Issue 4

THE PIT STOP issue 4

q u a r t e r l y

m o t o r s p o r t

m a g a z i n e

IMAGE BY MATT WIDDOWSON

CONTENTS

8 20 34 46 58 IN SHORT

KALLE ROVANPERÄ: TALENT BEYOND HIS YEARS How Kalle Rovanperä is breathing down Colin McRae’s championship record

FESTIVAL OF SPEED A look at this year’s running of the Goodwood Festival of Speed

RACING HISTORY Alex Brundle is spending a year racing historic cars

KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER A detailed look at McLaren’s Customer Racing Programme

THE ART OF PHOTOGRAPHY A look at the motorsport photography of Amy Shore

THE END OF A CHAPTER, BUT START OF A LEGACY

REVIVING A LEGEND Reviewing in detail the history of Formula 1 team, BRM

COLLECTING MOTORSPORT MEMORIES The racing car collection belonging to McLaren CEO Zak Brown

THE EVA The Group B Lada EVA that was the Soviet Union’s bit of colour in an otherwise grey period of time

FROM RACE DRIVER TO SIM RACER Mike Epps’ journey from BTCC driver to sim racing superstar

THE BUGATTI SPECIALISTS The Bugatti restorations undertaken by Tula Precision

THE GREEN MACHINE

72 96 110 124 136 ESCAPADE AT SILVERSTONE

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END OF THE YEAR

W

elcome to the fourth and final issue of The Pit Stop for 2021. It’s quite incredible that our first year is already coming to an end. When we started working on this magazine, we had no idea it would take off in the way it has.

I know I’ve said this before, but we really do appreciate everyone who has gone out and purchased a copy and who have taken the time to provide us with feedback. It means so much to us that you care enough to write in to say how much you are enjoying each issue, or give your thoughts on articles for future editions and what you’d like to see going forwards. It helps us strive to perfect the magazine, make it as good as it can be and it allows us to ensure you are getting content that you all want to see. It’s created for you after all!

For many of you, your first subscription is now at an end, and details will be provided on how you can renew that for another year. We don’t have any automatic renewals and so you will be contacted to invite you to stay with us again for another four issues. We are also mindful that so many outlets always forget about their current customers.

Deals are always struck to bring in new customers, and that’s understandable, but we notice that all too often, loyal customers are left behind feeling almost unwanted.

We vow not to operate in the same vein. We want each and everyone of you to feel valued, because you are!

As such, at your renewal stage, you will also receive further information about what you will receive as one of our loyal customers. It’s our way of saying thank you for continuing to support us and helping us push on to bigger and greater things.

And now for this issue. It is definitely one of our favourite issues so far. The magic of BRM and the amount of material they have so kindly given us to showcase to you has been simply brilliant. How often do you get to see copies of sponsorship deals struck in F1?

We also have a piece on Zak Brown’s racing car collection. Zak was very kind in taking some time out to discuss his great collection, one of the greatest private collections of race cars in the world and while there are some usual suspects in there, there’s also a few curve balls that Zak has obtained, often for very sentimental reasons.

It was great to see Goodwood get back to some normality this year and we were lucky enough to attend both the Festival of Speed and Revival. Both events feature in different guises within this issue and they really are cornerstones of the motorsport calendar. There is nowhere else in the world where you can get so many cars, bikes, riders and drivers from all different eras in one place at the same time and while COVID still had a slight impact, both events were just as good as they have always been.

I hope you enjoy the final issue of 2021 and that you are willing to reinvest some more time and money into another year of The Pit Stop and in the meantime, enjoy all the racing on offer before it ends for another season.

Rob Hansford Editor

EDITORIAL Editor Rob Hansford Photography Editor Brian Smith Contributors Adam Proud, Ash Miller, Luke Barry, Ian Page, George East Photography Contributors PHD Photo, Ian Cunningham Art, DLV Photo, Mark Fell, Rob Overy, Ed Waplington, Matt Widdowson, GF Williams, Amy Shore, Cristiano Ribeiro THANKS TO Ian Cunningham Art, Martyn Pass, United Autosports, Zak Brown, Roger Ormisher, Matt Kent, Rob Overy, Tilly Redshaw, Paul Davidson, Ant Harrold, BRM COMMERCIAL ENQUIRIES Enquiries commercialenquiries@thepitstopmagazine.com 6 THE PIT STOP

IMAGE BY CRISTIANO RIBEIRO

KALLE ROVANPERÄ: TALENT BEYOND HIS YEARS

WORDS BY LUKE BARRY IMAGES BY TOYOTA GAZOO RACING

C

olin McRae is one of the most famous rally drivers ever to have walked the earth, and still stands as the youngest ever World Rally Champion at 27 years and 109 days old. In sporting terms though, how young really is 27?

Footballers are said to hit their peak in their mid 20s, while in Formula 1 the youngest ever world champion is some four years younger than in rallying.

Rallying, particularly in the World Rally Championship, requires years of practice and racked-up knowledge of the events and the varying terrains to be able to fight for a championship.

Or, so we thought. Kalle Rovanperä is threatening to change all that. Kalle Rovanperä, arguably, has already changed all that. Kalle Rovanperä is the WRC’s next big superstar.

In the last issue of The Pit Stop, we spoke to Oliver Solberg who has since been confirmed as a top-line

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Hyundai Motorsport driver for half of the 2022 WRC season, sharing his seat with the uber-experienced Dani Sordo. It’s a major opportunity for a rapidly ascending star.

But Rovanperä is already a step ahead. The 2022 season - an important one in the WRC as hybrid technology is incorporated - will be his third at the wheel of a top-spec factory car, and on all the evidence we’ve seen it really is a question of if, not when, Rovanperä breaks McRae’s record as the youngest ever world champion.

The 21-year-old bucks the long-established thesis that rally drivers need to mature in order to win. He was on the podium at 19 years old, on just his second ever event at the sport’s top level. He’s since become the youngest driver to lead an event and youngest to win an event too, scooping victories in Estonia and on the famous Acropolis Rally in Greece this year.

Of course, Rovanperä isn’t green to rallying. He was driving cars when most were indoors doing their maths

BUT IT REALLY IS A SCARY PROSPECT THAT ROVANPERÄ IS ABLE TO BE THIS GOOD AT SUCH AN IMMATURE AGE homework, sliding a Toyota Starlet around on a frozen lake at the tender age of eight. He then spent two years in the WRC’s chief feeder series, WRC2, further developing his craft and learning the rallies.

But it really is a scary prospect that Rovanperä is able to be this good at such an immature age. Drivers like Sebastien Loeb have proved it’s still possible to compete in the WRC at over 40, so theoretically Rovanperä could have a near 20-year career ahead of him.

Let’s not get carried away though and instead we’ll focus on the here and now. How has Rovanperä been able to get up to such a level so quickly and become rallying’s torchbearer for a new generation of drivers?

Obviously, he has natural talent. The son of Harri Rovanperä - a former professional rally driver in his own right with one WRC victory to his name - Kalle has been brought up around rallying. When he was born, his dad was just about to become a Peugeot factory driver before further stints at Mitsubishi and Red Bull Skoda.

It was inevitable therefore that Rovanperä would take an interest in rallying, but the same was true of McRae whose father Jimmy was a five-time British

champion and occasional WRC driver. So that early desire to compete hasn’t changed across the generations.

What has changed is the sport in which these two young boys longed to compete in. McRae grew up in the 1970s and began competing in the ‘80s. Rovanperä was born this side of the millennium and started competing in the 2010s. The world has moved on since then, and therefore so has rallying.

McRae’s rise up the ranks was less aggressive than Rovanperä’s. He spent longer in national-level rallying and spent longer adjusting to life at the sharp end of the world championship once he reached it. The only way for him to garner knowledge of the rallies was to do them, and if he made a mistake or his car let him down (which was far more common in his era) then he wasn’t able to restart.

Rovanperä doesn’t have these problems. If he retires - as he did on his most recent outing at home in Finland - he can restart the following day (which he did) and keep learning the stages even if any hopes of a strong overall result are gone. And he can learn the stages from home too, as the advent of resources like WRC+

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allows drivers to watch thousands of onboards of all the stages on the calendar from years gone by.

Rallying is now approached with a more circuit-like mentality than it ever has been in the past. Perhaps the endurance - and some of the magic - has been lost as a result, but these are the times we live in. It’s therefore no major shock that Rovanperä should be mirroring the hottest F1 talents right now in reaching stardom before he’s even emerged from his teenage years.

Rovanperä finds himself at the forefront of a new generation, leading the way for what’s likely to become

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a future pattern. But that’s absolutely not to discredit him and suggest that external circumstances outside of his control are the reason he’s heading into the 2022 season as one of the title favourites.

Toyota’s starlet is operating at a level that he really shouldn’t be; a level where pundits often forget he’s still just fresh into a World Rally Car. The recent Rally Finland is a case-in-point. Off the back of dominant wins in Estonia and the Acropolis, topped up by an unexpected podium in Ypres, Finland was touted as Rovanperä’s to lose given his form and the fact he was

competing on home turf.

Everybody just expected him to be able to show the rest home, even though the vast majority of the rest of the field had years of experience on the Finnish roads in WRC cars and Rovanperä didn’t. His talent has proved so great and his adaptation to his surroundings so impressive that it was hard to see this experience deficit counting against Rovanperä. Ultimately, it did, but realistically that’s not Rovanperä’s fault. He was set up for a fall by the hype.

But with that frenzy comes opportunity, not just

threat. As Sebastien Ogier is significantly scaling back his WRC commitments next year, destined for a move into the World Endurance Championship with Toyota, the WRC needs a new talisman. Just like when Sebastien Loeb stepped aside at the end of the 2012 season, the stage is set for a new driver to become the main event.

Could it be Ott Tanak? After all, he is the only driver other than Loeb or Ogier to have won the WRC since 2003. Might it be Thierry Neuville? He’s been the WRC’s nearly-man for years, finishing second to Ogier no fewer

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than four times and Tanak once in 2019.

If Hyundai’s i20 proves to be the class of the Rally1 field, why not? Likewise, even M-Sport’s newest recruit Craig Breen has a shot. He may not have won a rally yet but his form of late has suggested it really is a case of when, not if, he corrects that. Elfyn Evans is a shoo-in too given he’s the only driver to have truly kept tabs with Ogier over a full season of late.

But check the odds ahead of Monte Carlo in January, and it could well be that a certain Mr Rovanperä is looking favourable. Tanak, Neuville and Evans all look to either be at - or very close to - their peak, but Rovanperä’s trajectory is far less complete.

He has sublime raw pace that arguably only Tanak can match yet far more to learn. The fact he’s operating at a close level to Tanak now suggests the potential is there for Rovanperä to usurp him.

And when the slate is wiped clean - as it was on the Acropolis as nobody had driven that rally for eight years - Rovanperä has already shown himself to be a cut above. Rally1 is the cleanest of clean slates, as the cars are brand-new for everyone. Marry that to two years’ experience of knowing how to handle yourself as a top-brass factory rally driver, and Rovanperä looks a really menacing prospect.

There are naturally areas of his game that could do with some fine-tuning; perhaps consistency is on top of that list. But, as Rovanperä’s rallying odometer continues to rise, that’ll likely take care of itself. The

other are his pre-event tests, as a few too many times this season the Finn has bemoaned the direction he took with his set-up in testing which has had an adverse effect on his rally.

He might not be a McRae in terms of his ‘no bullshit’ character - Rovanperä is more from the Kimi Raikkonen mould of not showing too much emotion and saying as little as possible. But you don’t need us to tell you how big a fanbase Raikkonen has accrued.

It’s his popularity within his own team that will matter to Rovanperä most though, and on this score he is excelling. The pressure will mount in 2022 as with Ogier’s departure from permanent driving, Rovanperä’s position within the team has become more important as he’ll be expected to be there week in, week out to grab manufacturer points. But he’s doing that already anyway.

To steal an overused cliché, the sky really is the limit for Kalle Rovanperä. Regardless of the differing circumstances of today’s world compared to McRae’s era that have allowed Rovanperä to develop and reach the WRC so young, no driver can make it to the top of motorsport without talent and determination to make it.

The fact Rovanperä’s managed it so early in his life gives him an enviable shot at rewriting rallying’s history books. The youngest WRC champion is 27 years old.

There’s little doubt the tense of that sentence will be shifting to ‘was’ very soon indeed.

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IMAGE BY PHD PHOTO

NO RESTA FOR THE WICKED DESPITE PREDOMINANTLY FEATURING ON SKY SPORTS FOR THE F1 COVERAGE, PAUL DI RESTA IS STILL RACING ON THE ODD OCCASION. THIS YEAR, HE TOOK PART IN THE LE MANS 24 HOURS WITH UNITED AUTOSPORTS, FINISHING FOURTH IN CLASS.

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FESTIVAL

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OF SPEED

WORDS BY ROB HANSFORD IMAGES BY PHD PHOTO

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egardless of what championship or category of racing you love, there’s one common theme that each and every fan adores: the noise and the atmosphere. It doesn’t matter if you love Formula 1, WRC or MotoGP, the feeling is mutual. Nothing beats the loud roar of a V8, the gravelly moan of a 1,000 cc straight four or the high-pitched scream of a V12.

There are very few championships that have a variety of engines competing against each other on the same grid and it’s also very rare to get a number of high end championships competing at the same event on the same day. It’s even rarer that historical bikes

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and cars also get in on the action. But once a year, over a period of four days, deep in the West Sussex countryside, that’s exactly what happens.

The Goodwood Festival Speed is the only event in existence in which cars, bikes, drivers and riders from all corners of the industry, from both the past and present come together, tackling an infamous 1.16 mile hillclimb that the Goodwood Estate has to offer.

It’s an event that has become a staple of the motorsport community during its 28 year tenure, and not only is it a fan favourite, but also one that is adored by teams and competitors alike.

Arriving early on Saturday morning before my usual 6:30am alarm clock has gone off, I’m stood in the car

park watching hundreds of people meander their way to the entrance gates at the lower end of the hill. You can see the excitement, the anticipation of what and who they may see, and the lack of patience to get inside and begin the day properly.

On the other side of the gate, the staff are getting ready for what will be one of the busiest days of their year while in the paddock, teams are slowly beginning to unwrap their tents, putting their finest race cars and bikes on show, before slowly firing them up, drowning out the early morning birdsong, to ensure they are ready for the day’s proceedings.

The day begins early at Goodwood and it’s not long before crowds start to fill up the paddock areas soaking

in the array of exotic cars and bikes on offer and there’s a lot to take in. Cars and bikes from every era and the majority of championships almost overload your brain with nostalgia and awe, and unlike most other events, it is possible to get up close and personal with the machines, providing an insight and appreciation that no other event other than Goodwood’s sister event, the Revival, can really offer.

And it’s not only being able to helplessly gawp at the machines which makes the event so special. Riders and drivers also make themselves available, interacting with fans in a way that they would rarely do anywhere else and they love the event just as much, although for very different reasons.

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For them, it’s being able to experience cars and bikes that they have dreamed about piloting, but never being able to. Goodwood offers them that chance to get behind the wheel and experience for a short moment what it’s like to control these beautiful machines.

The 2021 running of FOS inherently felt different to previous years due to the fact it was returning after a one year hiatus as a result of COVID-19. The pandemic caused many events to be cancelled worldwide, and so upon the return, there was a real sense of relief that it could take place, something that ex-Formula 1 driver,

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Karun Chandhok echoed.

“I thought Thursday was gonna be a nice, quiet day where I just went straight in and out [of the grounds] without the traffic but it’s extraordinary to see so many people here,” commented Chandhok on the opening day. “I think people have missed going to live events and seeing race cars and engaging with the motorsport community in the last 18 months. It’s just fantastic to see people back at a race event again.”

For Chandhok, Goodwood gives him the opportunity to turn the wheel of iconic racing cars, whilst also being

able to catch up with old friends and other members of the industry that he otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity to do.

Speaking about what makes Goodwood so special for him, Chandhok said: “I think there’s two things really. One is getting a chance to drive cars and experience cars from different eras and learn about what those eras were like a little bit, but also the people.

“Coming here allows me the chance to have a cup of tea and chat with Mario Andretti or Roger Penske

or, you know, just truly great people of the sport and people that I wouldn’t otherwise get to meet. You know, Casey Stoner, for example. We don’t necessarily cross paths with the bikes and cars.

“It’s just nice to get to know these people and chat with them about their lives and their experiences. And they obviously all are interested in the modern world of F1 which, you know, I’m able to share some stories with them. So I think there’s two things: one is obviously the chance to experience cars but I think more importantly people.”

