The Halfords Midget Challenge in its 24th season has seen many "firsts". However, it was not until 1999 that one driver scored the most points in all three groups of the series. Richard Wildman, a 34 year old Director of a textiles manufacturing company from Desford, took the Road Going category in 1991, Race Modified in 1996 and was last year's Fully Modified Champion.

Richard's interest in motor sport stems from childhood visits to spectate at nearby Mallory Park. Being locals, the family knew where to find gaps in the hedge, Richard commenting that eventually they became good friends with the gate man who used to chase them when he suspected they had got in for nothing. After passing his driving test, young Wildman soon progressed to an M.G. Midget which was driven on the road with great verve. He was so quick, that a friend suggested that perhaps he ought to go racing. Despite the fact that the remark may have been made in jest, it got Richard thinking and the same friend was somewhat surprised when he saw him dragging home a very rusty Midget shell as a basis for a racer.

With hindsight, our man admits that later in his career he dumped better shells but the plus side was that Richard very quickly learnt to weld. It took him nearly three months of evenings and weekends to replace all the rotten panels and after that actually building the car was relatively easy. The car stood him in at £2,500 which included £900 for a Peter May engine. Richard is quick to point out that without Peter's encouragement and help over the years, he would not have achieved what he has.

The maiden outing was at Mallory on 28 June 1987, Richard told a few friends and before long it seemed that half of Leicester knew about it. The publicity was assisted by the local newspaper who ran a story aptly by-lined "Rusting No More". After practice, one of the throng of supporters produced a "Sports Coil" and assured the driver that this was just what he needed to improve on his lowly grid position. Suffice to say when fitted, said item produced a terrible misfire under load. Result was a race retirement, the loss of one potential team member and Richard's vow never to allow such a coil near his car again. Things could only get better.

Richard describes 1987 and '88 as learning years, he only did the Northern rounds and used them to get to grips with developing the car. At the end of 1988, he was 12th from a very large field of drivers in the Road Going Group. The following year marked his first full season, with Richard racing at circuits such as Brands and Snetterton for the first time. He was third, which he repeated the following year. In 1991, he cracked it, becoming Road Going Champion. His main adversary was David Ecob, the pair enjoying some fine dices throughout the season.

Having taken the crown, Richard took a break from racing. In 1994, Peter May asked if he fancied an outing in Peter's Group B car, which was being campaigned in the Austin Healey series. Richard went to the Healey race at Silverstone on the Saturday and drove the car round the paddock to get the feel of it. After the race, the pair changed the limited slip diff for a standard one, slip diffs are not permitted in Group B Midgets and Richard raced it at Mallory on the Sunday, coming second to Peter Tipper. "I just loved the power the Weber gave, it was really for me". Richard's original racer was sold to a competitor in Holland to finance the purchase of Peter's car which he used for limited outings in 1995. In 1996 Richard learnt he was going to be a dad and not sure how this would affect his racing career, decided to go for it in Group B that year, securing his second championship.

David Ecob, who had also moved to Group B, Marcus Fellowes, Richard Perry and Jon-Paul Ivy, were the men to beat that year. Jon-Paul providing the best dice at Donington, where despite slipstreaming Wildman for most of the race, Ivy did not make a passing move stick. Paul Ivy, Jon-Paul's father, a well known development engineer who did much research work for BMC/ Leyland, is a familiar figure at M.G. meetings and, according to Richard, is brilliant, never happier than when he is helping someone out with a problem - a fact which typifies the Midget racing fraternity. Following the last race of the year at Brands, Richard put a 'For Sale' notice on the car and as a result it found a new owner in Jim Hutchinson, in whose hands the car continues its winning ways.

For 1997 Richard acquired a Gary Wilson built Fully Modified car which Peter May had been campaigning. Initially, he struggled with understeer but changing one of the front tyres transformed the handling, enabling Richard to finish sixth in Group A at the end of his first year. Further improvements in '98 saw Richard record regular top three finishes in the car which was being regularly developed with innovative tweaks from his race engineer David Weston. Though they could still not run to a limited slip diff; which all the other Group A cars were using, Wildman ended up second to Graeme Adams. Weston's mother used to work for Richard and young David, who acquired the nick name "Junior" used to come round to the garage in the evenings to help tidy up and was soon allowed to jack up the car and take off the wheels. He went on to follow a career in engineering and Richard says he is brilliant in his ability to see what needs to be done, then design and make it. The other essential man behind the scenes is Richard's brother Mick, who the driver describes as his "minder" . He makes sure car and pilot are ready on time for race and practice, generally keeping him calm and on the straight and narrow during race days.

In 1999, Richard completed his Hat Trick by becoming Fully Modified Champion. To mark this achievement, Classics Magazine awarded him the Personality of the Year Trophy, presented at the Competition Group's annual dinner by Deputy Editor, Ben Hardcastle. Richard says that his most satisfying Group A outing was the 1998 Steve Everitt Memorial Race, a three way fight for victory between Graeme Adams, Lawrence Cutler and himself, in which he finished second to Adams He admits to being close to tears with the emotion of being up there with what he describes as "The Legends of Midget Racing" at such a prestigious race. Winning the magnificent Everitt Memorial Trophy remains an outstanding ambition. Richard's enthusiasm for the series has rubbed off on David Weston who debuted his own, self-built, Group A car at Silverstone last year and finished the season sixth.

Richard and his partner Karen have six children between them and Midget racing has now become a family thing. Richard's dad often brings his grandchildren to meetings, thus involving all three generations.