Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Race with Midnight by Rob Sauber Race with Midnight by Rob Sauber. Pictures of the Sauber C9-88 chassis #05 Silberpfeil at the AvD Oldtimer Grand Prix , 07.-09. August 2009 - Winning car of the1989 world sportscar championship driven by Jean-Louis Schlesser and Jochen Mass - Rob Sherrard and his team. Pictures of the Sauber C9-88 chassis #05 Silberpfeil at the AvD Oldtimer Grand Prix , 07.-09. August 2009 - Cameras: Nikon D300 + Nikon 3.5-5.6/16-85 plus Nikon D2x + Nikon 2.8/80-200 and 2.8/300 - AvD-Oldtimer-Grand-Prix: The return of the Group-C "Silver Arrow" N�rburging winner's car back in the Eifel again "Silver Arrow" from 1989, the highlight of the Group-C race Spectacular and legendary bolides from the 1980's and 1990's. Comeback of the Group-C. For the first time in many years, the spectacular sport prototypes will be starting again at the N�rburgring from the 7th - 9th August 2009 at the AvD-Oldtimer-Grand-Prix. The starter grid will present the most successful racing cars of the Group-C and the American IMSA GTP. „The Group-C was the greatest era of sports car racing", acknowledged the British racing legend Derek Bell, 1985 and 1986 sports car world champion in a Porsche 962C and altogether, four times winner of the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans. „One has again the possibility to experience nowadays, the golden times of Group-C racing “. Next to the many sister cars from Bell's former success cars, the Jaguar XJR and the Sauber C 9/88 Mercedes, the legends of the era, meet up to do battle again with each other. Triumph of the "Silver Arrow" N�rburgring, 20th August 1989, the curtain opens up for the most enthralling race of the season: Jochen Mass and Jean Louis Schlesser in the Sauber C 9/88, chassis no. 5 with the massive 720 bhp strong Mercedes V8, take the win in the fifth race of the Sport Prototype World Championship, two seconds ahead of team-mates Mauro Baldi and Kenneth Acheson. A double win for the sports car with "Swabian Noodle- power", with which, 20 years ago the colour silver returned to the racing circuits for the first time since 1955. The first modern age "Silver Arrow" dominated the season. Behind both N�rburgring winners, Jean Louis Schlesser and Jochen Mass, the team-mates took the places three and four. Sauber Mercedes won the team competition with a 71 point lead, ahead of the Porsche privateers Joest and Brun. The only "Silver Arrow" still racing in action. With chassis no. 5, the N�rburgring champions Mass and Schlesser also won in Donington and at the final in Mexico. After the last line-up in action at the season premiere in 1991 at Suzuka, that Schlesser with Mauro Baldi won, the successful car was sold to a collector. Mercedes focused henceforth on the C 11 with a carbon-fibre chassis, the rolling school-room of Michael Schumacher, Karl Wendlinger and Heinz-Harald Frentzen. Two years ago the Brit, Rob Sherrard, bought the first modern age "Silver Arrow" and ran it from the past season onwards in the Group-C races. It's the only Mercedes "Silver Arrow" in the 75 year history of racing legends that is still being run in motor sport. Porsche 962: the most successful sports car in Group-C. The Sauber C-9 Mercedes was indeed for two years the benchmark in Group-C, however, the neighbours kids from Zuffenhausen were from the start in 1982 the talk of the town in the category. Seven wins alone in Le Mans were booked to the 956/962 models; in addition five successes in the Long Distance World Championship, the American IMSA Series, the Japanese Sports Car Championship as well as successes in further national championships like the Interseries and the Supercup in Germany. For a time the Group-C racers from Porsche appeared invincible. Numerous Porsche 962s will be on start at the 37th AvD-Oldtimer-Grand-Prix. For example the car with the chassis number 130, with which the Reutlinger, J�rgen L�ssig, and team-mates Pierre Yver and Bernhard de Dryver took second place for the Primagaz Competition Team (F) at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1987. Or, the Joest-Porsche 962 (chassis 116) in white/blue Blaupunkt design, with which in 1988 Louis Krages alias „John Winter“, Frank Jelinski and Stanley Dickens made it as third on to the winner's podium at Le Mans. The Swede Dickens belonged in the following year with the Germans, Jochen Mass and Manuel Reuter in the Sauber C-9 Mercedes, to the winning team of the, probably, most famous sports car race in the world. Le Mans winner and German Group-C hero. The meanwhile 57 year old Dickens, is also in the Group-C contingent at the AvD-Oldtimer-Grand-Prix, from the 7th – 9th August at the N�rburgring. He's starting in one of altogether six Porsche 956/962s. Alongside, several British Spice racing cars belong to the field of starters. Furthermore a March 85G-Chevrolet that's driven by the G�nzburger, Peter Schleifer, as well as a 1984 Group-C car from the Sinsheimer brothers Gebhardt, likewise with a successful Le Mans history. Festival of sports cars and sport prototypes. Alongside the race for Group-C and IMSA GTP racing cars, visitors can experience on the second Weekend in August the ORWELL SuperSports Cup race with spectacular CanAm racing cars, as well as the races for sports cars from the 1950's. On Saturday the elegant, sporty two-seaters start an evening race containing the flair of the classical long distance race and an impressive arrival at the finishing line in the darkness. With it, the largest Oldtimer racing event in the world has developed into a real sports car festival. The fans of the two-seater bolides will surely get more than their money's worth at the AvD-Oldtimer-Grand-Prix 2009. Race with