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“MARIO IS ONE OF MY ABSOLUTELY INSPIRATIONAL, INSPIRATIONAL DRIVERS” - TOM KRISTENSEN Like Chandhok, Tom Kristensen has become a FOS regular over the years, and he concurs that both the machinery and the people is what makes FOS such a special event. In 2021 he was able to drive the Viceroy Lola T332 that his idol Mario Andretti raced, and Andretti was not only present at the event, but was also heading up the hill at the same time, driving his world championship winning Lotus 79. And being able to share an experience like that with his idol makes it even more memorable.

Sat next to Andretti in the holding pen, Kristensen said: “Now I will be out in this Viceroy Lola T332 and standing next to Mario who he told me about how he fought for the championship and lost to Brian Redmond that year, 1974 in the States, talking a bit about reliability but a lot of grumpy grunt from the engine and a lot of noise. You will hear it now as we’re jumping into the cars, and Mario will drive his championship winning Lotus 79 which he obviously won the world championship with in ‘78. So, just here, a few questions and a lot of history.

“Mario is one of my absolutely inspirational, inspirational drivers, a hero. He looks a bit like my dad I think. But the versatility and proven winning [capability] in so many different categories, that’s,

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that’s really amazing and Mario in that sense is a fantastic guy as well. When you bring all that together, you get goosebumps.”

But Goodwood isn’t just about showcasing the best drivers, riders, cars and bikes. There is also a competitive element to it throughout the weekend in the form of the shoot-out. A time trial pitting various cars against each other to see who will be crowned King of the Hill. In essence, many take it as a bit of fun, something to liven up the weekend a little, but racing drivers being racing drivers, they still take it seriously, attempting to maximise every ounce of performance from their cars.

35 cars took part in the Timed Shootout in 2021 with Rob Bell taking victory in the McLaren 720S GT3X with a time of 45.01s, but it wasn’t just outright performance cars attempting to fight for the win. Travis Pastrana made his Goodwood debut competing with his Subaru WRX STi that has been developed with the Mt Washington hillclimb in mind, and two-time King of the Hill winner, Anthony Reid took part, driving Carlos Sainz’s WRC Ford Escort. And although Reid knew it would be difficult to claim the outright victory, he was still looking to be as competitive as possible and was impressed with the Escort after his first outing on the

Thursday.

“The car is well balanced, it gives you a lot of confidence which is exactly what you need on the hill here.” Reid told The Pit Stop. “Being four wheel drive, you get a fantastic launch off the start which if you can find a second there just on the launch, you’ve got that in your back pocket going up the hill.

“So I am just familiarising myself with the car.

You can see, there’s lots of adjustables. All of these switches and dials, you can adjust the balance of the car by varying the pressure and the three differentials.

There’s a mid differential and a front and rear one. It’s got a sequential gearbox and bags of torque. And a bit of downforce too. So yeah, first impressions are tremendous.

“It hasn’t got the right power to weight ratio to challenge the Group C Jaguars or any electric stuff, but you can still have a lot of fun.

“But yeah, to have a chance of winning, you need something in the order of 1000 horsepower per metric tonne.”

However, although having a competitive spirit is all well and good, it’s not without risk with the potential for iconic, one of a kind cars to be crashed and heavily damaged from a single mistake on the hill, which is something that’s not lost on Reid.

“We push hard. I obviously didn’t in the first run, it’s my first time in this car, but hopefully by Sunday we will be pushing the limits,” he said. Obviously I’ve got to be respectful to the history of this car, I don’t want to wrap it around the flint wall.”

Plenty of people have gone on to crash on the FOS hill and plenty more will do so in the future. It’s always the risk of putting drivers in machinery they haven’t experienced before on a unique hillclimb. But for all the risk involved in damaging these beautiful machines, the reward for everyone is far greater.

It is not often you can congregate not only the world’s greatest cars and bikes, but also the world’s best drivers and riders. It truly is an event like nothing else, giving fans accessibility to the greatest racing machines in a way that is simply not possible at a traditional race track. There is no other place where you can see Mario Andretti drive his F1 championship winning Lotus 79, Alex Albon drive a 2018 Red Bull F1 car, Roger Penske drive his Penske Porsche RS Spyder LMP2 car and Steve Parrish ride a Suzuki RGV500 all in the space of an hour. And that’s why FOS is so special for everyone. It’s unique, and encompasses everything we love about all things motorsport. All in one place for four days a year. What’s not to love?

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IMAGE BY ED WAPLINGTON

MASTERS HISTORIC RACING THE MASTERS HISTORIC RACING CHAMPIONSHIP IS NOT ONLY A GREAT CATEGORY IN ITS OWN RIGHT, BUT GIVES FANS A CHANCE TO SEE AN ARRAY OF FORMULA 1 CARS TAKE TO THE TRACK ONCE AGAIN. HERE, THE WILLIAMS FW08 AND THE MCLAREN MP4/1 DO BATTLE ON THE START/ FINISH STRAIGHT AT BRANDS HATCH.

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RACING HISTORY BRINGING HISTORIC CARS BACK TO LIFE

WORDS BY ROB HANSFORD IMAGES BY PHD PHOTO / ROB OVERY

F

or a long time, historic racing was seen as a place for gentleman drivers to come together and unleash their pride and joy around a race track. Nothing too serious, just get the car to the track, catch up with like-minded people and have a day of light hearted racing, ensuring the treasured car returns home in one piece with limited damage.

But in recent years, the tide on historic racing has begun to turn. Interest has been growing and so too have the events and grids. Teams have evolved too. Of course, amateur owner/drivers still compete, and rightly so, but professional teams are now attending, taking the championship to a new level and along with it a variety of professional drivers.

One such driver who has begun to dip his toes in the historic waters is Alex Brundle. Brundle is an experienced sports car specialist, having twice finished runner-up in the LMP2 class at Le Mans and he is currently racing for Polish-based outfit, Inter Europol Competition. He’s a driver at the top of his game, racing on an international level and so to some it may seem odd that he is also dabbling with historics when not racing at the likes of Le Sarthe and Spa. As it turns out, historic racing was not on Brundle’s radar either, but after an exciting day driving a Jaguar XJR12 at Silverstone, the door was opened and Brundle

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stepped through.

Speaking to The Pit Stop about how his involvement with historic racing came about, Brundle said: “I drove Dad’s F3 Rault a long while back but the real start of it came with a motorsport magazine feature I did for a journalist called James Mills. Basically it involved jumping in a Jaguar XJR12, which was pretty much one of the best days of my life actually, around the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit on a BRDC track day, over lunch because they wouldn’t put us out with everyone else for obvious reasons.

“And the gentleman that owned that car was a guy called Gary Pearson who - I didn’t know at the time, but I do now of course - is one of the absolute authorities on the restoration of racing and classic Jaguars. Particularly E Types, D Types and some of the C Types, but more kind of the late ‘50s early ‘60s stuff and we kind of got chatting and took it from there.”

Having got to know each other from the chats, Pearson asked Brundle if he would continue to race for him, and with Brundle’s sponsor Adrian Flux keen to have an involvement in the project a deal was done for Brundle to continue with Pearson’s outfit for 2021.

With Pearson being a Jaguar specialist, it’s no surprise that Brundle has been spending the year driving Jaguars, including the E-Type, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary, but it’s not entirely

Rob Overy

“THEY ARE BIG, GRUNTY, GROWLY OLD THINGS AND YOU REALLY HAVE TO LOOK AFTER THEM.” - ALEX BRUNDLE restricted to that one car.

“It’s based mainly around the Jaguar E-Type but I am trying all sorts of classic cars throughout the year and really trying to capture that story of a young driver jumping in a series of classics through a year of motorsport and trying to get my head around it,” explained Brundle.

Having spent almost his entire career racing state-of-the-art prototype cars, there’s no denying that a change of approach is required when it comes to driving these rugged but pure machines.

World Endurance championship cars are run with such precision that everything on the car has to be absolutely perfect before leaving the pitlane, enabling a driver to extract every ounce of performance from the car. But there is no way you will ever achieve that with an old 1960s Jag - it would have barely been perfect when it left the factory!

“They are big, grunty, growly old things and you really have to look after them. It’s a real process of learning and gathering information,”said Brundle.

“They’re absolutely different from anything else.

They’re nothing like anything else I’ve been in.

“When I first went out in the car I came back in

assuming it had some sort of reliability issue or some sort of problem just because the big floppy historic tyres feel so disconnected from the road that you actually, it’s very easy to feel like you’ve got punctures on all four corners. Then when you get used to it, actually the car is very nicely balanced.

“You’ve got that kind of front-engined, British sportscar feel to it and they are so dominated by the drivetrain and the power system that you really have to drive the car on throttle which is a pleasure, which we barely ever do these days in the modern stuff. It’s all done with big rolling phases, keeping platforms nice and flat and so on and so forth, and the historic stuff is much more driven from the throttle pedal.”

In order to extract as much performance as possible from the Jags, Brundle has had to come in with an open mind and a completely different approach. Modern sports cars are seen as technical machines to drive, and they are, but it doesn’t mean cars of old are any less technical. The difference is that the technique they demand is totally opposite to what drivers are taught today and so Brundle has been on a steep learning curve trying to adapt his driving style.

“The driving style for the front-engined GT cars is

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just diametrically opposed to anything in a modern car.

It’s almost that everything you are allowed to do or supposed to do in those cars is everything you’re not supposed to do in a modern car.

“You know, hold the brakes on right to the apex, pitch the steering wheel in, make the car rotate over the front and then get on the throttle well before the apex, slide the rear out. They are all the things that a modern car hates because they hate pitch, they hate to be driven on the throttle, it pushes the front all over the place and they hate to be flipped across the road because you’ll grain your tyres and they’ll be destroyed in three corners flat.

“It was a real learning curve actually. I was always fast in the car but it’s just a case of learning how to be fast and also look after tyres, look after brakes, make sure that the gearbox is being looked after as well and you are on top of all the different foibles of the machine. That’s truly a learning curve.”

And not only are the historic cars completely different to drive compared to the modern equivalents, but so too is the technology that drivers take for granted every weekend. There are no team radios, there’s no dashboard providing an abundance of data, letting the driver know if they are on course for a personal best lap time. The old trusty pitboard comes back into its own and becomes a tool that drivers have

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to utilise to remain on the pace. Instinct also comes into play. With radio communication unavailable drivers have to trust their gut and feel their way around the track in order to get the fastest lap attainable.

“You’re absolutely reliant on whether what you do feels faster or not and you really have to build an idea of whether you are going faster or not based on just the pure stopwatch, the pitboard. You are thinking,” Brundle explains.

“You are always one lap behind because the information you get on the pitwall is one lap out. So you kind of have to remember what you did. There’s no radio of course and so yeah, you’re purely reliant on that front, so you have to have that instinct for speed definitely.”

Driving old racing cars in your spare time could easily be seen as a bit of fun and in some respects, for Brundle, it is. It’s not something that is paying the bills or has his whole career banking on him winning races in the category, but that doesn’t mean it’s not being taken seriously or isn’t of any use. In fact, Brundle believes that competing in historic racing has helped him understand in more detail how the cars work and how to be aware of what is going on underneath him and that’s something he’s been able to take with him back to the World Endurance championship. It’s also forced him to think outside the box on occasion.

Speaking about that aspect, Brundle said: “Those historic cars, you really have to think out of the box.

You’re so limited on the parts you can use and the resource that you have sometimes that actually you have to take a little bit of a slant of what you might change to improve.

“To give you an example, the brake discs of an E-Type at the rear are right next to the diff which gets very hot. So actually, to cool the rear brakes down you need to cool the diff down, and so on and so forth.

“So actually understanding literally the layout, the feng shui of the car and how things are on the car and how that might affect the performance of the various controls you have, it’s something you can take through to all forms of motorsport. I don’t want to be down on teenagers, but rather than just coming in like a teenage Formula 3 driver would and going, ‘the brakes don’t work’ to your engineer, dumping your helmet on the toolbox, leaving, now actually, thinking ‘well what can I do?’ The rear brakes: the brake discs and pads are like postage stamps and CD discs. Right ok, I’m going to have to do some lift and coast here. Maybe I can avoid using the brakes here and there and roll a bit more. Maybe a downshift might help me get down to the speed I need. What about in traffic where I don’t necessarily have to brake as late? Can I lift and coast a little bit? Save a bit of that braking effort. Save a bit of those brake pads and discs later on in the stint.

“All of those things are part of historic racing.

Understanding that when you start the race you’re gonna have 100kg of fuel in the car so you can’t quite brake as hard, it’s going to put more load through the system and all those intricacies you can carry through to every single type of car you race.

“With the modern cars you get so used to the fact that the car will just not break, will not stop because they don’t. But then when you move into the longer races, there’s still that element of reliability and understanding that the things you do in the car as the driver directly affects the performance later on and you can drive every lap flat out , but only within certain parameters. Only if you really understand which kerbs will damage the car and why or which braking zones you need to give a little bit in and why.

“Le Mans is a total sprint race, but at the same time, you have to understand the limitations of the car and massage what is a 100% push around those small limitations that remain in modern motorsport.”

Despite the totally different approach to racing, Brundle has adapted well and has produced some strong results. At this year’s Silverstone Classic he took part in a number of races, finishing eighth in the 60th Anniversary E-Type challenge alongside his father and former F1 driver Martin, before going on to win the Yokohama Trophy for Masters Historic Sports Cars alongside Pearson in a Lola T70 Mk3B. He also ended

Rob Overy

BRUNDLE ALSO RACED A LOLA AT THIS YEAR’S SILVERSTONE CLASSIC

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Rob Overy

up finishing fourth in the MRL Royal Automobile Club Woodcote & Stirling Moss Trophies race whilst driving a Lister Jaguar Costin.

It’s clear that in the main, historic racing is the polar opposite to current modern championships. Not only are the 1950s and ’60s Jaguars nothing like a modern day LMP car to look at, but they are also inherently different to drive. But for all that, there is one similarity: the competition.

Just like the World Endurance championship, there’s a complete range of competitors on the starting grid at a historic race. There’s professional drivers like Brundle and also ‘gentleman drivers’, amateur racers who want to see how they stack up against the rest.

Ok, so it’s rare you get team owners racing in Le Mans and at the 24 Hours of Spa these days, but there’s an array of Pro-Am partnerships in the GT classes and with it a broad spectrum in the abilities of different drivers up and down the grid. It’s what makes sports car racing so exciting and enjoyable to watch.

And while there’s arguably more amateur drivers than professional ones in the historic community, Brundle believes plenty of them are incredibly talented and that many of them would give a lot of professionals a run for their money.

“I think there are some extremely underrated drivers who have made their way through,” said Brundle.

“It’s kind of like what sports car racing used to be,

like a little bit where actually if you turn up and just do a good job in the car then you can actually be in line to drive another car and a further car and a further car after that, and actually that really doesn’t exist sadly anymore in especially modern LMP racing.

“There are so many young drivers prepared to put money into those cars, to run them in order to have an opportunity to drive, to impress a manufacturer should we say, or someone like that. So actually in historic racing you can do that. It’s always a breeding ground for these kind of rough diamond talents that find their way through and certainly there are a healthy number of amateur drivers, many of whom are exceptionally talented in their own right, in their own spheres and certainly in their own cars. But there’s also a smattering of really quite experienced and fast specific historic professionals. Guys like Nick Padmore, Callum Lockey.

You know, those guys who are actually going to give you a race all day long every weekend.”

Brundle is clearly enjoying racing these old classics, learning not only what it was like to drive the cars in period, but also picking up new skills that can aid him in his day job driving an LMP2 car. And the fact that the category has been able to draw in a driver of Brundle’s calibre, and maintain his interest and engagement, shows that historic racing really does have plenty to offer.

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IMAGE BY CRISTIANO RIBEIRO

RALLY PORTUGAL IT’S NOT ALL ABOUT THE WRC ENTRANTS ON THE WORLD’S GREATEST RALLIES. THERE’S ALSO A NUMBER OF LOCAL PRIVATEER ENTRIES. AT THIS YEAR’S RALLY PORTUGAL MIGUEL CORREIA TOOK PART IN HIS SKODA FABIA R5 EVO, COMPETING IN THE RALLY 2 CLASS, BUT HE UNFORTUNATELY CRASHED OUT ON THE SECOND STAGE. 44 THE PIT STOP

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know your

customer

IN A TIME WHERE BUDGETS ARE LIMITED, MCLAREN HAS EMBARKED ON AN EXTENSIVE CUSTOMER RACING PROGRAMME WORDS BY ROB HANSFORD IMAGES BY MCLAREN AUTOMOTIVE

G

oing racing is incredibly expensive and while in years gone by manufacturers could afford to spend insane amounts of their marketing budget putting race cars on a variety of grids around the world, fulfilling the dreams of multiple drivers whilst also achieving brand exposure on a global scale, that strategy is no longer viable.

