JOHNNY Herbert, now 49, remembers visiting the Towngate theatre, Basildon, at the age of seven. “I saw Sooty and Sweep, and loved it,” he says.

Half a lifetime later, Johnny is set to returns to the Towngate, only this time he will be providing the entertainment rather than watching it.

The stage is not the most natural of environments for Johnny. The Le Mans-winning motor racing champion, now a Sky TV presenter, is more used to hurtling round a track at 180mph.

There won’t be a wheel in sight at the theatre, however, just Johnny and his memories.

The visit forms part of a touring schedule around the country, in which Johnny reminisces about his spectacular career, and answers audience questions. He says: “A lot of the appearances are in the North and Midlands, where I still seem to have a big fan base for some reason. But I was brought up near Billericay, so I wanted to include a visit to my old childhood patch.”

In the course of the evening, Johnny will talk about the early days of his career as a young Essex go-karting demon, about the triumph of winning Le Mans, and about the horrific F3000 crash at Brands Hatch in August 1988, which came within a whisker of killing him. There is no script. He says: “All the material is in my head.”

Johnny, who would be well entitled to claim a personal patent on the term “laid-back”, does not make any attempt to talk up his show. “It’s just a nice way to spend an evening, and the chance to say thank you again to my fans,” he says. “Stage fright doesn’t come into it. I’ve always enjoyed talking to groups of people, and I’ve certainly become used to crowds down the years. “It’s a rare chance just to have a long chat about mostly racing.” Anyone expecting sex’n’ violence would be better off with Sooty and Sweep.

Raised in the countryside just north of Billericay, Johnny says: “I dreamed of being a racing driver when I was very little.” He was eight when he started to cut his teeth on Essex karting circuits. Even at that stage, spectators were starting to predict a future world champ. Nigel Mansell, who saw him in action, is said to have asked incredulously: “Just who is the kid driving that thing?”

As an F1 pro racing driver, he won three Grand Prix races as well as the Le Mans 24-hour race. Yet, perhaps, the biggest triumph of his career was his comeback after the 1988 crash, which shattered his feet and ankles. The man who had been called “one of the most amiable drivers in the F1 paddock” showed there was grit and steel beneath the amiability. Johnny sees things differently. He believes his amiable side only really emerged after the crash.

In 1992, he told F1 magazine: “Before the accident, I had got a reputation for being a bit stuck-up. That was because I was super confident. I felt invincible.

“After the accident, the way I dealt with the pain and discomfort was to laugh it off. I was bubbly on the outside because it made me feel better on the inside.”

Johnny retired from racing in 2000. “By then I could see a good future in TV, and I wasn’t quite hungry enough any more for racing. But I haven’t said goodbye to my competitive edge. I’m pretty fierce when I play golf.”

Johnny lived for years in Monaco, famous as a tax haven as well as a motor racing circuit. But he recently returned to live in England, in Stratford-on-Avon.

He says: “My wife, Becky, is a Birmingham girl, and it’s close to home for her.” Ever the family man, he retains enough physical stamina to drive home to Stratford every night after the show, wherever he is in the UK. That is easy, of course, if you own a Ferrari.

Only nowadays Johnny does not drive a 200mph motor. “These days it’s a BMW Series 4,” he says. “A hairdresser’s car.”

An evening with Formula One star Johnny Herbert
Towngate Theatre,
Basildon. Thursday, September 12. 7.30pm, Tickets £21
01268 465465