watch the documentary about him first, iirc its called 'offerings to the gods of speed' and was made for n/z tv years and years ago. apparently the guy who made the film was inspired to go into tv program making by seeing this documentary and harboured a lifelong wish to tell the story in a film. if you buy some versions of the dvd, the documentary comes as one of the extras, but watching it shows you where hopkins got a lot of his manerisms and speech patterns from. well worth viewing.