Road car manufacturers simply don’t have the budgets they once had, so in order to get their high performance supercars into racing situations and maintain that same level of awareness, they need to do something different. And for McLaren it’s been about promoting their customer racing programme.

In essence, the primary structure of the programme is straightforward. They allow McLaren customers to purchase cars with the sole purpose of racing. McLaren builds the car to GT specifications and at the same time can provide professional drivers and facilities to assist the customer in their racing development.

Unlike the Formula 1 team, the customer racing arm of McLaren sits under the automotive brand, providing road car customers with an outlet to obtain racing experience, whilst also allowing McLaren to demonstrate what their road cars are capable of.

McLaren are different to many road car manufacturers in that they were a racing team before becoming a manufacturer and so it’s important for them to show

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that every car produced still possesses that inherent racing DNA. “We’re a race company that was born on the racetrack, and it’s very important that we’re racing the cars that we sell for road cars,” explained McLaren’s Director of Motorsport, Ian Morgan. “The programme started with a 570GT, which we have updated through the years, and now it’s well into its life and still running strong. We have approximately 180 cars around the world now, which is testament to its success I think. It gives a real entry level ability before the customers go into an experience of a full blown race car.”

It’s a product that has proven to be a successful model for the Woking-based manufacturer and the success on track has directly triggered products within McLaren’s road car range, as well as having a direct impact on the technological development of the road cars, as Morgan explained.

“It’s very important as a brand for McLaren Automotive, for us to have products that are racing, and specifically derived from our road car products. It pushes the technologies, the road car parts that we use. Most of the engine components are directly from the road car parts, so it pushes them in a very hard way that we’re able to then use any learning back into the road car as well.”

McLaren has always produced cars that are capable of incredible things on the track and they want their customers to have that full experience. Therefore,

it’s not all about winning races for the customer programme. Of course, some customers want to go the whole hog and race at Le Mans, but others are as equally content taking part in a track day, experiencing what their car can do without all of the pressure that comes with racing, and that’s something that McLaren has had to cater for.

“It’s about the whole journey, I guess, to be able to get something going all the way through from guys tracking their road cars into the next stage of being able to use a GT4 car,” said Morgan. “And a lot of those guys are now moving on right through to the full GT3 experience and hopefully in the future, at some point, to Le Mans. So that’s what this is about. It’s about giving customers the ability to go on the whole journey.”

That journey and experience is what keeps the customers coming back for more and McLaren has worked hard to ensure it really does cater for everything. So much so that they have created their own championship for their customers, the Pure GT series.

The McLaren Pure GT series is an FIA sanctioned one-make championship that allows amateur racers to get a real feel for what it is like to race on some of the world’s greatest circuits and experience what it is like to race professionally. For a lot of these drivers, it’s their first experience of racing and so the series is catered specifically with that in mind.

There are two events held during the year, one at Portimão in Portugal and the other at the Circuit of The Americas in Texas. Both events are held over four days, with four hours of testing taking place on the Thursday,

four practice sessions, two qualifying sessions and two races on the Friday and Saturday and a 45 minute endurance race on the Sunday in which the amateur driver has the option of sharing the car with their professional coach.

Each event is intense, but provides drivers with a lot of time to understand the demands of GT racing and get experience of battling with other cars on track, whilst also developing their own talents. It’s a series that has proven to be successful for McLaren in turning amateur racing customers into successful drivers, with notable alumni including Brendan Iribe and Nick Moss, both of whom have gone on to race at an international level.

“I think that’s the key really, that we can offer a kind of family feel, something that’s fully McLaren,” explained Morgan when talking about the success of the Pure GT series. “People can do it anonymously, they can come and make friends and feel part of the family if they wish and be coached by world class driving coaches to whatever level they want to achieve.”

And that’s another aspect of the customer programme: managing expectations. McLaren also has to gauge the customer. These customers are ordinarily highly successful business people and so they demand a lot from everyone in all aspects of their life, and racing is no different. That aspect has to be managed

by McLaren to ensure strong working relationships between all parties are maintained.

“The nature of gentleman and lady racers, the nature of their drive, is where they have taken themselves in their own lives and successful business worlds,” said McLaren’s Head of Customer Racing,

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“THEY WANT TO ACHIEVE WHAT A PRO HAS IN 15 YEARS OF KARTING” - DANNY BUXTON Danny Buxton. “They apply the same philosophy with customer racing, so they are particularly demanding, which is absolutely welcomed, and a level of intensity as well, which usually starts off well.

“For example, a few customers started off bringing their own road cars to our Pure McLaren track programme, started racing with us, and have now moved on from Pure McLaren to professional GT racing.

Brendan Aribe and Nick Moss to name a few, and they’re now racing with our factory drivers and against the worlds best in GT racing, in just two or three years.

“That takes a lot of time from us to give to mentoring and coaching, and also to giving them what they want. They want to achieve what a pro has in 15 years of karting, and of racing experience, and they’re trying to achieve that level of success in a matter of months.

“Because of the way they are in their personal and business lives, they don’t settle for second best. They want it and they want it now, which is tricky to manage.

That can be challenging - exciting, yes, but challenging.

“I think you also have that philosophy of driving.

They think ‘I drive every day, so I can drive on a circuit alongside the Ben Barnicoats and Rob Bells’. Obviously,

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in essence, the amount of hard work and time to get there is extreme. So it is challenging and time consuming, but rewarding, and to see our customers take on the world’s best in just a few years is amazing.”

Placing the customer with the right coach and mentor is also a big factor. The customer gets partnered with a coach very early on in their time in the Pure GT series, but Buxton has to have one eye on the long term. Which drivers and coaches could work together for multiple seasons if they were to progress all the way to international GT racing?

“We work very closely with both the driver and the team,” said Buxton. “We place them with the customer team when they come out of Pure McLaren academy, and then first of all, unless there’s a reason not to, I keep the same coach with them as they move up into professional GT racing.

“Take Brendan [Aribe] for example. He is alongside Ollie Millroy, who he has been working with for two years at Pure McLaren, and the relationship they have is fantastic. Very very close, lots of trust, and then together with myself overseeing that coaching over the years you see what each driver needs in coaching at different points.

“With Brendan at the Spa 24 Hour race, we set him a few points to work on and focus on. Because of the nature of our relationship, we know what his weaknesses are and the areas that he can really focus on, as opposed to a customer who is new to the brand and just wants to go racing. That’s a little bit of a different challenge because you don’t know what their strengths and weaknesses are, whereas the ones that come out of the Pure programme, you know them really well so you can target their focus on certain things specifically.”

To make sure each customer is partnered with the right driver, Buxton spends time with them to understand what they are like as a person as well as a driver. In order for everyone to have success, the driver/ coach partnership needs to gel and so both individuals need to get on with each other at a personal level as well as a professional one.

“That’s one of the main things I focus on with our own internal programme. It’s seen as a community environment with the Pure McLaren programme and it works when there’s a really good relationship with a customer and coach. They become inseparable if you get it right. It’s not just a professional relationship, there’s huge amounts of friendships forged, and a huge amount of trust.

“I try and spend time with the customer before allocating them a coach or factory driver to determine where their demeanour lies and who is appropriate. You

don’t always get it right first time and I’ve had to play musical chairs at points, but when you do get it right, they strike up a great relationship, with a lot of trust, with the car and ultimately with the brand, both race cars and road cars, and that’s what we are here for.”

It’s not just Buxton who has to make sure the partnerships work and that the customer’s expectations are managed. The professional driver who is assigned to a given customer also shares that responsibility. And for McLaren factory driver, Euan Hankey, he finds the best way to manage those expectations is by showing the customer from the outset a clear path that will take them on the road to success.

“Managing expectations is definitely a great word to use because ultimately some of these amateurs are super successful within their worlds and you know, they are serial achievers and they want to put their mind to something,” explained Hankey. “They want to achieve, to get to the top level as quickly as possible. But you have to show them that there has to be a path. You’ve got to go to school before you go to university, and then you’ve got to finish university before you go to your job.

“So you’ve got to go through this process and obviously, time and resources is a big thing. If they’re unable to commit a lot of time and resources, obviously the programmes can be condensed and shortened, but you know nevertheless everyone still has to go through that same kind of process whether they like it or not.

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And ultimately when they see it and they understand it, they’re very accepting of it. And they grab it by the scruff of the neck and go all in.

“So it’s kind of cool when you have someone who’s so committed to getting better and to wanting to go up the motorsport ladder as far as possible. So that’s motivating for a coach as well, to have your student who’s wanting to take everything so seriously.”

Alongside the Customer Racing programme is the Driver Development programme, a programme in which McLaren takes on young drivers and attempts to turn them into fully fledged racing drivers. It’s something that Buxton pitched to the senior management at McLaren and got backing for and it has produced a number of talented drivers, including Charlie Fagg, Michael O’Brien and Lewis Proctor.

Applicants of the programme have to go through a two day selection process that covers their ability in the following areas: track, fitness and media. They don’t necessarily have to be the strongest individual in every single area, but they have to prove that they are willing to push themselves to be the best they can in all areas, and those who are successful go on to be given a year working with the team to prove they are good enough to race at the highest level.

“One of the things that Mike [Flewitt, McLaren Chief Operating Officer] has always said, we will give you a minimum of one year to showcase yourself and carve

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out a professional career, but that’s not the end of the relationship with McLaren after a year,” said Buxton. “ I’ve incorporated them into coaching on the Pure McLaren days and all the marketing activities, and I still use the drivers from back in 2018 on marketing activities and carry on their relationship with McLaren. It’s not the end, it’s just the one year racing commitment that’s finished but they’re part of the wider family and always will be.”

In all reality, the Customer Racing programme is really in its infancy for McLaren. But despite that, they have achieved a lot in a short space of time. Not many manufacturers are able to supply customers and young drivers a place to learn, shine and excel, developing from track days all the way through to GT3 racing. And they don’t intend on stopping there.

The company is introducing a new model specifically with the customer racing programme in mind: The 720S GT3X. While the 720S GT3 cars are restricted in performance for balance of performance reasons, the GT3X is an unrestricted version that will allow customers to experience what the 720S is truly capable of and it’s already proving to be a hit.

McLaren factory driver, Rob Bell drove the GT3X in the Goodwood Festival of Speed Timed Shootout and won the event, setting a best time of 45.01 seconds, more than a second clear of his nearest rival and although it can’t be used in any FIA championships, it’s

a car that can provide customers with an exhilarating track day experience which is what the aim of the car was.

“It’s a big step in terms of overall performance, but it’s a usable step,” explains Morgan when discussing the GT3X. “You know, the customers we’ve got, none of them are out and out GT3 racers. They just bought the car because they want to have fun on a track day, and it’s a really fun product. And that’s the point. I think that it is something that gives a smile to your face. The lap time is significantly faster than GT3, but it’s fairly easy to achieve. It’s not a challenging car to drive.

“The attributes are good, the aero is strong and the balance is good. So it’s just a fun car to use every day.

“The [customers] haven’t experienced racing a GT3, yet they’re using the car frequently and well. So yeah, it’s achieved what we wanted.”

There’s no doubt that the Customer Racing arm of McLaren Automotive will continue to grow. The foundations have been set, and set to a high standard

and so that will naturally entice wealthy customers who want to go racing with a brand that is synonymous with motorsport. And in the current economic climate, it’s really the only realistic way manufacturers can go racing on a large scale in a variety of championships without having to pump hundreds of millions of pounds into it in order to survive.

The model is proving to be a success for McLaren, showing that it is sustainable and a good way to engage customers with the brand whilst also getting something out of it.

It may not be what car manufacturers had in mind when they first began their racing projects, but it’s clear that customer racing is the way forward for many brands and in McLaren Automotive’s case, it’s a clear way for them to thrive and gain success, all the while, growing their road car division even more, and for manufacturers, that’s what it’s all really about.

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D E F Y T H E L I M I T S

GT

IMAGE BY DLV PHOTO

GT CUP THIS

cars.mclaren.com

Official fuel consumption figures in UK L/100km for the McLaren GT 4.0L (3,994cc) petrol, 7-speed Seamless Shift Dual Clutch Gearbox (SSG): Low: 22.2, Medium: 11.9, High: 9.3, Extra-High: 10.2, Combined: 11.9. CO2 Emissions, Combined: 270 g/km. The efficiency figures quoted are derived from official WLTP test results, are provided for comparability purposes only, and might not reflect actual driving experience.

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THE ART IN

PHOTOGRAPHY

WORDS BY ROB HANSFORD IMAGES BY AMY SHORE

P

hotography has always been part and parcel of any race weekend, providing fans who are unable to make an event a chance to get a feel for what it was like. Historically, photography was an absolute necessity. Not many people could attend races and motorsport events and the only coverage was in newspapers and magazines, meaning photographs were vital in order for an outlet to showcase what the event was truly like. But as time has moved on and TV coverage and then the internet and social media has moved to the fore, it’s not relied on in the same way as it once was.

That doesn’t mean photography is dead, far from it.

It just means that the purpose of the photography has changed. Of course, stock photos for race reports and news outlets are still required, but now, partly due to the rise of social media firms such as Instagram, there’s a greater emphasis on the artistic side.

People no longer want a standard image of a racing car on track that is no different to a million other photos. People want to see style, skill, thought provoking images that are utterly beautiful, capturing the atmosphere in which the photo was taken. So many people think taking a photograph is easy. Why wouldn’t

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it be? We all have the capability to do so now with our mobile phones, but to agree with that sentiment would be of great injustice to the incredible photographers who have spent years learning and honing the craft, in pursuit of the perfect art. And one of those photographers is Amy Shore.

Amy isn’t a typical motorsport photographer in that she doesn’t go to race after race around the world chasing after F1 cars or the like. In fact, until going to the Goodwood Revival with her Dad in 2011, she didn’t have that much of an interest in motorsport at all.

“I first went to the Goodwood Revival in 2011, and that was literally as a punter with my dad,” explained Amy. “He loved the atmosphere when he went the previous year, and he was a massive motorsport fanatic, so the following year I went with him and loved it.

“I went for a couple of years and got into the swing of things and went to the Revival for one day. Then in 2013, I went to the Revival having graduated from university in May, and I went thinking ‘I need a job, I don’t know what to do’.

“I was alright at photography, so I thought if I spend the last of my student loan on a decent camera, then maybe I could do some weddings for friends and get a bit of money here and there, but I hadn’t really got a

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plan.

“I took this camera to the Revival, and just shot it as a punter, then I sent those photos to Goodwood on their Facebook page. I didn’t hear anything back for months, and I found out three years later by pure fluke that they saw those images.

“I then got a phone call from Goodwood saying we have this new event called the Members Meeting, would you like to photograph this for us and be one of our photographers, and I said yes, of course, and they were probably one of my earliest clients.”

Amy had instantly gone from someone who had never had that much interest in motorsport and who had never really worked professionally before to having one of the most prestigious clients of the classic and historic motorsport industry in the UK. But while racing had never been on Amy’s radar, the aesthetics of the classic cars on show at the Revival captured her imagination and the atmosphere of the whole event resonated with her.

“I liked the charm you get from a classic car, but If I had gone to the Silverstone Classic as a first time I don’t think it would have been the same,” said Amy. “It was never just about the cars. When everyone dresses up and they have the actors walking around,

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and you can really experience the racing, and everything is themed and you do feel totally immersed.

That to me was the magic of that and made me fall in love with classic cars, rather than just looking at racing.

I never really watched it and it’s not about that for me.

“People tell me they like my photography, even if they’re not into cars, and that’s what Revival is to me. It can be enjoyed even if you’re not into cars. So, at the time, I went there not being that interested in motorsport and that came later. Now its a bit different.

“My dad and I have been together and I like watching it, it’s just about the atmosphere though for me. A lot of photographers, whatever we’re shooting, whether it be weddings or anything, are looking for a decent atmosphere. For me that’s where I realised that cars have atmosphere and excitement and beauty.”

The images that Amy has captured over the years at Goodwood Revival demonstrates that her images are completely honest with her feelings. It’s rare to find a shot of a car haring around a race track. She has a very distinctive and naturally classic style and while many of her images do feature cars as the main subject, you’ll usually find the locations are set within the paddock or around people.

