Billy Monger

[tomgroves55]

[zarjaz1991]

I feel so sorry for this poor lad, losing your legs must be utterly horrific, but he has bounced back admirably and no doubt shames many of us with his attitude to life.

I will freely admit I couldn't have come close to doing what he's done, I'd have crawled under my rock to die.

[Vaud]

zarjaz1991 said:

I feel so sorry for this poor lad, losing your legs must be utterly horrific, but he has bounced back admirably and no doubt shames many of us with his attitude to life.

I will freely admit I couldn't have come close to doing what he's done, I'd have crawled under my rock to die.

The kid is so positive he probably thinks of it as a weight advantage...

[rallycross]

tomgroves55 said:

Well done Billy what an incredible lad to achieve this after such a horrible accident. Hope he has a great season in F3.

[alfie2244]

rallycross said:

tomgroves55 said:

Well done Billy what an incredible lad to achieve this after such a horrible accident. Hope he has a great season in F3.

Respect to the young man

[zarjaz1991]

Vaud said:

The kid is so positive he probably thinks of it as a weight advantage...

What worries me, as he is so young, is that he is SO positive that I wonder if he's blocking some of this out a bit.

There's a video out there from a few months ago, where he is demonstrating driving 'ordinary' cars and sliding them into place, it's practice for some sort of display. During that, he's briefly interviewed and you catch a brief touch of reality, he says something like "I've got to do this, after all if I didn't, what else could I do now?", and that caught me sharply, I wondered if his real feelings might have slipped out a bit there. Because deep down he must simply be devastated by it. Very sad.

[Vaud]

Maybe; he reminds me of Zanardi. Only positive, extremely “driven”

[SpudLink]

I also saw the “what else could I do” interview. I don’t doubt that he must have moments when he is very aware of what he has lost and the challenges that are ahead. That’s what makes his achievement all the more remarkable. I would have been completely destroyed, lost in self pity.

[zarjaz1991]

SpudLink said:

I also saw the “what else could I do” interview. I don’t doubt that he must have moments when he is very aware of what he has lost and the challenges that are ahead. That’s what makes his achievement all the more remarkable.

I totally agree. For clarity, I'm not knocking him in any way.

He's just so young and nobody that young should be dealing with this. Nobody at all should actually. It is, I'm afraid, a horrific scenario.

SpudLink said:

I would have been completely destroyed, lost in self pity.

Absolutely, same for me. It's difficult to call but I don't think I'd have lasted very long afterwards.

[zarjaz1991]

Obviously at the moment he has a lot of money and support coming his way from various directions - which is great, and long may it continue.

One day it will dry up though. And what does he do then, "after the Lord Mayor's parade", when the media are no longer interested?

I would hope that his actual driving skill - since he is VERY good - will see him right financially, as it would an able bodied person. It's not an easy industry to 'make it' in though.

[Old Merc]

The focus at Oulton Park is on Billy monger,and quite rightly so,good luck to him.

In the same paddock are four other guys with similar disabilities.Dont forget the two "Invictus Games" Jags that are entered in the British GT Championship.They are driven by guys who's lives were shattered while serving in Afghanistan.

Let us all cheer all those who overcome adversity.

[benny.c]

The Invictus Games guys were great on Friday’s test day. Even though they were busy setting up the cars, they invited me and my boy in to the garage to take a look around the cars, take photos etc.

[Rawwr]

To go from having your legs amputated to finishing on the podium within a year is just incomprehensible to me. There's something exceptional there.

[anonymous-user]

2nd race today was a reverse grid, so started 14th

finished 9th with fastest lap of the race.

[Vocal Minority]

Good lad.


Solid brass clangers, that one.

[Cold]

Some of these racing drivers really are wired differently to the rest of us.

[jurbie]

I saw him out and about in the paddock and he certainly seems happy and full of confidence. Nice to see him getting some good coverage in the national press as well.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/motorsport/5944714/...

[drakart]

Vaud said:

The kid is so positive he probably thinks of it as a weight advantage...

He actually has to run lead and in a place agreed by all in order to not have a weight/centre of gravity advantage. Sorry to be boring.

[Vaud]

drakart said:

Vaud said:

The kid is so positive he probably thinks of it as a weight advantage...

He actually has to run lead and in a place agreed by all in order to not have a weight/centre of gravity advantage. Sorry to be boring.

I was mostly tongue in cheek. Given the disadvantage of adapted controls, that seems a little churlish by his competition, but at least they can’t claim it was a weight advantage!

[DanielSan]

jsf said:

2nd race today was a reverse grid, so started 14th

finished 9th with fastest lap of the race.

That’s arguably an even better drive than the first race. Mid pack racing in any lower Formula like that is regularly nose to tail, and an F3 race isn’t that long to make up 5 places and have battles along the way.