The storyline of Ford v Ferrari – the 20th Century Fox film about Carroll Shelby leading the Ford factory team to a podium-packing victory in the 1966 Le Mans 24 Hours – had been kicking around Hollywood for some time. Fox had bought the rights to the A J Baime book Go Like Hell. But the movie now released is instead a new take on the true story, developed by director James Mangold, and scripted by Jez Butterworth, John-Henry Butterworth and Jason Keller.

Mangold finally began shooting the movie on July 30 last year, and the process went on for 67 days, with units working in California, New Orleans, Atlanta, Savannah and Statesboro, Georgia, as well as at Le Mans itself.

When I first got the call inviting me to become involved, there were just a couple of months to go before filming began. My introduction came through stunt co-ordinator, Robert Nagle, a former racer turned movie industry stunt man. As a fan of the period and of motor racing in general he’d had this story on his radar for many years. Now I was engaged simply as one of his stunt driver team.