Those shots are what makes Amy truly stand out

“SO FOR ME, THE PRE-RACE BITS ARE THE FAVOURITE TO SHOOT” AMY SHORE from other photographers. Most photographers dive trackside, jostling for the best position on the circuit so they can capture the action as it unfolds. But it’s often forgotten that there’s still plenty of action going on behind the scenes, something which Amy thoroughly enjoys.

When asked whether the paddock was her ‘happy place’, Amy said: “Yeah, especially the assembly paddock is great, there’s a few less people, so it’s much easier to try and get that shot. You do need that space around a car and around people. Also, that’s where people are nervous, it’s where you get families helping them kit up, they’re concentrating. So it’s quite exciting photographing getting ready and as they head out and everyone is rushing, especially on a driver change.

“So for me the pre race bits are the favourite to shoot. Photographing a singular car on its own is the

hardest thing because you have to make so many choices, I find it much easier to have all decisions taken away from me, and I’ll just shoot what they’ve given to me.

“That’s where the most natural things come from. I shoot so much at events, and you’ll get a shot that at the time you think yeah, that will be a good one, and you look later and realise I didn’t quite capture that bit, and that motion. Reviewing them afterwards, can be somewhere you discover the image you didn’t realise you got.”

But getting the shot is only half of the battle.

Especially with the way the modern works now, you can’t leave an image unprocessed. After spending hours at an event capturing hundreds, if not thousands of images, photographers then have to spend hours at home processing and editing images to ensure the

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style is absolutely perfect. Just like taking a shot, each photographer has their own style when processing their image. Some like light and classic, others dark and moody. Amy’s images are very much the former, not full of saturated colour, but light and airy images handled with a deft touch, and it’s taken her years to perfect.

“When I edit, I try and romanticise the moment a little bit more. I don’t want to fudge or fake things, but I do want to romanticise things,” said Amy. “If I have a shot where there’s this light coming through harshly when the cars are being parked in the paddock, I don’t really edit it that much. I just make sure the highlights were lit and the shadows did drop away. I want to make sure it has a feeling I had when I saw that image.

“I have my own edit which is a recipe I created and adapted slowly through the years. If I look at some of my older pictures, even though it doesn’t feel like I’ve changed that much it’s quite different now. It’s little tiny adjustments to get to where I am currently.

“I tend to keep them all the same, I’ll put my recipe on the image and tweak every single image.

The problem is, I know, for instance when it comes to supercars, that edit can be a bit too soft for something so strong and sharp. I will start to play around a little

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bit to see if I can make it less vintage feeling, but then it doesn’t feel like my work. I don’t love how the images look, and think I’ll stick to what I feel I’m happy with.

That’s why I don’t get hired that much for supercar shots, my edit doesn’t work for that and that is okay.

“I think to myself that as time goes on my edit may become dated, so I’m very aware of that. Last year I started to bring it slowly away, and after six months of this harsher, more contrasting edit, I thought, you know, I just don’t like this, so I went back.

“I use Instagram as a real review platform, and bounce ideas off it. If I suddenly notice numbers of people enjoying my images going down I realise that edit doesn’t quite work. So I do use it as a very strong business platform and a sounding board. It’s also a terrible thing to do because I’m also judging my work on Instagram and I try not to do that!

Focusing her shots predominantly around the paddock area also has another advantage for Amy. She doesn’t need to lug around the large telephoto lenses that others sitting trackside require. Amy uses two cameras when she’s at events like the Revival and Festival of Speed, and doesn’t see a need to carry around bags of equipment.

“I keep it pretty simple, two cameras and two lenses.

I really don’t do much else apart from that setup for the majority of my shoots, especially Goodwood. I like to get a couple of track shots so I can get the full story of the day. I have some friends that are brilliant at the track stuff and set up on a few corners, and that’s not what I do.

“I love the chicane, I have some beautiful shots of these cars coming around the chicane at sunset basically, so the light is beautiful, and I have this short wheelbase Ferrari in some of these shots and the next lap it has a front end missing!

“I don’t usually have long lenses I sit at corners with.

I went to a shoot once at the Old-timer event at the Nurburgring and thought ‘oh, this is different, I should have brought a longer lens!’ I was a bit annoyed. So I ended up shooting with the wider of my two lenses through the crash barrier little holes, and I loved some of those images. I was really chuffed with those! And others around me started doing the same!

“I do believe that you don’t have to have loads of equipment, and with some of the limitations you do have you get creative. If I know I’m going to shoot on a track day, I bring a longer lens, so I’m able to get those

shots if I need to. But generally, I have a 35mm lens, and an 85mm on the other.

“I’ve got a Nikon D6 and a Nikon D850. I have got other [mirrorless cameras] as well, and I’ve shot some of the best images on those but the problem is the battery life is too low and the camera too slow. And that half second means I sometimes miss a shot. As soon as the camera switches on it’s up to my face as I’ve seen the shot, and I need to be ready for it. I do love the other little mirrorless camera I have but I only really use that if I’m on a personal road trip or something where I don’t have to worry about the battery life.”

Over the years Amy has found a true uniqueness that has allowed her to stand out from the crowd, and is why she’s so successful today. Getting the right shots, in the perfect light and coupling that with impeccable, classic whilst slightly rustic image processing, Amy has the ability to fire out quality image after quality image.

The end results are simply divine and why she has become one of the most sought after photographers worldwide in the motorsport and classic automotive industry. A true artist, one of the greatest light painters and she will no doubt continue to produce beautiful pieces for a long time to come.

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IMAGE BY MATT WIDDOWSON

THE NEARYS SAM NEARY AND RICHARD NEARY WERE IN A SEASON LONG BATTLE WITH JENSEN LUNN AND WARREN GILBERT FOR THE GT CUP CHAMPIONSHIP BUT EVENTUALLY CAME OUT ON TOP. THEY ENDED THE SEASON AS CHAMPIONS WITH ABBA RACING, HAVING AMASSED A TOTAL OF 539.5 POINTS.

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REVIVING

A LEGEND

WORDS BY ROB HANSFORD IMAGES BY PHD PHOTO / GF WILLIAMS / BRM ARCHIVE

D

uring an era in which the Italians and Germans were dominating the Formula 1 championships, a plucky British team from the town of Bourne in Lincolnshire tried to forge their way onto the scene. The initial results ended in disaster, but with true perseverance and determination the team went on to become real racing giants.

Founded in 1947, British Racing Motors was initially set up as a trust in which over 100 companies contributed to finance the racing team which promised to become the forefront of British motorsport. The idea was brought about by former ERA Ltd director, Raymond Mays and in pursuit of setting up the trust, he managed to coax the likes of Alfred Owen, Oliver Lucas, and Tony Vandervell to back the project.

May’s former co-director, Peter Berthon was brought onboard to design the cars, having worked for ERA as chief designer before the war and once the project was up and running, the team based themselves in the Old Maltings building behind Eastgate House in Bourne, which was previously the home of the ERA factory.

In order to get the first BRM designed and built, Berthon employed a team of six senior designers, most

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of whom were ex-ERA employees. The plan was to produce a 1.5 litre V16 car that was capable of taking on the continent’s elite, something entirely different to what any other team on the F1 grid were using at that time. Alfa Romeo were running straight-eight engines and Ferrari were using V12s, but since the war, nobody had the foresight to develop a V16.

Unfortunately, the project suffered long delays, often beyond the team’s control but nonetheless still much to the frustration of the trust’s board. But on 15 December 1949 the Mark 1 BRM P15 was unveiled to the press for the first time, with the trust declaring that the car, belonging to Britain’s first Formula 1 team, would be a world beater.

It was a confident move seeing as the car hadn’t even turned a wheel at that stage, but BRM were confident that the supercharged Rolls Royce V16 would provide so much power that it would almost blow away the opposition.

BRM’s test driver Ken Richardson undertook extensive testing with the car at Folkingham Aerodrome over the following year, but not without issue. The P15 was a beautiful machine and the V16 provided plenty of grunt as hoped, but Richardson found a lot of that power was unusable, with the car suffering

with excessive wheelspin all the way up to speeds of 140mph. The car also struggled with overheating and while this was combated with a larger radiator, that resulted in additional drag.

The car had a strong foundation, but it was blindingly obvious that it needed further development in order for its full potential to be extracted, but the board was growing ever more frustrated and they laid down the gauntlet: the car had to make its debut at the International Trophy at Silverstone in August 1950.

It was all well and good setting a target, but that date was just too early. Richardson blew one of the V16 engines whilst testing at Folkingham, and so a second engine had to be fitted. A third engine was then fitted to a second chassis untested, and the engines began misfiring once at 11,000rpm, causing significant issues.

Despite the problems, the trust was adamant that the cars should race at the International Trophy, with Raymond Sommer and Peter Walker drafted in to drive one car while Mays and Reg Parnell would drive the other. Problems persisted for the team right up until the eve of the race, but despite the fact they were in no fit shape to really go racing at all, one car was sent to Silverstone anyway. And predictably, the lack of preparation meant it was a total disaster.

BRM didn’t make it to the circuit in time for first practice and in second practice Mays only completed a single lap. Sommer was able to complete three laps to qualify the car, but it meant starting from the back of the grid.

It had at least made it for the beginning of the race, but as soon as the flag was dropped at the start, the car sheared both driveshafts ( it later transpired that the steel used wasn’t to specification) and failed to make it off the grid. It was a total embarrassment for the team. A car that had been hyped up as a world beater could barely complete a single lap without running into issue.

However, despite the difficult start, the team did manage to recover some ground, winning back to back races at Goodwood with the P15, after Parnell was victorious in both the Woodcote Cup and Goodwood Trophy.

It was clear that given the right circumstances the car had potential. Of course, it had its issues, but the fact that Parnell won the 21 minute Goodwood Trophy race by over 12 seconds, proved that the car did have real race-winning pedigree, and it spurred BRM on to make their Formula 1 debut for the 1951 season.

But, for BRM, nothing is ever that simple and once again, things didn’t go to plan. Parnell and “B Bira” were declared as the team’s drivers for the start of the season, but they cancelled their entry to the Swiss Grand Prix as well as the French Grand Prix. The team were also entered for the British Grand Prix, but after their no-shows at the other two races, there was a great deal of scepticism that they wouldn’t race after failing to show up for practice, yet on race day they proved their doubters wrong.

Two cars turned up first thing on the Sunday

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morning, with Peter Walker drafted in to replace Bira. The drivers were told not to exceed 10,000rpm but it meant the drivers cooked in the high cockpit temperatures. Despite suffering burns, both Parnell and Walker finished the race, with Parnell crossing the line in a credible fifth, with Walker two places further back in seventh. The injuries to Parnell and Walker were predominantly superficial and was proof that the car still needed developing further, but the results once again highlighted that there was potential lurking somewhere within the P15.

The cars failed to race next time out at the Italian Grand Prix with both cars suffering with gearbox issues and things only got worse for BRM at the end of the year when, after prematurely announcing that Stirling Moss would be joining the team for 1952, he decided against doing so after running into issue after issue in testing.

BRM were then dealt another blow, and their biggest of all, when the V16 engine that they had been developing so rigorously was rendered obsolete after F1 switched to Formula 2 car regulations for 1952 as a

result of a mass exodus of manufacturers.

It left the team without any meaningful championship to race in and the lack of success and credibility surrounding the team at the highest level caused a number of the trust’s board members to give up. Vandervell went his own way to create Vanwall and with other board members keen to follow suit and bail on the Bourne-based outfit, the team was put up for sale.

Rubery Owen Ltd was the only outfit prepared to take on all of BRM’s assets and liabilities and so they were awarded the purchase and took over the running of the team.

They set about getting the team prepared to tackle Formula 1 again, but in the meantime, they competed in a number of low key events using the P15. And while the car may have been inherently difficult to drive, it didn’t stop drivers wanting to experience the power of the V16, meaning BRM was able to enlist the services of many of the world’s elite drivers, including world champion Juan Manuel Fangio who raced and won for BRM in the Albi Grand Prix, a road race in France.

DESPITE SUFFERING BURNS, BOTH PARNELL AND WALKER FINISHED THE RACE

JUAN MANUEL FANGIO TESTING THE V16 BRM

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Fangio was so impressed with the car that he said at the time that he thought it was the most thrilling car to drive and that while it needed some improvements, it was the best F1 car ever made.

In order to get back to competitive ways, the Owens enlisted Tony Rudd and Stan Hope to produce a new lightweight V16 car. They set about working on the

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V16 Mk II, using a chassis based on an Aston Martin special that Rudd had previously built himself. The Mk II was significantly lighter than its predecessor and started to win races in Formula Libre. Rudd also had a breakthrough with the engine after establishing that the V16 was suffering from cooling water circulation issues which was allowing the end-cylinder pistons to

burn.

But with F1 engine regulations switching to 2.5 litres, Sir Alfred Owen had to bail on the V16 engine concept and switch focus to an entirely new car. Inevitably, starting a new car from scratch would take time and so the decision was made to race in F1 using a customer Maserati 250F for 1954, so that a properly built BRM

could make its debut in 1955.

Just like previous attempts to race in F1, BRM weren’t ready in time for the new season and their new car was delayed further after Berthon was seriously injured in a road accident in February. As a result, the Maserati 250F was raced again and new driver Peter Collins achieved respectable results in the two races he started.

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SCHELL PUT THE CAR ON POLE FOR THE GLOVER TROPHY AT GOODWOOD The reins were finally handed over to the new P25 BRM in September when the car made its debut in the Daily Telegraph Trophy at Aintree. Unfortunately Collins crashed the car in practice so was unable to start the race, but he had a strong showing at Oulton Park for the Gold Cup where he charged through the field, running as high as third before retiring nine laps in.

That would be the only time the P25 would race that year and 1956 wasn’t much different. There was no doubt the car was fast, but it was constantly plagued by reliability issues which prevented it from getting any reasonable results. In the end, the team withdrew from the last two races of the season and vowed not to return to the championship until it had successfully completed a three hour grand prix distance without issue in testing.

The team continued racing in F1 for the next two seasons, achieving non-championship wins at the Caen Grand Prix and at Silverstone in the International Trophy, but 1959 was the real breakthrough year.

BRM had a three car team for 1959 with Harry Schell, Jo Bonnier and Ron Flockhard all signed to drive the P25. Schell put the car on pole for the Glover Trophy at Goodwood and although he was unable to retain the lead, he still got a podium finish, ending up third, 18 seconds behind the Cooper of Stirling Moss.

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But at the third round of the F1 championship, Bonnier secured the team’s first F1 world championship victory.

Bonnier and Jack Brabham set identical times in qualifying for the Dutch Grand Prix, but Bonnier was the one awarded pole position. However, despite the close competition in qualifying, on race day Bonnier was in a league of his own.

He stormed clear of Brabham to win the race by 14.2 seconds and lapped every driver in the field bar Brabham and his Cooper team-mate Masten Gregory.

It was an accomplished performance that rewarded the Owens for their dogged determination to keep going even when the chips had been stacked against them for so long, but shortly after change was afoot all over again.

In 1960 not only did BRM have a new driver line-up in the form of Bonnier, Graham Hill and Dan Gurney, but they also introduced a new mid-engined car - the P48. Just like so many incarnations of BRMs before it, the car didn’t get off to the greatest start, proving to be slow and unreliable. But like the P15, there was potential in it.

Rudd worked on a Mk II version of the P48, using a simple rear wishbone suspension, a conventional two disc rear brake layout and a much lower profile. The Mk II didn’t get used in championship races, but the

GRAHAM HILL GETTING READY TO RACE THE P83 IN 1966

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PEDRO RODRIGUEZ RACING IN THE 1968 MONACO GRAND PRIX

handling was much improved and the chassis formed the basis of the 1961 car.

Another spanner was thrown in the works for BRM in ’61 when F1 again made changes to the engine regulations. Engines were limited to 1.5 litres, meaning BRM had to start their engine development all over again. There was never any chance the team could have a new engine ready in time for the start of the season, so they took on Cooper Climax engines. It wasn’t a totally ideal situation, but there were flashes of promise throughout the year, including at the last round of the championship in the USA, where both Hill and Tony Brooks finished in the points; Hill with a fifth place finish, while Brooks made it onto the final step of the podium.

It was a make do season, but while the BRM 1.5 litre engine was being developed, ready for the 1962 season, the team at least had faith that the chassis they were now using was competitive and capable of fighting at the sharp end of the grid.

1962 was a do or die season for the team.

BRM had been hanging on for dear life for 10 years and despite so much hype every time a new car or engine was built, it always ended in disaster. That was not lost on the Owens, and with £1,000,000 having been spent on the project since their ownership, the time had come for them to make the decision whether to keep the

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team alive or not.

