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Andy Priaulx is an unsung hero of British motor sport. The Guernsey-born driver beat some of the world's greatest racers to the inaugural World Touring Car Championship last year.

Priaulx - that's 'Pree-yo' - may not be well known but he's so popular on his home island they've put him on a set of stamps!

Auto Trader's Keith Collantine caught up with him on the eve of the British round at Brands Hatch two weeks ago. He may have been faster than all his team mates in qualifying, but he had set his standards higher.

"You can never be happy qualifying down in tenth," he told us. "Yes, I'm the fastest of the BMW drivers, but the car was quick enough for the top six."

Priaulx was uniquely disadvantaged that weekend because his car was carrying 70 kilos of ballast - 25 more than everyone else's. The WTCC rules make the most successful drivers carry extra weight to spice up the racing but many people, including Priaulx, don't think the system is fair:

 "You have to say the ballast system is working well for the organisers because different people are winning races," he said. "But I'm disappointed to be handicapped like this at home. I should be fighting for wins but you can't with this much weight on board. 70 kilos is too much."

The British WTCC round switched venues to Brands Hatch this year and Priaulx supports the move:

"I've been to some amazing tracks in the past year - the Nurburgring Nordschleife, Macau and Bathurst. But coming back to Brands you realise how good it is. It has bags of character, not like anything in Formula One."

Talking of F1: Is he aiming for a seat in BMW's new Formula One team?

"Touring cars is the only place for me outside of Formula One. But I'm waiting for the phone to ring on an F1 test, and I will be doing a demo run in the car at the British Grand Prix. We'll just have to wait and see."

 One of his many PR engagements at Brands Hatch was the presentation of Guernsey Post's Andy Priaulx stamps. Andy was obviously delighted with the finished product: "It's fantastic," he said, "for the next three months I'm going to be licked by hundreds of people every day!"

Each of the stamps depicts a different car from his career. In the hillclimb and Renault Spider cars he achieved the unmatched feat of winning both championships with perfect scores.

The other stamps feature his Formula Three single-seater, and his BMWs from the 2004 European championship, 2005 World championship, and the 2005 Nurburgring 24 Hours. So, which car was his favourite?

"It has to be the BMW from 2004 when I won the European Touring Car Championship. That car was amazing - it just did everything I wanted, and it was my first international championship win."

The day after the interview Priaulx had a heartbreaking race. He led the second of two races only to slide off at the first corner. But he isn't out of the championship hunt just yet - as he proved in 2004 when he won it on the last lap of the last race.

Or as Priaulx puts it: "It's not bad for someone from an island with a 35 mph speed limit!"

Fancy a set of Andy Priaulx stamps? You can buy them here