after it had looked so unlikely just hours before.
The tension was unbearable as the race got under way.
The Guernseyman sped off followed by Alfa Romeo driver James Thompson.
There was no love lost between the two good friends as Thompson had an opportunity of claiming the championship if Priaulx failed to score any points and he took the chequered flag.
The British driver let Priaulx know he meant business when he clipped the back of him at the Melco hairpin near the end of the first lap.
But this turned out to be the only real sweaty moment for Priaulx as he held his nerve under the immense pressure to successfully hold off Thompson and then Nicola Larini.
It was almost unbearable to watch.
Back in the paddock afterwards, the emotions flowed from Priaulx as his wife Jo and father Graham hugged him and his fans cheered him.
He had won a hat-trick of FIA world championships against all the odds.
A truly remarkable achievement and a truly remarkable weekend that I will certainly not forget in a hurry.
Needless to say the party that BMW put on afterwards in a bar on top of a downtown Macau skyscraper was a good one.
Article posted on 2nd January, 2008 - 12.00am
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