Acknowledging the amount of effort that had gone into designing the new car and engine for 1962, Sir Alfred Owen gave the team one last chance, and an ultimatum. Win two grands prix or close down. The gauntlet had been laid down once again. There was no time for messing about. A job had to be done.

The team went under some restructuring, with Rudd promoted to team manager and chief engineer, while Mays and Berthon were let go. The new fuel injected BRM V8 was installed into the P57 chassis and with Hill and Ritchie Ginther at the wheel for the year, they were full of optimism, and rightly so.

At the opening round of the season Hill qualified second for the Dutch Grand Prix, just a tenth behind John Surtees’ Lola Climax. It was a great place to start from, but initial optimism started to fade after Hill’s exhaust cracked whilst driving to the start.

When the lights went out, Jim Clark managed to get the leap on Hill and Surtees to take the lead of the race, while Hill managed to manoeuvre himself into second. But on lap 11, with Clark struggling with gearbox issues, Hill managed to make a move for the lead going into the 180-degree Tarzan curve. From there on, Hill never looked back. Despite the cracked exhaust he had the edge on the rest of his rivals, and once well clear, he managed the pace of his BRM to ensure race

victory was his. When he crossed the line to take the chequered flag he was 27 seconds clear of Trevor Taylor, who was running second in the Lotus Climax and over a minute clear of Phil Hill’s Ferrari in third.

Victory also looked certain for Hill in the second race of the season, but after 92 laps his engine gave out, meaning he ended up classified in sixth position. It was frustrating, but the optimism was renewed. This car worked. It was fast, it was competitive and BRM knew they were on to something with the P57.

Hill ended up second at the next round at Spa-Francorchamps to ensure both he and BRM maintained the lead of the driver’s and constructors championships, and although he was a disappointing ninth in the French Grand Prix, Ginther was the perfect wingman, claiming third position and keeping BRM’s championship lead intact.

BRM had to wait until the sixth round of the season at Germany before they tasted champagne again, but once there Hill drove a masterful race around the Nurburgring circuit to take his second win of the season and fulfilling Owen’s demand of victories.

From there on, Hill never left the podium. BRM took a 1-2 at the next race at Monza with Hill the victor, while he ended up second in the USA before winning the final race of the season in South Africa.

Hill demolished the opposition in the South African

Grand Prix, winning the race by an incredible 49.8 seconds, a remarkable way to secure his and BRM’s first world championship titles.

After what had initially appeared to be a swansong season for BRM ended up being their greatest. BRM finished the season with 42 points in the constructors’ championship, six more than Lotus-Climax in second while Hill had a 12 point edge over Jim Clark in the driver’s standings. They’d achieved what they’d been created for. They’d taken on the world’s greatest and beaten them all. After enduring years of pain, mockery and embarrassment, Owen’s team had finally achieved their dream. Champions of the world.

The team failed to win another championship, but were still highly competitive through the 1.5 litre era, finishing runner-up in the constructors’ standings for the following three years. BRM fine tuned the organisation, stayed on top of engine and chassis development and for once could class themselves as a true professional outfit.

But with success and a growing team, comes extra responsibility and additional costs. The Owens couldn’t afford to keep funding the team in the manner they had been doing so to date and so Sir Alfred decided it was time for BRM to become self-sufficient. BRM engines were sold to customers throughout a variety of championships, including F1 and the team also

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THIS IS A COPY OF THE CONTRACT BRM MADE WITH PERFUME COMPANY YARDLEY FOR THE 1971 F1 SEASON.

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embarked on a Le Mans project with Rover.

The car was first entered into Le Mans as an experimental car in 1963 where it performed admirably and after being withdrawn from the 1964 race, it returned to finish tenth overall in 1965 and the highest placed British car.

BRM also dabbled in other categories, such as Formula Ford and they also worked with Chrysler,

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helping them to design a V8 engine that could be mounted transversely into a four-wheel drive IndyCar. That work with Chrysler is in part what inspired BRM to design the H16 engine. For 1966 the engine regulations had been changed in F1 to allow three litre atmospheric engines.

As part of the new design Rudd took two flat eight engines and placed them one on top of the other,

with the crankshafts geared together. However, like so many innovative BRM engine designs before it, the engine proved to be a disappointment. The engine was powerful, but it was also incredibly unreliable and heavy.

The H16 was eventually abandoned in 1968 and a new V12 was introduced to the P126. The P126 was the first BRM chassis not to be built in Bourne, with the

design and build having been undertaken by chassis consultant Len Terry. The car was not a match for the previous championship winning P57, but it enabled the team to score some credible results, including the odd podium or two.

By 1969, the team were struggling once again, failing to build a competitive car, the team ended up sixth in the constructors’ championship and with the death of Ernest Owen and Sir Alfred Owen suffering a stroke, the management of the team was transferred to Jean and Louis Stanley.

With the Stanley’s now in charge, they went about arranging commercial sponsorship for the team. Up until then BRM had been racing in a plain British racing green livery, but for 1970 they landed a deal with perfume company, Yardley. As a result of the sponsorship deal, the British racing green colours were stripped from the BRMs and replaced with white and gold.

The organisation was also reshuffled with Tony Southgate brought in as chief designer and he went about trying to reinvigorate the team and bring them back up to date. Although the initial impact wasn’t as hard hitting as the Stanley’s might have envisioned, Pedro Rodriguez was still able to win that year’s Belgian Grand Prix.

BRM found some resurgence in form for 1972, securing two race wins and went on to finish runner-up in the constructors’ championship, the highest position they would ever get to again.

The team had one final win at the 1972 Monaco Grand Prix with Jean-Pierre Beltoise at the wheel, but they failed to be regularly competitive again. The economic climate in Britain was hitting the Rubery Owen organisation hard and BRM suffered heavily as a result. The team lost their sponsorship deal with Yardley and subsequently with Marlboro and at the end of the 1974 season the team was shut down.

The shutdown didn’t last for long, with Jean and Louis Stanley deciding to revive the team independently with half of its previous workforce, renaming it StanleyBRM, but the traditional BRM was confined to the history books. And with the Stanley’s failing to turn the team’s fortunes about, the BRM name disappeared from the world of motorsport completely at the end of 1977.

That was until now.

Desperate to hear the infamous roar of the V16, Sir Alfred Owen’s son, John Owen commissioned historic racing specialists Hall & Hall Ltd to recreate a new P15 V16 BRM and it persuaded other members of the Owen family to go ahead and revive the brand.

“The main catalyst for bringing BRM back now is the commissioning of the new V16 by my father, John Owen,” said BRM director Simon Owen. “He is now 82 and he wanted to hear that noise again. He grew up as a young boy in his shorts watching Fangio drive the V16 and he wanted to hear that noise again.

“So he’s commissioned Hall & Hall to build a new

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THE OWEN FAMILY AT THE 2021 GOODWOOD REVIVAL

V16, one of the original chassis numbers, and it’s incredibly exciting for him and for the rest of the family.

So with that car comes a catalyst to bring back the whole brand and celebrate the achievements on it.”

Three new P15 chassis are being created by Hall & Hall. So far one has been completed with another two to be built. They have spent the last two years using thousands of original blueprint drawings to create over 36,000 parts in order to ensure that the new cars are identical to the P15s that raced in the 1950s, no mean feat, especially when you consider that they also had to recreate the supercharged Rolls Royce V16.

Having these cars recreated in such painstaking detail is one thing, but BRM don’t want them sitting around in museums or on display stands. They are being made to race.

“The most important thing is to get the cars out on the track for people to hear and enjoy them, especially the V16,” said Owen. “It’s a very special noise.

Unfortunately the cars in existence are too valuable to race properly and therefore my father is very keen that his car is raced and displayed around the world so people can hear it.

“We want to celebrate the achievements of the past. Celebrate 70 years of BRM, tell the story to a new audience, try and make it more relevant for today. It’s an incredible piece of British motoring history. We were Britain’s first Formula 1 team. It’s only ourselves and

Ferrari that built and raced their cars in their entirety and it’s a great British story. And we want to tell that story to a wider audience, to a younger audience and go racing again.

The first of the new P15s basked in the sunlight at this year’s Goodwood Revival as it underwent its official unveiling and the results are simply stunning.

The P15 was a car that captured the hearts and minds of many F1 fans when it originally came to fruition in the 1950s and this recreation is no different.

In some respects, it would have probably been more straightforward for BRM to have recreated the championship winning P57, but actually, taking the tougher route, to build the first car, the one that was the most difficult to develop, get right and succeed with is actually synonymous with BRM of old and has a sense of romanticism about it.

BRM may not have always gotten things right, and may have consistently done things the hard way, but you could never fault them for their innovation, ideas, and refusal to give up when life got tough. The way they have gone about recreating the new P15 not only exudes everything that BRM have always been about, but now the Owen family has finally succeeded in fulfilling the P15’s full and true potential, and what a joy it is to behold.

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IMAGE BY ED WAPLINGTON

BENETTON B190 THE BENETTON B190 WAS AN INCREDIBLY COLOURFUL CAR, UNMISTAKABLE ON THE GRID, AND WASN’T MUCH OF A SLOUCH EITHER. IN 1990 NELSON PIQUET WON TWICE IN THE CAR, TAKING VICTORY IN THE JAPANESE AND AUSTRALIAN GRANDS PRIX.

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COLLECTING MEMORIES MOTORSPORT

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WORDS BY ROB HANSFORD IMAGES BY IAN CUNNINGHAM ART / PHD PHOTO

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H

aving a car collection is any petrolhead’s dream. So many of us dream of having a garage full of exotic cars that we can call our own, but that’s all it will ever be - a dream. Even fewer people have the opportunity to put together a collection of racing cars, let alone highly respected racing cars that are deeply ingrained in the history of motorsport as we know it. But that’s precisely what Zak Brown has done.

Over the years he has slowly put together a collection of cars that is so unique that nobody else in the world has one like it. He hasn’t just gone out and purchased random racing cars so that he can say he has a racing collection, a lot of thought has been put into each purchase and it’s taken time to build it up.

Speaking about starting his collection, Brown said: “When I sold the majority of my company in ’08, that’s when I really started. I think at that point I had about two cars, but it was that moment of liquidity that I was able to start ramping up my collection. And they’re great investments.

“If you buy pedigree, very rare cars, they’re unbelievable investments. So while I buy them for passion and use them for fun, there is comfort in knowing that I think the majority of my collection is worth substantially more than I paid for it. And to be able to enjoy your investment is a greater reward than

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putting the same amount of money into the stock market, watching a ticker symbol go up.”

Having started collecting his race cars in 2008, Brown has now amassed a total of 35 cars that were raced across a number of eras, ranging from 1970 to 2017. And while his investment comments are completely understandable, especially for someone as business-minded as Brown, there’s actually a lot of sentiment in the stories sitting behind the cars he owns.

When searching for a car, Brown has two main criteria. First, the car must have won at least one race. If it hasn’t been victorious at any stage of its career, then it’s not getting through the door. Second, the car must be in working order, or at least capable of running with some minor work. In other words, it can’t be a display car or rolling chassis.

“If it’s not a runner it will become a runner,” explained Brown. “Like my Hakkinen Ralt [F3 car] needs to be rebuilt. But all my cars are runners. I always have a few that are under restoration, but they will all be runners. I won’t buy anything that’s just a rolling chassis. I think they’re much more valuable and exciting when they make noise.”

Of course, that’s where the investment side comes in. A lot of these cars will have a lot of provenance and hold huge value, but while that is of course a motivator for Brown and naturally very business-like, there’s also a romantic element to the purchase of a number of the cars he has obtained.

It might be hard to think of Brown being a hopeless romantic, especially from someone who has been so incredibly successful in business. The two don’t normally go together, but when it comes to his cars, there’s definitely a lot of love and nostalgia lurking in the background.

Within Brown’s collection there are some cars that might seem obvious for him to have, one of them being the McLaren MP4/6-6. The car raced in the 1991 Formula 1 world championship, driven by the legendary Ayrton Senna and Gerhard Berger. Senna won seven races with the car, securing his third and last world title.

Another car that may seem an obvious choice for any collection is the Lotus 79 that Mario Andretti won the 1978 F1 world championship with.

However, with both of these cars there’s stories behind them. Brown purchased both of these cars because they were driven by his motorsport idols and in the 79’s case, it was the car that Brown had plastered all over his bedroom wall growing up.

Talking about the Lotus 79, Brown said: “The car was like the poster car, model car. That was to me the iconic livery of that era. Mario Andretti being American, so that was kind of my earliest childhood memory.”

But despite the usual suspects there’s also some cars that may not seem so obvious, such as the Williams

FW07B/7. That car took part in the 1980 F1 world championship in the hands of Alan Jones, and that specific chassis won both the French and British Grands Prix. However, that’s not the main reason why Brown wanted to put the car in his collection.

“My first race ever was the 1981 Long Beach Grand Prix which Alan Jones won in the Williams Saudia car.

“That one’s special because Mansour Ojjeh, he was a sponsor of that car and that was my first race I ever went to. Even though it’s ’81 the cars kinda look the same, you don’t know any different and he was the current world champion at the time. And of course, Williams is such an iconic team. So for me, the memory is, I kind of feel like I saw that car race, even though it was a year later. They look the same, it was Alan Jones, it was Long Beach, which of course I think having Mansour being one of the main sponsors and given my relationship with Mansour, the one who’s most responsible for me being at McLaren today, that one ticks a lot of boxes for those reasons.”

Another car that Brown purchased for very similar reasons was the 1983 Chevrolet Monte Carlo that Ricky Rudd secured his maiden NASCAR Winston Cup victory with.

“I’ve always tried to have in my collection all the racing that I grew up around and so that car started life

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THIS ENGINE APPEALED TO NEWEY GIVEN ITS TIGHTER PACKAGING, BUT IT WAS AT A POWER DISADVANTAGE as Ricky Rudd’s car. He won his first race in Riverside International Raceway and I was at that race. So Riverside used to be where I’d go with my father and my brother. To Long Beach, promoter TAG races and Riverside to see NASCAR and IMSA race.

“So I saw that car race and win and then, to me, in NASCAR, there’s no more iconic livery than the Wrangler of Dale Earnhardt, and that’s an era again where I was following motor racing, and saw it race at Riverside. And so I kind of grew up collecting 24 inch scale cars and now I’m in a fortunate position where I’ve been able to buy the larger versions. So while I’m not a huge NASCAR fan, I’ve spent a lot of time around NASCAR and I am a NASCAR fan.

“I felt like I wanted a NASCAR in my collection and so to have a car I saw race, the Wrangler Dale Earnhardt, again it ticked all the boxes. And that car won four or five races.”

For Brown, the memories trump the investment aspect and when asked about this he said: “Definitely.

And whether that memory is race, driver, team. When I see a car I tend to fall in love with them. There’s something about that car that becomes romantic.

Being so heavily involved with Formula 1, it would

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be reasonable to assume that Brown’s collection is primarily focused on cars from that category. Of course, he has a number of F1 cars from different eras, but there’s also cars from endurance racing, IndyCar, NASCAR and the World Rally championship. In fact, one of Brown’s first cars was an IMSA Porsche.

“One of my first, I can’t recall what was actually my first, but I would say one of the cars I’ve used the most, was probably number one in the collection was my Porsche 962. I’ve driven that car a lot and that IMSA, mid to late ’80s 962 Blaupunkt, that car won five races, I think the 962s are the coolest looking race cars.”

The Porsche 962 that Brown is referring to is the car that secured victory in the 1986 Six hours of Riverside.

It also secured victories at Charlotte and Sears Point that season on its way to finishing second in the IMSA GTP championship, while also securing Dyson Racing its second Porsche Cup. And beyond that, it’s also a car in which Brown has won a race with himself. He raced the car in the Group C race at the Le Mans Classic in 2016 and claimed a clean sweep, taking pole position, the race win and the fastest lap of the race.

Brown isn’t afraid to drive his cars hard, with plenty

of them having competed in historic events over the years, and if he is unable to drive them, he will often gets friends of his to get behind the wheel on his behalf.

“I’ve driven all of them that I can fit in,” said Brown.

“Unfortunately there’s a few that are a little bit tight, so I would say I have driven 80% of them and a few of them I’ve had to rely on my buddies to shake them down. Specifically the IndyCar ones are surprisingly tight and my Senna car unfortunately was not built for me.”

Of course, Brown loves each and every one of his cars, and as he said, trying to choose a favourite is like “trying to choose your favourite child”. It’s impossible.

