Chapter 11 Formula 5000
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CHAPTER 11 Formula 5000 acing fame has a half-life somewhere enterprises fall prey to unanticipated technologies, OPPOSITE Advice from R between yogurt and sour cream. For every or the ennui of enthusiasts, or the vicissitudes of technical mastermind abiding legend, there are hundreds of drivers sponsor relationships, at which point they either Jim Hall (left) was always who were known in their day, and then briskly adapt to a new direction or fade away. valuable, as proven by downgraded to Wikipedia footnotes. All the Even the few institutions with seeming three American Formula world loves a winner but sustained winning is longevity are stable in name only: the Grand Prix 5000 championships. hard, especially against the best. A young driver car has defined open-wheel competition for over Mechanic Davey Evans can appear in a blaze of potential and disappear 110 years, and IndyCars have exemplified oval shares Jim’s counsel. just as quickly when his promise goes unrealised. racing since the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911, but Getty Images/Alvis Upitis An up-and-coming racer may achieve his dream neither is a model of stability. In fact, the opposite of joining an established team and then struggle is true. With increasing regularity, the sanctioning to compete with last year’s technology. Pity the bodies for Formula 1 and IndyCar upend their driver signed by an outfit that goes belly-up mid- regulations in reaction to technological threats season, unlikely to be paid and with little chance or shifts in public perceptions. As the rules lurch of finding another ride, maybe ever. from one specification to another, engineers are Even a successful driver can find himself obliged to invent new wizardry, team owners silently apprehensive after injuries (like me) or must scurry to upgrade sponsorships, and fans temporarily retired (also like me). If a driver isn’t habitually moan about cutbacks in horsepower, continually in the public eye, he stops existing for emasculation of the aural engine delights, or teams, media and fans alike. Even the greats can’t distortions of styling. escape the long shadows of age and declining Formula 5000 is the poster child for a great motivation. Those who are wise stand down series lost. before they embarrass themselves. Abandoned after the 1976 season, Formula It isn’t just drivers who are permanently 5000 is now remembered largely by a handful temporary. Volatility echoes throughout motor of resurrected cars entered in occasional historic racing, among constructors, categories and races. Yet, in the first half of the 1970s, Formula championships. Whatever happened to BRM, 5000 was a shop window for motor racing, offering Cooper, Brabham and Tyrrell? For that matter, brilliant contests between great drivers competing where are Formula Junior, the Tasman series for handsome purses. While Formula 5000’s open- and Group C? Sooner or later, most motorsport wheeled single-seaters weren’t quite as nimble as 220 BRIAN REDMAN FORMULA 5000 221 ABOVE My affair with Formula 1 thoroughbreds and not quite as quick new Lotus 49 on pole and Jim Clark in an identical between Formula 1 and serious sports car racing. For new and experienced teams alike, a ABOVE After winning Formula 5000 started in a straight line as IndyCar stallions, they were car took the engine’s maiden win. The Ford That soon changed. season with a fast, reliable Formula 5000 car was the first heat at Ireland’s after my short- just as fast around many tracks, and faster on DFV went on to become the most famous racing In 1968 the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) considerably more affordable than either Formula Mondello Park in 1971, lived South African some. Mario Andretti said he could never lap engine in motorsport history, with one fortunate allowed its Formula A class to fit 5-litre motors, 1 or IndyCar. What made the series a roaring a cloud of oily smoke retirement, with my Riverside in his Formula 1 car as fast as he did in unintended consequence. creating a racing use for the universally available success, however, was the prize money, which signalled a holed sump first win coming in his Formula 5000. As Formula 1 constructors increasingly 302 cubic inch small-block Chevy V8 but also was at least equal to the purses offered by the and my retirement from Sid Taylor’s McLaren Over a career that encompassed Formula 1, embraced the 3-litre DFV, teams elsewhere began similar motors from Ford, Dodge and even AMC elite established series and usually superior. Long the second heat. M18 at Brands Hatch the Can-Am, sports prototypes and Formula to turn to traditional 5-litre V8s for a more cost- (American Motor Company). Thus was Formula before ‘Deep Throat’ instructed Woodward and LAT in April 1971. 