JENSON BUTTON'S UNTOLD STORY

JENSON BUTTON must wait a few weeks before getting his hands on the priceless trophy he has been dreaming of winning for 21 years.

That day will come when the great and good of motorsport gather for the FIA's awards evening in Monte Carlo in December.

Button can spend the time before his dinner date with Prince Albert of Monaco - and the presentation of the Formula One world championship crown - in the tinsel town they both call home, wondering how to spend the £10million windfall that could come his way.

But we can reveal that Button's first bonus for his track triumphs was a set of Pimp My Ride alloy wheels for his clapped-out Vauxhall.

Proud dad John said: "Jenson's first car was this seven-year-old, 2-litre Cavalier with 80,000 miles on the clock, but it was a great runner.

"I was driving to Belgium for the final of the European Super A Kart Championship and saw these huge set of alloy wheels.

"They were big and horribly expensive. I can't remember how much they cost, but they'd be something like £2,000 now.

"I got one and showed it to Jenson and his kart mates, who all loved it. I told him if he won the title, I'd get him the set. And that's what he did!"

Button Snr will take his place among the royalty of Monaco and motor racing when his son collects the drivers' crown he won in Brazil last Sunday with the bravest and best drive of his 10-season F1 career.

Hyperactive

Just like another British father-and-son duo did 12 months ago when Lewis Hamilton was handed the 2ft-high trophy. And like Anthony Hamilton, Button launched his son on the road to glory while in the throes of a split from his wife and seeing him only at weekends.

Button, 65, said: "Jenson was very hyperactive as a kid.

"I'd got him a bike but that was too dangerous.

"I was in the motor trade at the time and went to a racing car show and bumped into a guy called Keith Ripp who I'd raced in rally cross with.

"I explained the problem and he said: 'Why don't you get him a kart?' He pulled one down from his stand. It cost £809 and I bought it for Jenson as a Christmas present just before his eighth birthday.

"It was a total surprise. I put some tinsel around the steering wheel and I can remember him seeing it Christmas morning in 1987, still in his red pyjamas."

Britain's new world champion, 29, takes up the story: "Just before Christmas, Dad and Mum had separated.

"They decided that was the best thing. That meant for a while I only saw Dad at weekends.

"Early on Christmas Day, Dad dragged me out of the house, still in my pyjamas, and there it was. It was a Zip with a 60cc engine but I wasn't bothered about the details.

"I just leapt on it and started shouting for him to start it up.

"Dad was living on a farm so off I went down the drive, along a small side road into a pub car park. I nearly lost control and hit a parked car which almost gave him a heart attack!"

Button won his first club race four months after his eighth birthday, having started from the back. That night, he slept with the first of many trophies.

And soon father and son were travelling up and down the country to kart tracks. But funding the racing was not easy, and Button Snr once had to borrow £50 from a friend to get them home to Somerset after being stranded without petrol 385 miles away at the Larkhall track in Scotland.

Low point

He added: "I'd had to buy a few bits and pieces we needed for the kart and the money had just run out.

"I had an old Nissan estate at the time. The way the seats worked, you could fold them down to fit the kart and all the bits but still have a seat for Jenson.

"I think he was 10 at the time.

"I had to borrow the money to get us home. That was probably the low point.

"But I think it did Jenson good in the long run. It taught him a few values.

"Funding Jenson's karting career was not easy. We lived a very hand-to-mouth existence. It wasn't just the karts, but all the travel and hotel bills from driving all over Britain.

"But I knew Jenson had the potential so I didn't mind. I would have done the same if he'd shown the same promise in golf or tennis.

"I have never worked out how much I spent on Jenson's kart career and I never will.

"All I know is that what happened in Sao Paulo last Sunday, seeing him win the world title after 21 years, made it all worthwhile."

Button eventually set up a business supplying engines and then chassis to kart racers to fund those early years. One of his customers was Lewis Hamilton, who took his first steps towards the F1 world title in a Button kart engine.

Button added: "I think Lewis was 10 when he won the British Championship in one of my engines. I like to think that helped him get his deal with McLaren.

"I met Lewis and his girlfriend, Nicole Scherzinger, at an airport recently and he introduced me, saying: 'This is the guy who built my first engine!'"

Impressed

Button's business proved crucial when he was looking for backing to fund his son's switch to the expensive European kart series.

He said: "A Serbian businessman called Sergen Popovic was looking for someone to supply engines for his son Ogi's kart career.

"We got talking and he said he was looking to run his own team in the Italian kart championship.

"I told him about Jenson and asked if there was any chance of Jenson getting a test.

CHAMPION: Aged 11.

"We eventually got this long fax back from him saying 'get yourself to Mount Etna in Sicily where we are having a shoot-out'. Jenson went and got one of the drives. At the start I still had to pay for hotels and flights, but they were so impressed with him that after a few races they paid for everything.

"That was a big load off my mind. Had we not got that sponsorship I don't know if Jenson would have got to F1.

"It must have cost something like £75,000 a season then. Now it's more like £200,000."

But father and son came close to missing that crucial test as they rushed to Heathrow for the flight to Sicily.

Button Jnr said: "It was winter - and a cold one at that. Dad was driving an Audi Coupe back then. Just outside the village it was really icy, the roads like skating rinks with black ice.

"I can remember very clearly the lamp post we were heading for - sideways. Nobody had been out gritting. Even a four-wheel drive couldn't cope and Dad was no slouch at the wheel with his rally cross experience. In fact, that was what probably saved us.

"To think it all could have ended there, at least as far as my racing was concerned.

"It was pretty scary, but every time we go past that lamp post now we laugh and smile at each other.

"Maybe some day I'll get one of those blue plaques on it: 'John and Jenson Button just missed crashing into this lamp post, 1 January 1994'."

Button might get more than a plaque, with Frome set to offer him the freedom of the town after he became the 10th Brit to win the world drivers' crown.

Relax

John - or Papa Smurf as he is called by his son - was there, with his shirt, as usual, unbuttoned to the solar plexus, as he has been for all but one of his son's 169 races since his debut with Williams in Australia.

"It still hasn't sunk in yet," added Button Snr. "But at least I can relax now. All the pressure is off. We can go and enjoy the final race in Abu Dhabi next weekend.

"I have been spending the last few days looking back to those early karting days and all that he has been through.

"And to think it all could have been over last year after Honda pulled out.

"Then people would have written that Jenson was a talent who never quite made it. But now he will be remembered the right way. He is up there with the best of them.

"Seeing Jenson win the title was enough for me. I won't be sad now when God calls and says it is my time."

• BUTTON EXPLAINS McLAREN SWITCH
• VETTEL MAKES HISTORY IN ABU DHABI
• WIN JENSON BUTTON PRIZE
• LATE KICK IN THE BUTT FOR JENSON

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