But there are a couple of specific cars that from a driving perspective stand out for the McLaren CEO. “I would say that the most exciting one has to be my Mika Hakkinen 2001 car. Just from a pure performance standpoint, it’s unbelievable. So that has to be the most spectacular, but the one that’s probably the most fun is the rally car.”

That rally car isn’t any old rally car. It’s the legendary Repsol liveried Ford Escort that Carlos Sainz and Louis Moya rallied with in 1997, finishing third overall in the championship, whilst also claiming rally wins on the Acropolis Rally and Rally Indonesia.

“That car was obviously a Carlos Sainz thing,

and he took me around his ranch, a little bit of rally driving,” said Brown. “And after I got out of the fence I thoroughly enjoyed it and was just in total awe of the talent and commitment and craziness of rally drivers.

And so, given my relationship with Carlos, because I’ve never really followed rally racing, I’ve always had a tremendous amount of respect for them, but it’s not a racing series I watch. So the specialness there, again, the car won a race, and for me, the romantic side if you like, was that Carlos drove it. And I’ve since driven it and I’ve got to say, while all these cars are unbelievable, I can’t think of a time where I’ve had more fun in a race car than driving that car.

When going about putting the collection together, Brown has always had in mind that he wanted a full rounded collection from all different championships and eras. Many of these are for the memories, and in some ways, the fanboy element, but there’s also that aspect of achieving the satisfaction that comes with ensuring the wishlist is totally complete, but one car eluded Brown for some time. A Schumacher Ferrari.

“I’m in a pretty good state of play with my collection,” explained Brown. “There’s nothing today that I’m searching for. The last thing I really needed was a great Formula 1 collection. I didn’t have a Ferrari and I didn’t have a Schumacher, and it kind of feels like if

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you’re going to have a proper Formula 1 collection you need to have a Ferrari and a Schumacher. So that was the last one that I really had on the to-do list.”

After a lot of searching Brown hit the jackpot, finding a car that met both criteria. Completing his Formula 1 collection nicely, Brown obtained the Ferrari F310B, the car that Schumacher raced in the 1997 F1 world championship season. The car won both the Canadian and French Grands Prix and it was in the title fight against the Williams of Jacques Villeneuve all the way until the end of the championship.

But, the car isn’t without controversy. Schumacher was disqualified from that year’s championship for deliberately attempting to take Villeneuve out of the race at the final round of the season at Jerez, although he was still allowed to retain his victory statistics.

Therefore, in some ways this car is an unusual choice for Brown to pick, although he admits there weren’t many options.

“For me, my Schumi won two races, had a couple of poles and it’s very hard to get a Schumacher Ferrari. And then when the one sold at Sotheby’s for a ridiculous amount of money, it was kind of a good ranking number, it just made the Schumacher market go crazy. So that was the best car I could get my hands on.

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“While it’s not a championship car, I liked that it had the three poles, it won two races, second in Germany, I think leading in Britain. So it was a successful car and I’m getting one that would have won a championship, it would be nice to have a two-time winning Schumacher Ferrari, from a well known collector. So it had a great pedigree and that car I had been searching for. My criteria there was I want a Schumacher winning Ferrari, and that’s what I found.”

The only type of car now missing from the collection is a Le Mans winning car. Brown has grand prix winning cars, cars that have won in IMSA, IndyCAR and NASCAR, but while he does have a class winner in the form of the United Autosports LMP2 car, he doesn’t have an overall winner. And although Brown isn’t actively seeking any new cars right now, a Le Mans winning Audi or Porsche would complete his set nicely.

However, the work doesn’t stop there. With a number of his cars being driven and raced all over the world, they need to be kept and maintained in first class condition and that’s where Paul Hague and Dickie Stanford come in. These two individuals have become renowned historic specialists over the years and they ensure each and every one of Brown’s cars are maintained to perfect quality whilst remaining totally original.

Talking about Hague and Stanford’s involvement in maintaining his collection, Brown said: “It gives me great comfort because those guys have been working on race cars for a long time, and specifically on the Formula 1 side and they have a lot of history. Paul, who we call ‘Flower’ actually worked with John Paul on the JLP3, so between the two of them, they’re a walking encyclopedia.

“I want to make sure that the cars are also period correct because some of these cars get modified over the years. So originality on the cars is critical.”

Going through Brown’s car collection, it’s clear that it is one of the most proficient collections out there. From world championship winning cars such as the Lotus 79 and Penske PC18-002 that Emerson Fittipaldi won the 1989 IndyCar championship with, to

quirkier machines, such as Ayrton Senna’s go-kart and Mikka Hakkinen’s Rault F3 car, almost every aspect of motorsport is covered.

It’s a collection that any petrolhead and motorsport fan would be proud to own, and while they’re also being purchased as long term investments, it’s great to see these rare, wonderful machines being given the light of day every so often, to be pushed to their limits on racetracks around the world.

But it also gives a great insight into Brown’s thinking - his mindset - and just cements the fact that above all else, he’s a hopeless romantic when it comes to race cars and is just as much a fan of the sport as everyone else buying tickets at the gates of circuits worldwide every weekend.

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IMAGE BY PHD PHOTO

THE BEAUTY OF THE REVIVAL THE BEAUTY OF THE GOODWOOD REVIVAL IS THAT DRIVERS FROM ALL DIFFERENT BACKGROUNDS AND CHAMPIONSHIPS COME TOGETHER FOR A FEW DAYS TO SHARE SOME INCREDIBLY BEAUTIFUL CLASSIC CARS. IN THIS INSTANCE, ANDY PRIAULX AND BRENDAN HARTLEY ARE TAKING IN THE ACTION IN THE PADDOCK. 108 THE PIT STOP

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THE EVA

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WORDS BY GEORGE EAST IMAGES BY VYGANDAS ULICKAS

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he LADA EVA had no real chance of mixing it with the likes of Audi and Lancia, yet it was only the demise of Group B and not the Soviet Union’s chaotic final chapter that stopped this plucky band of Lithuanians from taking part in the WRC’s most competitive and

dangerous era After enjoying a good hour-long video chat Vygandas Ulickas, I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of sadness when we parted ways. Despite being a successful automotive designer in his own right, the now-63-year-old Lithuanian is key to one of the greatest stories seldom told of the World Rally Championship’s Group B era, the LADA EVA. A little-known name in the world of motorsport, the kindly Ulickas was a graduate from the Vilnius Art Academy, one of the leading schools of art and design in the capital of Lithuania. As a graduate he never intended to become part of what would be the Soviet Union’s most ambitious overseas motorsport project throughout its 74-year history.

In fact, how Ulickas became the Chief Designer of LADA’s Group B project is a tale of draft dodging, good ol’ Eastern European pragmatism, and blind luck.

The year he became involved with the LADA EVA was 1985, the year when then-Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev implemented reformist policies of glasnost’ (openness) and perestroika (restructuring).

Gorbachev’s reforms ripped through the country and

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highlighted the country’s previously-hidden social and economic ills at a rate of knots for which the Soviet people were not prepared. What’s more, the Soviet armed forces were fighting their war in Afghanistan; a crippling war of attrition which the USSR had been fighting since they occupied the country in 1979, and a conflict pivotal to the Soviet Union’s eventual collapse in December 1991.

As reports of the massive Soviet losses filtered back home, Ulickas decided to take a job as a technical drawing teacher at a school in Garliava; then a village, and now a suburb of Kaunas, Lithuania’s secondlargest city.

His decision meant he would avoid becoming yet another statistic in the Soviet Army’s ever-growing number of losses. Taking up a teaching post would also give him his chance to forge a career in automotive design, an area in which he specialised as an art student.

“You know, all of this business came about just because I didn’t want to go to the army,” he tells The Pit Stop with a laugh in his heavily accented English.

“I didn’t want to serve at all, and there was a strange piece of legislation in certain areas, which said that men who lived there wouldn’t be conscripted because there was a lack of male teachers in local schools they’d all been sent to the army!

“Once I’d settled in as a teacher and knew I’d avoided the draft, I started asking around friends and art school contacts if there was anything I could do

“THE MINSK COMPANY WAS PRETTY SATISFIED WITH MY WORK AND THEY REMEMBERED WHAT I DID” - VYGANDAS ULICKAS related to cars or motorbikes or something for work.

“I’d always been into automotive things, and my final project at art school was on a 125cc Minsk motorcycle, which was aimed at youngsters. It was nothing special, but the Soviet authorities liked it and it was actually shown at some automobile shows in Moscow.”

His work on the Minsk project as a student would actually prove to be manna from heaven for Ulickas.

The Belarusian motorcycle company remembered the young now-teacher’s work, and offered him a relocation package to Minsk - the capital of Belarus where he would join the company as a designer.

“The Minsk company was pretty satisfied with my work and they remembered what I did,” he explained.

“But in Soviet times, Minsk wasn’t the nicest place to be, so that’s why I stayed in Lithuania and started to look for something related to cars to use my skills.”

Ulickas’ time management couldn’t have been better. As glasnost’ and perestroika took hold, the Soviet authorities were growing desperate to show the world that the USSR wasn’t an ailing power propped up by a broken economy.

The Soviets decided on Group B - then a rival to Formula 1 in terms of international popularity - to show that the USSR could compete with the West on an international level, and that LADA - its leading carmaker - could hold its own against the might of the Audi Quattro, the Lancia Delta, and the Peugeot 205 T16 in the WRC’s top category. A strong international performance of its latest hatchback abroad may have also gone some way towards correcting the country’s dire fiscal situation through foreign sales.

The Soviet Group B car was based on the then-new VAZ-2108 (or LADA Samara in Western markets), which launched in 1984. Its development would be overseen

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by Lithuanian rally driver, Stasys Brundza, who also ran VFTS - the Vilniusskaya Fabrika Transportnykh Sredstv’ or the Vilnius Transportation Works.

The thing is though, is that Brundza wasn’t just a rally driver. He was responsible for the development of the VFTS LADA, a rear-wheel drive rally car which enjoyed - and still enjoys - success in local rallies held across Eastern Europe and the then-USSR. Brundza, now 74 years-old and living as a recluse

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in Lithuania, was also fast behind the wheel of a rally car. Really fast - on the 1976 Acropolis round of the World Rally Championship, he finished sixth overall in his humble VAZ 2106 ahead of faster, much more thoroughbred race machinery include a Porsche 911, a BMW 2002 Turbo, and the Lancia Stratos; a car that won the ’74, ’75, and ’76 WRC titles.

By 1986, the Group B car had become a fully-fledged state-backed motorsport effort and was renamed the

LADA Samara EVA; a moniker for which EVA was an abbreviation of the Experimental Vilnius Autoplant or in Russian - the Eksperimental’ny Vilniusskiy Avtozavod.

As gossip spread that LADA would spend 1986 developing a car for a 1987 Group B assault, Ulickas - excited by both the news and a possible open to showcase his talents - travelled the 125 kilometres from Kaunas to Vilnius to approach Brundza about any potential involvement on the rumoured EVA project.

“After I turned down the Minsk job, I went to Vilnius and went to the VFTS factory run by Brundza to talk and they ended up hiring me,” Ulickas recalls. “What was funny, was that they said they didn’t need a boss or a project manager or a designer, they just wanted someone who could work, and I ended up doing a bit of everything in the end.”

As part of his initial “bit of everything” role, Ulickas ended up being put in charge of the car’s

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aerodynamic development. This posed two problems.

Firstly, aerodynamics in Soviet automotive circles were unheard of. Aero was the preserve of the aviation sector. Secondly, Ulickas wasn’t an aerodynamicist.

“Was I a trained aerodynamicist? No!” Ulickas laughs with a shrug. “At art school, I had a good eye for technical drawing, and that was the best place to learn how to adapt and be creative. As far as I was taught, if you want to create something new, then you need to study an existing example of something, then figure out how to make it better!

“It was lucky that the guys from VFTS who were already working on the EVA project had really good advice in aero because they’d been working on boats and planes and all sorts in the past. We also had some pictures of Group B cars from the Western countries.

They certainly helped us a little bit, but this isn’t anything new in motorsport…”

Throughout 1986, the EVA team channelled the true collective spirit of the USSR, and eventually developed a prototype aerodynamic package fashioned from wood for what would be the Soviet Group B car.

Satisfied with the engineers’ efforts, Brundza - both intrigued and convinced by the benefits brought about by aero - managed to convince Soviet authorities that they should allow his plucky team to develop the EVA’s then-rudimentary aero package at the Dmitrov polygon testing facility some 40 miles north of Moscow.

The Dmitrov facility was the USSR’s only windtunnel geared towards commercial vehicles, Ulickas reveals

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that the LADA team had just one day - well, 16 hours from 24 - to perfect the EVA’s aerodynamics.

“We didn’t have long to make sure that everything about the car was perfect,” he explains. “Thankfully, the front and rear aero was reasonably decent, but still, 16 hours and one year to develop a car from scratch - the chassis, the engine, the aerodynamics - is absolutely nothing.”

Ulickas admits that for 1987, the EVA would have been somewhat on the back foot compared to the Group B front runners. However, he and the team were satisfied with the final aero package, and they were convinced that alongside the LADA’s mid-engine, rear-wheel drive configuration, its performance would be comparable with the twitchy Lancia 037; a car that won the 1984 World Rally Championship, and finished third on the Safari round of the ‘86 season.

Yet as hopes within the LADA camp rose, the curtain on Group B slowly fell. Whilst the Group B years of 1982 to 1986 are widely considered to be the WRC at its brilliant best, those four years were tarnished by a series of fatal accidents involving spectators and drivers. It would be one of these accidents that brought Group B and the LADA EVA project to an end.

Group B’s fate was sealed on the 1986 Tour de Corse, when seven kilometres into the event’s 18th stage, Lancia driver Henri Toivonen’s Delta S4 flew off the road during a tight left-hand bend.

The car went on to plunge down a steep hillside and land on its roof; its fuel tanks rupturing on the way

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“OF COURSE I WAS SAD, AND EVERYONE WORKING ON THE PROJECT WAS SAD TOO.” - ULICKAS down. The combination of high-octane race fuel, the Lancia’s red hot turbocharger, and lightweight kevlar bodywork proved deadly. Toivonen and his co-driver Sergio Cresta tragically burned to death whilst still in their seats.

In a cruel twist of fate, the Toivonen fatality took place one year after his Lancia teammate, Attilio Bettega, was killed behind the wheel of an 037 on the 1985 Tour de Corse after his Martini-liveried car crashed into a tree.

In the aftermath of Toivonen’s death, Audi immediately withdrew from World Rallying and the FIA announced that Group B regulations would be banned for 1987. The news shook the global motorsport community.

After the 1986 Tour de Corse, Ulickas and the relatively young LADA EVA team had their world turned on its head. The Soviet Group B project - a project they had lived and breathed for the best part of a year - had been ripped from their grasp. The final blow was dealt when Moscow withdrew its financial backing and the project closed.

“Was I sad when everything ended so suddenly?”

Ulickas sighs. “Of course I was sad, and everyone working on the project was sad too. We had no idea that Group B would be cancelled so we were shocked.

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Really, really shocked…

“When things ended with the LADA EVA, my wife and I had just had our son, so I resigned from VFTS and went back to Kaunas to be with them. The timing I guess worked out okay, and I can look back with good memories, and a lot of people I worked with there - a team of really intelligent mechanics and engineers - are still good friends today.”

As the years passed and Lithuania broke away from Moscow to become an independent nation and eventually an EU member state, time served as the greatest healer for Ulickas who has since gone on to become one of the most respected figures in Lithuanian automotive design and engineering circles.

The pain of the stillborn LADA EVA subsided, and Ulickas is happy to reflect on the period as a break in the bleak Soviet monotony of the perestroika days.

“You know, the EVA was pretty good as a Group B car in its base form,” he smiles. “It had a tubular steel chassis, and we made the body of fibreglass and carbon fibre so it was pretty advanced - especially in the Soviet Union, where composites were largely unheard of! It weighed just 952 kilograms.

“We developed a special 1800cc engine, which was both supercharged and turbocharged with a Garrett turbo we got from somewhere, and it had a

fuel injection system which was massively radical for Soviet technology, especially as the LADA Samara production car didn’t even get that until 12 years later and turbochargers were only really fitted to aircraft and heavy duty vehicles!

“In fact, and not many people know this, we were working on a four-wheel-drive system for later on in the car’s development. You see, the suspension and differential would have allowed for that…”

Ulickas proudly flicks through some photos he has printed out, and he laughs as he makes an extraordinary-yet-touching admission for someone who worked in motorsport; a field of work in which the truth is rarer and honest people are even more scarce.

