From Ferraris to organic farming: profile of Jody Scheckter

Many great sportsmen peak by 30, after which it’s all downhill. Not so erstwhile F1 ace Jody Scheckter whose forays into firearms and organic farming have so far netted him £100m.

Many great sportsmen reach a peak by the age of 30 and after that it's all downhill. Not so Jody Scheckter, the South-African-born Formula One ace, whose second and third careers in firearms and organic farming have been pursued with as much gusto as the first, making him £100m along the way.

Anyone who knew Scheckter in his racing glory days would be amazed at the change in him, says The Independent. The "swarthily-sideburned hothead who caused such a massive pile-up in the 1973 British Grand Prix that half the field had to withdraw", is now a mellow "British country gentleman", tending his idyllic 2,500-acre estate at Laverstoke Park in Hampshire. But don't be deceived. Scheckter has thrown himself into organic farming "with the same intensity as he used to grip the steering wheel of his Ferrari". He eats, walks, talks and sleeps farming, describing soil management as his passion. "There are more living things in a handful of good soil than there are people on Earth," is a favourite line. His compost heap alone covers four acres.

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