Dragon Speed driver Ben Hanley: Competing against race royalty!

And now the 35-year-old Burnley FC season ticket holder is pitting his wits against two-time F1 supremo Fernando Alonso, who ended Michael Schumacher’s dominance in the sport.

The Spaniard, who won back-to-back titles in 2005 and 2006, has since become a champion of the 2018/19 FIA World Endurance Championship and a two-time winner of the 24 Hours of Le Mans with Toyota while adding top spot in the 24 Hours of Daytona with Wayne Taylor Racing last year.

It has taken decades of toil, sacrifice, patience and perseverance to bridge those two markers on his timeline, but now his biography can fuse two of motor sport’s greatest together.

His journey continued in 2016 when he finished fourth in the LMP2 Class of the European Le Mans Series for DragonSpeed with wins at Spa Francorchamps.

Hanley’s diary was full the following year. Another crack in the Le Mans Series, where he finished second in Monza and won poles at Silverstone and Spa Francorchamps, was followed by entry in the World Endurance Championship.

Hanley scored an LMP2 podium finish at Mexico City before competing in the Rolex 24 at Daytona.

The next campaign, in 2018, followed a similar pattern before 2019 brought a third place finish in the LMP2 Class at Rolex 24 at Daytona for DragonSpeed.

“I did the European Le Mans Series, we had good results, and then I managed to do some of the World Endurance Championship in the same category,” said Hanley.

“The opportunity came up with DragonSpeed once again to go into the LMP1 category, which is the top category, and that was for a year over 2018/19.

“Then, in 2019/20, I did the LMP1 category with a Yorkshire company called Ginetta and at the same time DragonSpeed wanted to venture into IndyCar so I did that with them.

“They have a lot of trust in me and I have a lot of trust in them so it worked really well. I was in the right place at the right time again.

“I want to be at the front and winning all the time, but myself and the team are experienced and we’re on the same page with what is achievable with the budget that they have. We have a lot of trust in each other, we keep pulling out results and we’re doing really well.”

Having rubbed shoulders with Hamilton earlier in his career, Hanley was now sharing a track with two-time Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso.

He has raced four times in the NTT IndyCar Series, finishing 18th on his debut in St Petersburg, and recently placed a very respectable 23rd in the Indianapolis 500.

Hanley said: “It’s a completely different environment. There’s a lot of respect between the drivers due to the danger of the ovals.

“It’s a lot more dangerous compared to street and road courses and that brings the whole IndyCar community closer together. They appreciate each other more.

“I instantly felt welcomed from the very first race that I did and various drivers were very open in coming forward with advice. It’s a different feel to any other paddock that I’ve been in.

“He [Fernando Alonso] has only done the Indy500 races and they’re highly stressful weeks so it’s difficult to do much interacting with other people.

“He’s pretty busy on the media side of things as well with him being so high-profile.

“I’ve competed four times - twice on a normal circuit and twice in the Indianapolis 500. The performances have been very good.

“The team were in a rush to get the car completed for the first race we went to so we had very minimal testing beforehand.”

Hanley’s lifestyle choices have always come with an element of danger, but they do so now more than ever.

He’s now operating some of the fastest machines in the world of motorsport.

“You’re not having a small accident at 220 mph so you need to have patience,” he said.

“If you crash we don’t necessarily have the funding to repair the car so you could be out of the race. That could be your week over. Patience is key.

“We went to the first race, which is a very difficult street circuit, and we ended up 12th in qualifying in St Petersburg. That was a great way to start.

“We had some issues towards the end of the race, which forced us to slow down, and we nursed the car home to finish. That was a big achievement for the team.

“Last year we went to the Indy500 where the big focus for us was qualifying for the race [three missed out].

“In the end we did it quite comfortably and that was a massive surprise to pretty much everybody that was watching. That was a huge achievement for myself and the team.

“We had a drive shaft failure just under a quarter of the way into the race, but just qualifying was a huge achievement, even more so when you consider that Alonso didn’t even make the race that year.

“He was one of those who went home early. It was a massive achievement to qualify in 27th out of 36.

“Everybody had anticipated that we would be in the bottom three and going home.”

He added: “It was certainly the most satisfying qualifying performance, even though I’ve qualified in pole position several times.

“I think it was the tightest qualifying grid from first to last in the history of IndyCar racing. That compounded how good a job we’d done, considering it was the first time that we’d raced on an oval. We did a pretty amazing job.

“It was more of a last minute entry this year due to the financial issues that Covid has presented everybody with.

“We were still building the car on Wednesday when everybody else was driving around so we were very late starting.

“Up until about 30 minutes before the end of the race we were in a position where we could have finished anywhere from eighth to 18th.

“We took a gamble on strategy towards the end of the race, which didn’t pay off, but we still got to the end of the race. In certain phases we were pretty competitive so we were happy.

“We ended up two laps down, but that was after taking a gamble on strategy. We were still on the lead lap up until the last two pit stops. When you’re in that position we thought it was worth the gamble to try and sneak a top 10 finish.

“It was very different this year without any fans. Last year there were 350,000 people in the circuit before the start of the race.

“It was a completely different feel and environment, but there was a calmer atmosphere for us to focus on ourselves.”

Before Hamilton had eclipsed the all-time record for career Formula 1 victories (95) - surpassing Schumacher’s return of 91 - Hanley had set his sights on glory at the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans

A hugely problematic day certainly didn’t help his cause but, alongside Henrik Hedman and Render van der Zande, the team were able to complete 361 laps to finish up in 16th.

Hanley understands that there is plenty of room for improvement and that has only served to add fuel to the fire of his ambition.

“This year we won the Daytona 24-hour race in America in the LMP2 category so that was a good achievement,” said Hanley.

“It’s great to be able to take part in those races and win and it’s great to get more experience in the nighttime racing.

“They are iconic stages, there are films that have been made about Daytona and Le Mans. It’s a privilege to be able to do it and to be able to call it my job as well.

“Le Mans is the biggest endurance event in the world. You’ve got to try and survive basically, which isn’t an easy task.

“I’ve gone from the biggest single-seater event in the world to the biggest endurance race in the world. I did it last year as well and it’s incredible to be able to race in both.

“It’s such a gruelling race and there is such high stress on the cars because most of the time you’re at full throttle.”

Hanley finished: “I might struggle to match Lewis and become a seven-time world champion!

“You’ve got to be realistic and not put too much pressure on yourself.Mistakes can have massive consequences. I just want to do the best job that I can.

“I would like to win Le Mans, which is a massive task. I want to win some championships, win some big races, which is the aim for everyone who is involved in the sport.

“DragonSpeed has the capacity to be able to achieve those things, we’ll just have to be patient and see what direction the sport goes in and what opportunities that presents.”