“When you sign up to do something like this,

though, you do it because you love it. Not because you want to become famous or well-known or something like that.

“You see, looking back, we all knew deep down that we didn’t couldn’t seriously go head-to-head with Audi, Lancia, or whoever. We had basically no money compared with the big Western carmakers, and our limited budget, knowledge, and resources meant we never really stood a chance!

“For me personally though, the LADA EVA was a little bit of colour in an otherwise grey Soviet reality. We all knew exactly why we were there and what we were doing…”

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IMAGE BY EDD WAPLINGTON

SIX WHEELS AREN’T ALWAYS BETTER THAN FOUR THE TYRRELL P34 IS AN INCREDIBLY SPECIAL AND INNOVATIVE FORMULA 1 CAR THAT WILL ALWAYS REMAIN A GREAT PIECE OF MOTORSPORT ENGINEERING, BUT IT WASN’T AS COMPETITIVE AS IT WAS HOPED TO BE. DESPITE THAT, JODY SCHECKTER STILL MANAGED TO WIN THE SWEDISH GRAND PRIX IN 1976, FINISHING THIRD IN THAT SEASON’S DRIVER’S STANDINGS.

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FROM RACE DRIVER TO

SIM RACER WORDS BY ASH MILLER IMAGES COURTESY OF ASH MILLER / MIKE EPPS

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T

he percussion of coffee cups from the kitchen momentarily drowns out the distinctively dramatic soundtrack of Netflix’s Drive To Survive emanating from the television, as I settle into the sofa of a tastefully decorated living room in suburban Northampton.

“I’m up to the last episode. Do you take one sugar or two?”, comes a voice from up the hallway. I reply with the confirmation of “just one, thanks”, as my eyes scan the room around, landing on the cavalcade of celebratory remnants that grace the walls; a repertoire of glimmering trophies stretches out across the shelf above the television, sporting such words as ‘Super One’ and ‘USF2000’. Below that, an ever-so-slightly more youthful version of the personality in the kitchen adorns a plethora of frames, each one adding to the visual storyboard of podiums, sideways single-seaters and airborne touring cars.

My musings are distracted when Mike Epps steps back into his living room, clutching two British Touring Car Championship mugs and a smattering of light bites with which to enjoy the impending season finale of motorsport’s most hotly anticipated series. “Now some of the online racing series has finished up,” Mike says

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mid-sip, “I can actually enjoy binge watching it this time.”

Mike Epps, in motorsport terms, has been there and done that. A successful career forged in karting, Mike went on to become one of the UK’s foremost young talents as he stepped into Formula Vee, rapidly ascending to Indy Lights in America before being forced to return to the UK. Undeterred, he burst back on the scene in VW Cup, before breaking into the British Touring Car Championship, Ginetta Supercup, European GT and the UK Renault Clio Cup to etch out a successful tin top career; a fact evidenced fairly obviously as I scan the heavily-laden, trophy drenched shelves around the room.

One of the accolades that adorns his collection of silverware, however, reads “GTR24h Le Mans Winner” despite fitting snugly among the other trophies, this one was not won on the tarmac, but rather the relatively modest arena of the simulator situated in the room directly above our heads.

“COVID hasn’t really helped the racing for anyone, but when things started going downhill I had a lot of time to make use of my sim”, Mike says as we marvel at another Gunther Steiner NFSW soundbite. “I put in a lot of hours and did well in some online races. Through

a lot of that scene, some opportunities for some racing and coaching came about, which kept things going and gave me a new focus…and, well, here I am now, really.”

His understated stance on the world of sim racing is in stark contrast to his results. In a modern world where Sim Racers are quickly becoming stars, Mike Epps has brought his real-world nouse to the party. While 2020’s pandemic threw the flesh-and-bone racing fraternity into turmoil, it hastened sim racing’s popularity ten-fold, and among a freshly burgeoning environment, Mike Epps found himself teaming up with, and in many cases beating, some of the real-world greats; Jenson Button, Andy Priaulx, Emerson Fittipaldi, Jacques Villeneuve, Felix da Costa, Jake Dennis, and a further ream of names in that echelon have joined Mike, as either team mates or rivals over the past 12 months. As a result of his screen-based forays, Epps has a virtual Le Mans 24hrwinning accolade to go with his impressive string

of iRacing World Record lap times, with a contracted gong as an Esports driver for the formerly named Racing Point Formula One Team slotting into the CV comfortably. In a world where Esports stars are moving into real-world motorsport via the screen, Mike Epps cuts a unique figure in having made the most of his talents to cross back in the other direction.

Esports itself is on the cusp of being the next phase of competitive motorsport. Way back when Playstation launched their flagship gaming monster in the winter between 1994 and 1995, the hype surrounding the console was palpable enough to slice through with just about any given sharpened instrument, and it’s sheer reality-changing affect on future generations could never have been anticipated. Arriving to the homes of millions over the next decade, it brought a quality of gaming to the masses unseen previously; a perceptible realism, although archaic to the eye in the modern

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Jakob Ebrey

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day, broke through to a generation that absorbed the finesse and believable gameplay in a way that bore rise to an entirely unique cohort of gamers.

Key among the titles on the console were the dramatically impressive motorsport simulations; a string of officially licensed Formula One efforts were joined by such gems as Ridge Racer and VRally, and eventually, the groundbreaking Gran Turismo series that arranged polygons in a way that was scarcely comprehensible for a 1990’s at-home entertainment system.

Born from these modest living rooms, bedrooms and basements was a generation of young people that were entwined in a newly available pastime. The ability to race against your heroes, or buy that dream Nissan

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Skyline and pit your wits against a grid of competitors with a sensation of immersive realism, triggered a new wave of not only passionate motorsport anoraks, but it as it would turn out, an entire scene of young guns who themselves wanted to transfer their newfound dopamine-laced, rubber-scented interest into the world outside of their tube screens.

That journey from armchair hero to track-munching professional was, however, still at polar opposite ends of a yawing spectrum. Gaming enticed the masses, but to participate in the next level, motorsport’s primary rungs would have to be climbed, in very real terms with very real money, before those starry-eyed hopefuls would get close to realising their motorsport

endeavours.

In 2021, however, that same yawing abyss has become nothing more than a discernible shuffle - with gaming technology moving faster than the very sport it digitally replicates, Esports has risen to bridge that previously very vast, and very expensive, gap.

While the very best rigs are still priced highly enough to make your credit card quiver, that single downpayment is where a lot of the expense ends. No risk of damage from your framerate-induced first corner miscalculation, nor any ongoing donations to the fuel and tyre gods that encompass real life track time.

More than just this expense, however, we have seen the first signs of a real-life merging of disciplines.

Britain’s Jann Mardenborough can perhaps lay claim to the honour of being the first digitally gifted driver to access the top flight of real-world competition, through Playstation’s own GT Academy. Making the cut through the qualifying rounds, Jann successfully fended off the other hopefuls and has since gone on to become a force to be reckoned with in real-world international GT racing.

Much coverage has been given to the online and digital success of rising gaming stars as they find their audience with the younger generation, brought up with a controller in their mouths. Their Esports successes have paved the way for that designation between pixelated performance and real world results to be,

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ironically, blurrier than the details on early Playstation console efforts.

Mike himself has become a yardstick in the staggeringly pliable true potential of sim racing. Not just a recognised face that has proven the viability and technological strides made in bringing that gap between real world and virtual reality to within touching distance, Mike has utilised this burgeoning arena to become a source of genuine career income; online connectivity means that driver coaching can be done from home, with people all around the globe, with applications that are now seeing benefits both in the virtual world, and incredibly, on tangible race circuits.

“It’s helped more than I ever imagined it would.

When things slowed down, there was suddenly opportunities to be able to jump online and do very real

work with real people. It’s not quite like being able to sit in-car at an actual circuit, but it’s pretty close to it,” Mike reveals.

“It’s still incredibly mentally draining. Your concentration still needs to be really high, more so than in a real scenario sometimes, because you need all your mental effort to process the online racing without having the feedback from your body as to how the car is actually handling underneath you.

“Aside from the sensation on your body of the speed and the forces, the rest of the inputs are not really much different from the real thing. With telemetry, and setup changes, being graphically accurate online with platforms like iRacing, suddenly there’s a genuine market for continuing as an instructor and being able to bring together the real world experience in a way that

“YOUR CONCENTRATION STILL NEEDS TO BE REALLY HIGH, MORE SO THAN IN A REAL SCENARIO SOMETIMES” - MIKE EPPS

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can be taught though the screen…”

He stops mid sentence as footage of Lance Stroll being violently made into an inverted projectile flashes up on the screen. “…and you don’t get have to crawl out of something like that, unless something’s gone pretty wrong with the sim!”

He raises up off the couch, and leads the way, to take a moment to let me sample the nigh-on tenthousand-pound simulator in a specially decked out room.

“Let’s do Silverstone, in an LMP-1. Do a few laps and see how you feel.”

It takes moment to dial into the lack of bodily sensation typically used to gauge car handling in a real world situation. But, after a period of adjustment, the positive feel of the direct-drive wheel and hydraulic pedals gives the sort of feedback that are nigh on impossible to discern from the real deal once your attention is sapped up by the task in front of you.

A few laps go by, and my experience in the real world starts to ooze tantalisingly up from somewhere within; braking points, optimal lines, and trick apexes start to come back with a confidence as the line between real-world experience and online mastery blur even further.

We stop the session and he pulls up the telemetry; and a thorough analysis ensues, as he overlays his best with mine. The details show that the second-and-a-

half I’m missing can be made up under braking, and through various incremental elements around a lap that would pull together to end up somewhere closer to the mastery of Mike Epps’ own virtuoso virtual benchmark.

We head back into the living room, as I process the information as Mike goes on; “That’s basically the way things are shaping up for the year, and the way that things are moving forward. I spend just as much time coaching in the real world as I do over iRacing at the moment, and both help each other.”

As the tea drains, the Drive to Survive title screen circulates, and salt-dusted fingers scrape the final crumbs in the bottom of the bowl on the glass-topped table, Mike excuses himself; the sim still whirring away upstairs signals his intent to test for an upcoming online race. The preparation that goes into successful sim racing appears every bit as arduous and timeconsuming as in reality. “It’s still seat time, the seat just doesn’t move.”

Collecting my things by the door, I glimpse a framed Belardi Racing race suit poised for hanging propped up against the wall - just one more reminder that in a 2021 that has seen a seismic shift in the way digital motorsport has made the transition from living room pastime to serious business, the new stars of Esports will be contending with a prolific, unique, and very realworld honed titan of sim racing that is Mike Epps.

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IMAGE BY MATT WIDDOWSON

TEAM PARKER RACING TEAM PARKER RACING ARE SPENDING 2021 COMPETING IN THE BRITISH GT CHAMPIONSHIP. WITH ONE ROUND STILL TO GO, THEY HAVE ACHIEVED A BEST RESULT OF THIRD IN THE FIRST RACE AT OULTON PARK, AND CURRENTLY SIT SEVENTH IN THE OVERALL STANDINGS.

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THE BUGATTI SPECIALISTS WORDS BY ROB HANSFORD IMAGES BY MARK FELL THE PIT STOP 137

I

t’s fair to say that Bugatti isn’t a manufacturer that would readily be associated with the motorsport industry. Unlike many of its supercar rivals of today, it doesn’t have any manufacturer backed cars on any grid in the world, and that’s been the case for some time.

1996 was the last time a Bugatti featured in a major sports car race, when an EB110 was used in the Daytona 24 Hours. Before that, an EB110 raced at the 1994 running of Le Mans in the hands of privateer Michel Hommell, the first time a Bugatti had featured on the Le Mans grid in 55 years. On both occasions the car retired, generating little success and neither of these entries had any financial backing from Bugatti themselves. And when it comes to grand prix racing, you have to turn back time even further, all the way to 1956 when Maurice Trintignant had a one-off outing at that year’s French Grand Prix.

It would be a reasonable assessment to assume that Bugatti’s racing pedigree and heritage is somewhat lacking, but when you look closer into the company’s history it becomes abundantly apparent that that’s not quite the case.

The French manufacturer may not have much recent race history associated with its name, but pre-World War II, Bugatti was a motor racing giant, producing some of the greatest racing cars of its time. And although the Type 35 has rightly stolen the headlines

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for its huge success between the 1920s and 1930s, one extremely underrated but unequivocally beautiful model is the Type 59.

The Type 59 was effectively a continuation of the Type 35 and Type 51, but it never quite reached the dizzying heights of its predecessors. At that time the German manufacturers were receiving support from Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich while both Alfa Romeo and Maserati also had extremely competitive cars. A funding crisis on Bugatti’s part also didn’t help matters and so the team began sliding back further through the pecking order.

That’s not to say the Type 59 wasn’t successful. It finished fourth at the 1933 Spanish Grand Prix in the hands of Achille Varzi and had three podium results the following year, with two third place finishes at Monaco and Spain, while Rene Dreyfus won the Belgian Grand Prix in what was a 1-2 for the Type 59, beating Antonio Brivio by over a minute.

The car was competitive, but as Bugatti began to struggle financially compared to its rivals, the team’s results started to stutter and by 1938 the car was barely featuring at European circuits.

There was clearly a missed opportunity in terms of racing results for Bugatti, however, although the Type 59 was ultimately lacking in success, it more than made up for it with beauty and technical excellence. To this day it is still regarded as one of the most beautiful

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“THE FULL RESTORATION OF A GP CAR IS APPROXIMATELY 2,000 HOURS” - CHARLES KNILL-JONES racing cars of its time and it’s why Charles Knill-Jones, owner of Bugatti restoration specialists, Tula Precision loves working on them.

Although not an original, Knill-Jones has spent the last eight years building a recreation of the Type 59. It was a project he began working on shortly after taking over ownership of Tula Precision and is one of a variety of racing models situated in his workshop today.

“The Type 59 grand prix car is a recreation of an original car, a pure grand prix car,” explains Knill-Jones.

“It’s a model that we specialise in. We’ve got all the patents, castings, drawings and equipment.

“We’ve built and rebuilt six of them over the years, at least. This car is one that I started building eight years ago, just after I bought Tula for myself, and we finished it two and a half years ago for a client after I sold it to him to buy the building that we’re sitting in today.”

Tula Precision’s workshop isn’t the large industrialist factory building that may initially spring to mind and that’s exactly what Knill-Jones was after. It’s understated, low-key, but incredibly well equipped to restore a handful of cars each year.

Volume is definitely not the business of Tula. Each Bugatti that goes through a restoration process is examined to the minutest of details, ensuring that every single element of the car is perfect, and achieving that takes a lot of time.

“The full restoration of a GP car is approximately 2,000 hours,” says Knill-Jones. “ A Type 59 takes around 2,500-3,000 hours, and to take it to Pebble Beach is much longer.

“Bugattis, because of the materials that were used, because of the designs, they often get polished, plated, painted to within an inch of their lives for concourse style events and so they are very often shiny. The reality is when they left the factory, the speed of which they were being manufactured and the sort of turnover that the factory was putting out, the cars were actually quite crude. They were racing cars in effect.”

The Type 59s were originally built using an aluminium body and weren’t always finished to the highest of standards by Bugatti, for they were inevitably going to be subjected to some degree of damage and wear whilst pounding around any race track. It means that the cars are often leaving Tula’s workshop in a better condition than they would have been originally, although Knill-Jones added that there is a growing demand for cars to be restored to the same quality of the original build.

“There’s a big movement related to the barn find ideal, to have the cars a little bit softer, closer to where they were, not painted with gloss paint. A lot of cars are being brush painted now and castings less polished.

And in actual fact, some of the cars that command the higher values are the ones that haven’t been touched,

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haven’t been messed around in the ’70s and ’80s. That have been left dormant for 40 or 50 years or been in continuous ownership where they’ve been looked after by an individual owner/mechanic.”

Attention to detail is the absolute key for Tula. They may not always be working with original racing cars, but nonetheless, they are always sourcing original drawings to ensure the cars are absolutely identical to their authentic counterparts.

For many restoration companies, sourcing original drawings can be one of the most difficult aspects of the job, but Tula benefits from having strong working relationships with other Bugatti aficionados.

“Over the last 50 years, we have had a wonderful working relationship with the Bugatti Owners Club and the Bugatti Trust,”says Knill-Jones.

“In the 1960s and early ’70s several prominent members of the Bugatti Owners’ club went to Molsheim, the home of Bugatti, where the factory was, and rescued a lot of the original drawings, pattern equipment and parts that were being laid dormant. And in fact, some of them were being scrapped by the then Messier-Bugatti, which was an aviation company.

