B rian Cook is one of those competitors who would go racing just to take part as much as to win. Yet this modesty belies his achievement.

Like John Surtees, Mike Hailwood and Damon Hill, Brian progressed the hard way by racing motorcycles first, and then going on to race cars. This is not an easy transition to make, as the former Oxford motorcycle and car champion, Mike Hailwood, stated in his many biographies; the two disciplines are totally different.

Even at club level to win championships on two wheels and then to achieve success again in cars, as Brian did, is a major challenge and one that can only be effectively attained by the very skilled.

The illustrations for this story have been inspired by Brian Cooke's example. They show his success on both two wheels and four: first the 250 Suzuki, then the Ginetta, and beating a Lotus in his MG Midget.

Brian began his racing career in the early 1970s as a track marshal for several racing clubs. In 1977, his friend, John Eales was racing a 250 Suzuki Super Six, a six-gear projectile that was one of the first road-going 250 machines to be tested at over 100 miles an hour.

John's bike had been converted for racing but he had decided to change the Suzuki for a 500 Triumph, so Brian bought the 250 machine from him for £200 and this was to provide him with his first experience of road-racing.

As the Suzuki was, in effect, a converted road machine, it was uncompetitive against the pukka racers he was up against and his efforts to outride the competition ended in a crash on his initial outing. The first of many crashes as it turned out.

However, in the process of learning the hard way, he still managed to beat a few of the riders who were on faster' machines.

In 1980 he was approached by someone at a race meeting who suggested that he enter a race later that day that would give his bike more of a chance. It was organised by by Alan Cathcart's Classic Racing Club. Cathcart was a well-known motorcycle racer, journalist and author of several top class books on racing. I have one of his finest publications, The Ultimate Racers, a treasured gift from Ashley and Samantha Barlow.

The Classic Racing Club series was the break that Brian Cook was waiting for. At the end of four races he won first, two second and third places, enough to give him the 250 Club championship, while John Eales took the 500 title on his Triumph.

Brian later bought a 350 TZ Yamaha with which he made rapid progress, always finishing near the front of the field, but not quite making the podium.

A bad crash going into Clearways - the seemingly never-ending right-hand bend before the start and finish line at Brands Hatch - put him out of the running and off work for six months, with a crushed hand, broken finger and badly broken knee.

In 1982, Brian made a brave attempt at a comeback, but with little success, so he decided to retire while he was still in one piece!

In 1995 after a career break' of 13 years, an older and wiser Brian joined a racing partnership with a friend, Roy Adams, only this time on four wheels. They bought a Ginetta G15 and entered the Sports Car racing series.

After a winter of preparing the car, Roy injured his back quite seriously enough to put him out of racing, Brian took the first race in the driving seat, promising Roy that as soon as he was fit enough, he would have the amount of races owing him later in the season. Brian started the season in March at Silverstone, having spent as little as £1,250 on his half-share of the car, and that included his racing licence, ARDS test, racing overalls, gloves, boots, helmet and even his race entry fee. He ended up doing five races while Roy was still recovering.

After the fifth race at Cadwell Park in May, Brian phoned Roy from the circuit, as was normal after every race, telling him that he'd "scratched the roof". Roy enquired how, and was told "it was when I was upside down - before the car hit the wall at Park Straight!" Needless to say, the car was a total write-off and when Brian returned from the circuit's medical centre after a check up, his fellow drivers had loaded the car and all the bits (including the engine, gearbox and back axle that had been ripped off) onto the trailer.

One of the drivers put £300 in his hand, saying that years ago, when a driver's car got wiped out, the other drivers in the race used to have a whip round, so they had done the same for Brian. This was true racing camaraderie.

Roy never got to race the Ginetta, and decided that he would rather not share the next project with Brian either! He built his own Ginetta and raced that, while Brian bought an MG Midget sprint car and converted it to race the circuits.

The two former racing partners continued to race and maintain their cars together, and remained good friends throughout.

Brian had class wins with the 750 Motor Club, The Jaguar Car Club, The Aston Martin Owners Club, The Bentley Drivers Club and the Benjafield Racing Club. He also had an outright win at the Eights Club Sports Car races and had the fastest time of the day at the MG Moss International Sprint at Silverstone in 1998, against over 100 cars like V8s, and modern MG and other sports cars.

He carried on racing until 2000, when, although he claims he was nagged to stop racing, the reality was that, reaching the age of 50-plus, it might be time to retire from motor sport.

For commissions and information on D E Langford's work, call 01865 434359. (www.britishartists.co.uk).