5000, it was the latter that I found the most efficient way to go just about as fast. These 5-litre 5000 born in the USA, where it grew into a Bernstein to ‘follow the money’, racing teams and LAT professionally satisfying. It was also the most engines were cheap, strong, simple to build and series as American as the throaty rumbles of drivers had made this their mantra. Some top- financially rewarding. awesomely powerful. its signature motors. level Formula 1 and IndyCar entrants were pulled Formula 5000 – for cars with engines of up Although these iron small-block engines were into Formula 5000 by financial opportunity, Beginnings to 5,000cc – took hold and the category rapidly compact enough for use in single-seaters, they while drivers loved its intense competition, with In 1966 the FIA raised Formula 1 engine grew in Britain, mainland Europe, Australia, were heavier than the aluminium power plants in winning owing more to preparation and skill capacity from 1.5 litres to 3.0. Team Lotus’s Colin New Zealand and South Africa. By 1969 it was Formula 1 and IndyCars, but the extra weight was than to factory budgets. Chapman – eternally wheeling and dealing – sufficiently robust to support a European Formula more than offset by the brawn of 500bhp. Since so persuaded two brilliant engineers, Mike Costin 5000 Championship. Although such series were many of the mechanical parts were off-the-shelf, Formula 5000 in Britain and Keith Duckworth, to design a lightweight V8 exclusively for Formula 5000 cars, there were finished Formula 5000 chassis were relatively Early in 1971, I returned from my brief South engine that came to be known as the Cosworth other opportunities to fill out the season and inexpensive to fabricate and their motors were African retirement to learn that I had become DFV (Double Four Valve), and then convinced amortise new-car investments, such as free-for-all differentiated only by the subtle creativity of each professionally invisible. Somehow it seemed Ford’s Walter Hayes and Harley Copp to fund it. Formule Libre races contested by an array of single- artisan engine builder. In consequence, cars from inevitable that Sid Taylor, that irrepressible racing In the Cosworth DFV’s initial outing at the 1967 seaters. As the Formula 5000 schedule solidified, different constructors with engines from different entrant, would emerge as my rescuing angel. At Dutch Grand Prix, Graham Hill put Chapman’s occasional drives came my way as helpful fillers craftsmen ended up closely matched on track. the time I fitted Sid’s template perfectly: needy, 222 BRIAN REDMAN FORMULA 5000 223 ABOVE Marion gives cheap and willing to drive anything. In what and I did remarkably well in that troubled year, ABOVE AND LEFT During her support at our local became a serial habit, Sid and I moved in and out taking two wins, two seconds and one third. 1971 my big Formula circuit, Oulton Park, in of each other’s lives with disconcerting frequency. This was despite missing three rounds because 5000 rival was Frank Cheshire. Her happiness Sid Taylor was nothing if not colourful, ever one clashed with the Targa Florio and two more Gardner in a Lola. At reflects mine, as I loved present in motor racing but not within the occurred while I was recovering from the injuries Snetterton in August every moment of my inner circle of establishment teams. He made I suffered there. Upon my comeback, the tiring I held him off until he six seasons spent in a practice of acquiring the newest racing cars M18 and I endured a quartet of miseries, failing attempted what is Formula 5000. and capitalising on talented drivers in either the to finish three consecutive races (at Thruxton, best described as an Brian Redman collection formative or opportunistic stages of their careers. Silverstone and Oulton Park) and then crashing in extremely brave pass – His lifetime list of drivers reads like a Who’s the next (at Snetterton). and took us both out. Who? of racing: Denny Hulme, Jody Scheckter, That accident involved Frank Gardner, the Mike Dixon Vern Schuppan, Tony Brise, Frank Gardner, Jack development driver for Lola. Frank had squeezed Brabham, Mike Spence, Peter Revson, Trevor a Chevy V8 into a lightweight Formula 2/Formula Taylor, Alan Jones, Patrick Tambay, Brett Lunger, Atlantic T242 chassis, rendering every other car Howden Ganley, Sam Posey, Eddie Cheever, Keke in the Formula 5000 series out of date. With this Rosberg, Johnny Cecotto, Marc Surer, Derek Daly, weapon, he pipped me for pole by a whole second Geoff Lees, Roberto Guerrero, Jan Lammers, but, at the start of the first of the two 12-lap Tommy Byrne and me. heats, I jumped into the lead. I kept him at bay The 1971 Rothmans Formula 5000 for eight laps but then Frank challenged at the Championship was run over 17 rounds, mainly hairpin.