“A lot of it was brought back to England and became the basis of the spares department at the Bugatti Owners’ Club. The drawings ended up at the Bugatti Trust and if there is anything that we are missing from our own archives, it’s all but a simple

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telephone call or an email to the Bugatti Trust who file through all of their computer, scan drawings or the main hard directory and stick a drawing in the post to us. Over the last 50 years our library of drawings has also grown and we use those as our basis for all of our engineering.”

Having access to these sources is a major coup for Tula, especially when it comes to working on rare models, such as the Type 57SC Competition Electron Torpedo. The car was based on a road car model, but had been altered with Le Mans in mind. However, the Electron Torpedo never turned a wheel in anger in a major race before World War Two began.

“The Type 57 is a hark back to a car that went out of production.” Explains Knill-Jones. “It was designed by Bugatti to fill a strong desire for its clients to go racing in what was a production car.

“It had learnt from a lot of the grand prix Type 59 experience but had a two seater sports car body to comply with all of the regulations. Lighting, a horn, wings, etc. And to make it competitive Bugatti decided to use magnesium as its main material for constructing the body. The irony is, magnesium, although lighter than aluminium, is incredibly difficult to form, shape and stop it corroding.

“The car was seen at one of the Paris automobile shows but unfortunately the three cars that are thought to have been made never made it through the Second

World War. “It’s believed that there are only three photographs of it in period in existence and our American client has spent the last 20 to 25 years of his life putting all of his energy into reconstructing that example of Bugatti’s masterpiece.

The word “replica” is often used to describe cars such as the Type 59 and Type 57 that Tula Precision has built, but that would be a great injustice to what they actually are. They haven’t been created using elements from donor cars or are using a mix match of parts from a variety of models. These really are recreations, using

original drawings to create original parts so that they truly are identical builds to the equivalents built in period.

And it’s easy to see why Tula wants to restore and recreate these cars. They are exquisite machines that go beyond technical excellence. They are incredible works of art that deserve to be re-energised and maintained to the highest of standards and Tula is all too happy to oblige, providing us with the incredible reward of seeing these elegant machines in action again.

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TOBY’S JOURNEY

In his last column, Toby Trice gave an update on his progress in the Ginetta GT Academy. In his latest column, he explains what has happened since the last issue and how the season has panned out for him.

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So we had tested on the Tuesday, prior to that weekend and got the set up absolutely perfect. Friday practice went incredible, we were the fastest all day, even beating some of the Ginetta factory drivers that went out to try and beat my time and no one was successful. So straightaway, I knew that we would be on for a great weekend.

But motorsport always delivers lows and always delivers highs, it’s a roller coaster ride. What we sort of had planned for the weekend, didn’t quite go to plan.

We went into Q1 of qualifying with a goal of trying to get double pole and dominating again, as we have done all season and after two laps, I was buried in the gravel and that was the end of my qualifying session. It was not exactly what we had in mind, but it was just a case of just avoiding a car that had spun. It was either crashing into that car or beaching it and we chose the cheaper option. You know, at that point it was looking like we kind of messed up our hopes really for a good result at Silverstone, which is not what we wanted.

But the team and I got our heads together, of course it was not the best start to the weekend, but what we had was an opportunity to show what we really could do from the back of the grid all weekend. To show the fans, the sponsors, the team and show all the friends and family around us just how much fight we do have in us. Because we’d dominated all season, we’d not

Jakob Ebrey

ello everybody! I’ll cut straight to the chase with you all and say it’s been a wild one recently! The last time I spoke my championship lead in the Ginetta GT Academy was very healthy, and since then it has got even stronger.

But I had to face one of the tougher tracks on the calendar for me recently: Snetterton. We knew all season long that it could be a tough weekend as it’s not the track that I enjoy the most out of the calendar that we’ve got and to make matters worse, we turned up at Snetterton and I actually wasn’t very well.

So we just thought let’s do what we can, kind of get together and focus on banking as many points as possible. And in summary, we managed to score three clear wins which is absolutely bonkers! I was a little bit off the pace overall which was expected, but we just continued to hold strong and tweak the set up over the weekend. And the first time I actually drove Snetterton in the car was on the Friday in practice so we couldn’t ask for more than three wins. I was buzzing after that because we grew our championship lead going to Silverstone by 107 points which was an almighty lead going into that penultimate round. And the goal then really was to wrap up the championship live on ITV4 because that would be an absolute career highlight.

Jakob Ebrey

really had the opportunity to go through the grid and overtake. And yeah, we managed to get a couple of class podiums.

But the highlight of the weekend was when we raced on live TV on ITV4 for the very first time so I was in P8 on the grid and it was an all elbows out effort to try and get on the podium because it was so important to seal the championship and also show the world just what talent we’ve got so that when we look towards next season hopefully it will bring in potential sponsors, fans and then just to have interest of who the hell is Toby Trice as we grow the Team Trice family. Yeah, what a weekend it turned out to be. We managed to get that podium, we sealed the championship up and we all celebrated what was probably the best weekend of them all and now I’m the very first Ginetta GTA champion, which is incredible.

It’s amazing to be the very first champion because Ginetta have built this championship to help attract talent. The platform of the GT Academy is all about kind of growing talent for the future and to be crowned the very first GTA champion gives me that belief really that I’ve got the ability to go on within the world of GT motorsport. But knowing that I’ve written history within Ginetta, which is you know, hugely successful and there’s some amazing drivers come from Ginetta, look where Lando Norris is now, George Russell, just to name a couple. By no means am I of their calibre but the fact that I’ve won a championship that is there to help grow and nourish talent has given me the belief to sort of understand where we’re going to be in the next

three, four or five years so I’m really excited about it.

On the other side of things, the charity has been incredible. We’re supporting guys right across the country, and our group is growing now. But what’s been really special I think with the charity work is when we were racing at Silverstone, throughout the commentary at the ground and a little bit on TV, a lot has been mentioned around the work I’m doing to raise awareness of male fertility and the conversation is growing. And that really has been the ultimate goal all season. The championship was important but ending the stigma of male infertility has been our priority, getting people talking has been our priority. We’ve met loads of people now that have gone through fertility treatment through the paddock. More and more people are talking about fertility and that’s exactly it. So I feel like I’m doing my job and I’m really proud to be waving the FNUK logo on my car.

I also have some very exciting news! It has been very difficult to keep to myself, but I can now also announce my own fertility journey has come to an end.

I managed to have treatment in November of 2020.

And we hoped that it would improve our chance for children and all season long I’ve been keeping this very close to my chest, but I can finally announce that I’m going to be a father in the middle of December 2021! So being crowned champion has been incredible, it’s been a lifelong goal, but equally and more importantly, I’m about to be a father. What a year this has turned out to be!

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IN SHORT

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Image credit: Yamaha

THE END OF A CHAPTER, BUT START OF A LEGACY

BY ADAM PROUD

At the close of the 2021 season, Valentino Rossi will step off a MotoGP bike for the final time and will say goodbye to an illustrious career in motorcycle racing, which has spanned over two decades.

Not only has the 42-year-old won nine World Championships, but he has also sparked a fanbase across the globe which has put MotoGP at the forefront of motorsport. Like every successful competitor in motorsport, The Doctor has had his fair share of controversies over the years, but he will leave behind a legacy that no other rider will come close to replacing.

Pre-COVID-19, almost every race the MotoGP paddock visited was greeted by a sea of Rossi-themed yellow. I remember my first visit to a MotoGP race at Silverstone in 2017, and in whichever direction you looked there was a yellow cap, t-shirt or flag bearing the unmistakable ‘46’ that Rossi has held his entire career in racing.

But these fans did not just appear at the 1996 Malaysian Grand Prix, where the Italian made his World Championship debut in the 125cc class. Rossi earned these followers as the years went on, both through his incredible success through his career and with his fresh, witty personality which took the MotoGP paddock by storm.

Over the course of more than 400 races, the only rider to achieve this feat, the Italian has gone from a youngster with potential to a household name across the globe. The chances are if you see anything MotoGP themed whilst out in public, there will most likely be a VR46 theme to it.

A title-winning year in 1997 saw Rossi progress into the 250cc class in 1998 where he was also crowned champion in his second year, in 1999. A total of 30 starts across two seasons in the intermediate class which saw The Doctor achieve 14 wins and 21 podiums boosted him up to the premier class for the 2000 season, where a star was born.

It didn’t take long for Rossi to gel with the fastest machinery in motorcycle racing, as in his rookie year in the 500cc class he took 10 podiums from 16 races, with two victories to his name.

Rossi finished the year as runner-up, 49 points shy of champion Kenny Roberts Jr. In the years that ensued, nobody could come close to Rossi’s dominance, who won the World Championship in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005. This made him a seven-time World Champion at 26-years old.

The Doctor endured a tough couple of seasons in 2006 and 2007, where Nicky Hayden and Casey Stoner were crowned champion. But in the next two campaigns Rossi bounced back, with consecutive championship-winning years in 2008 and 2009, proving he was not done yet at the age of 30.

Since then, the 42-year-old has not been able to add to his championship tally, yet he has been a consistent podium finisher and has come close to a 10th title.

Speaking of that illusive 10th championship, Rossi came close in 2015, but instead of a title it was a bitter rivalry that was formed with the young-gun Marc Marquez. The pair had come close throughout the year, but it all erupted in the penultimate round at Malaysia, where the two made contact which saw Marquez on the floor and Rossi with a grid-drop in the final race at Valencia.

This ultimately put an abrupt halt to the Urbino-born racers hopes of winning the title that year, as Jorge Lorenzo went on to be crowned champion.

But as The Doctor waves goodbye to his motorcycle racing career in 2021, his passion for the sport will carry on for years to come.

With his brand-new Team VR46 making its debut in the premier-class in 2022, Rossi will still remain a key part of the paddock as he looks to find the next bright star of the future, who can follow in the footsteps of VR46.

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Image credit: Aston Martin F1

THE GREEN MACHINE

BY IAN PAGE

If you’ve watched the news at all this year, you’ll have seen amongst the sea of COVID-19, that climate change is a big topic.

Floods, forest fires, record temperatures and killer storms have all wreaked havoc on our planet. It’s an important issue with pressure on all companies and individuals to start thinking green and looking at our footprint on this little globe we call home.

It’s no secret that Motorsport is not the most environmentally friendly sport and, the further up the sport you go, the worst it gets. Transporting cars, equipment, and team personnel along with the image of drivers jetting all over the globe doesn’t make for a good carbon footprint.

Formula 1 and motorsport have a long history of trying to offset the demands of the sport with the ever-increasing need to become more sustainable. Looking at F1 as the vanguard of the sport, Sebastian Vettel joined volunteers to help pick litter during the British Grand Prix weekend at Silverstone earlier in the year.

It is just one of the many avenues the sport is going down in its efforts to be more environmentally friendly. This includes the 2014 introduction of hybrid engines, but just how does Liberty Media, and those who run the sport, plan to change how the sport impacts the environment?

2019 saw F1’s first ever sustainability strategy, aiming for the sport to be carbon zero by 2025. Through ultra-efficient and low carbon logistics, 100% renewably-powered offices, facilities and factories and hybrid-fuelled cars, the sport wants to see a reduction in carbon emissions by 2030.

By 2025, the sport wants to extend that net zero achievement to all events, ensuring they are fully sustainable. This will be through the use of sustainable materials at events with all waste to be recycled or composted. Through incentives and opportunities for fans to reach the race through greener means, to help circuit facilities ensure better fan wellbeing, and through encouraging local people to get involved in green projects in their area.

Now time for some figures: • In a full championship season, approximately 256,000 152 THE PIT STOP

tonnes of CO2 is generated by the sport.

• 45% of this comes from logistics, this includes the movement of team equipment, F1 equipment, Paddock Club equipment and tyres.

• 27.7% is from business travel, this is all air and ground movement from individuals as well as hotel impact for F1 team employees and event partners.

• A further 19.3% of carbon is from facilities and factories, this is all F1 owned or operated offices and facilities as well as team owned offices and facilities.

• 0.7% comes from emissions the power units emit across all team and all races including pre- and mid-season testing.

• Finally, the remaining 7.3% comes from event logistics which includes support races and broadcasting. Also, Paddock Club operations and any energy used by the sport and teams while at the circuit.

It goes without saying that these efforts are expected to be mirrored by the teams as well. All but a few teams have made their sustainability plans readily available with most teams looking to halve emissions over the next few years. Along with carbon neural factories and projects to offset any emission they do produce, the current crop of teams have made it very clear that they understand the desire for a cleaner sport.

It is worth mentioning, however, McLaren has led the way every year when it comes to these things since the team went carbon neutral in 2011. They received the FIA Sustainability Accreditation Award in 2013, with the Woking-based outfit awarded the FIA Environmental Certification framework every two years since with the most recent award in February 2020.

It feels very ambitious that all of these emissions will be reduced to zero in nine years’ time… For a sport that in many ways can’t function without large amounts of travel, logistics, personnel and at the very heart of it, a reliance on fuel, how successful this will be and the effect it will have on the sport in terms of cost and its spectacle remains to be seen.

Image credit: Escapade Living

ESCAPADE AT SILVERSTONE

BY ROB HANSFORD

Watching F1 cars hurtle through the Maggotts and Becketts section of Silverstone is a joy to behold, but imagine being able to watch it from your own home. I don’t mean watching the race from behind a screen on your TV, I mean watching trackside from your own home, soaking up the sights, the sound and the atmosphere. Yeah, exactly! Something that sounds so perfect, yet so unimaginable at the same time. But that’s exactly what will be possible from next year.

Escapade Living is pursuing their vision to provide the ultimate experience for motorsport enthusiasts, and in their bid to achieve that they are building a variety of different properties on the border of the notorious Northamptonshire circuit. In total Escapade will be constructing 60 properties, 15 being trackside apartments, giving owners an extraordinary view of the racetrack, 10 Dual-Aspect properties providing accommodation for up to 12 people and 35 Countryside properties that are situated further back.

Each property must be purchased as a secondary home, with the 125-year lease allowing owners to stay at their property for a total of 100 days. Those days can include race weekends meaning prospective owners will be able to spend time at their property watching some of the world’s greatest races from a variety of categories, including Formula 1, MotoGP, British Superbikes and the British Touring Car championship.

And being a second property for prospective clients, it means there’s money to be made for the owner as well. When the customer isn’t residing at the property, Escapade will manage it on the owner’s behalf. They will be able to let the property out to individuals on a short term basis with the owner receiving 35% of the total revenue.

It’s new territory for any UK circuit, with Silverstone due to be the first UK track to have purpose built accommodation constructed trackside, and while just having the views is success

enough for many prospective owners, Escapade aren’t stopping there.

Escapade is also constructing a clubhouse to compliment the individual properties, with owners and their guests having exclusive access. Like the trackside properties, the clubhouse will also be built on the side of the track, giving its own unique view across the Silverstone circuit, and it will also include state-of-theart simulator rooms for people to hone their driving skills, a gym, indoor swimming pool and sauna.

It’s a fully immersive experience, one you’d expect after paying a minimum of £650,000, but that immersive experience is taking on more than one form. Of course, there’s the benefits such as the clubhouse and its amenities, but Escapade are also taking things further by giving owners the opportunity to take part in exclusive track days and events at Silverstone and other circuits around the world.

Customers will be able to receive one-to-one tuition and there’s also the possibility to have a tailor made programme put together. In essence, what the client wants, the client gets.

Escapade’s ambition is that you buy more than just a property.

They are striving for people to purchase a lifelong experience. It’s about providing a product that allows an individual to immersify themselves into the racing world. Literally living and breathing in a race track and all the goodness that comes with it.

It’s unusual for Silverstone to agree to such a bold project, it’s unusual for any circuit to agree to such a bold project, but it’s definitely an eye-catching one that could help take the circuit to a whole new level.

It’s innovative, it’s exciting and something entirely different to any developments that have taken place at circuits around Europe in recent history, but it might just be the thing that makes Silverstone a pioneering circuit once again.

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IMAGE BY ED WAPLINGTON

ASTON MARTIN F1 ASTON MARTIN OFFICIALLY JOINED THE RANKS OF FORMULA 1 IN 2021, WITH LANCE STROLL AND SEBASTIAN VETTEL FORMING ITS DRIVER LINE-UP. WITH A CHANGE IN THE REGULATIONS, IT’S BEEN A TURBULENT YEAR FOR THE SILVERSTONE-BASED TEAM AND THEY CURRENTLY SIT SEVENTH IN THE CONSTRUCTORS’ CHAMPIONSHIP WITH SIX ROUNDS REMAINING.

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