Midnight by Rob Sauber. Completing the CAPTCHA proves you are a human and gives you temporary access to the web property. What can I do to prevent this in the future? If you are on a personal connection, like at home, you can run an anti-virus scan on your device to make sure it is not infected with malware. If you are at an office or shared network, you can ask the network administrator to run a scan across the network looking for misconfigured or infected devices. Another way to prevent getting this page in the future is to use Privacy Pass. You may need to download version 2.0 now from the Chrome Web Store. Cloudflare Ray ID: 660950b5ad7b4aa4 • Your IP : 116.202.236.252 • Performance & security by Cloudflare. Aussie running Sauber Mercedes C9 in Group C Racing. Australian classic Group C racer Rob Sherrard has been having a ball recently, piloting his awesome Sauber Mercedes C9 at the Silverstone Classic and the Old Timer Grand Prix at the Nurburgring. Rob’s car is chassis number 05, the Team Sauber Mercedes # 62 driven by Jean-Louis Schlesser and Jochen Mass in the World Sports Car Championship in 1989. The car achieved a total of five victories in the WSC with Schlesser winning the drivers crown and Merceded Benz winning the constructors title. Schlesser teamed up with Jean-Pierre Jabouille and Alain Cudini to take 5th at Le Mans in an event won by Mercedes team mates Mass, Reuter and Dickens in the #63 sister car. Rob’s car holds the record for the fastest top speed ever recorded at Le Mans with a whopping 407km/h achieved down the Mulsanne Straight during qualifying for the ’89 24 Hours of Le Mans. This massive velocity led to the introduction of the two chicanes in the Mulsanne Straight from 1990. The reason the C9 is so quick is that it is powered by a fire breathing Mercedes Benz M119 twin turbo, 5 litre, V8 engine, which punches out 800 horsepower with the boost turned up. Given the silver machine weighs just over 1000kg it’s little wonder Rob and his team are having such fun and delivering results, like his two recent and very popular victories in front of 100 000 (mostly German) fans at the Old Timer Grand Prix. John Wayne’s family responds to actor’s controversial 1971 interview with Playboy. Ethan Wayne, John Wayne's youngest son, talks about what it was like growing up with his famous father and how he's keeping his legacy alive today. John Wayne’s family is speaking out after the late actor’s 1971 interview with Playboy resurfaced on social media, resulting in outrage and a fiery debate. “We hope America remembers John Wayne as we do: a devoted family man, great friend and cherished actor on the big screen, as well as for his continuing work to find a cure for cancer through the John Wayne Cancer Foundation and the John Wayne Cancer Institute,” the John Wayne Family wrote in a statement to Fox News. “It’s unfair to judge someone on something that was written that he said nearly 50 years ago when the person is no longer here to respond,” the statement continued. “Regardless of color, ethnicity or sexual preference, [our] father taught us to treat all people the same, with respect.” Tennessee-based screenwriter Matt Williams originally tweeted excerpts of the interview, which was quickly picked up on social media. The thread went viral on Twitter, generating thousands of responses. “Jesus f---, John Wayne was a straight up piece of s---,” tweeted Williams about Wayne’s racists and homophobic comments that were made in the May 1971 issue of Playboy. The Western movie icon, who was in his 60s at the time he was interviewed by Richard Warren Lewis for the men’s lifestyle magazine, was asked about numerous hot topics, including race and the state of Hollywood. When Lewis asked Wayne which films he considered perverted, Wayne listed 1969’s “Easy Rider” and “Midnight Cowboy.” “Would you say that the wonderful love of those two men in ‘Midnight Cowboy,’ a story about two f---- qualifies?” said Wayne, using a homophobic slur. “But don’t get me wrong. As far as a man and a woman is concerned, I’m awfully happy there’s a thing called sex. It’s an extra something God gave us. I see no reason why it shouldn’t be in pictures. Healthy, lusty sex is wonderful.” Wayne was also asked about educator/activist Angela Davis and discrimination. He responded, “With a lot of blacks, there’s quite a bit of resentment along with their dissent, and possibly rightfully so. But we can’t all of a sudden get down on our knees and turn everything over to the leadership of the blacks. I believe in white supremacy until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don’t believe in giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people.” Lewis then shot back at Wayne, asking if the actor was equipped to judge “which blacks are irresponsible and which of their leaders inexperienced.” Wayne responded, “It’s not judgment. The academic community has developed certain tests that determine whether the blacks are sufficiently equipped scholastically. But some blacks have tried to force the issue and enter college when they haven’t passed the tests and don’t have the requisite background.” “I don’t know why people insist that blacks have been forbidden their right to go to school,” continued Wayne. “They were allowed in public schools wherever I’ve been. Even if they don’t have the proper credentials for college, there are courses to help them become eligible. But if they aren’t academically ready for the step, I don’t think they should be allowed in. Otherwise, the academic society is brought down to the lowest common denominator. “… There has to be a standard. I don’t feel guilty about the fact that five or 10 generations ago these people were slaves. Now, I’m not condoning slavery. It’s just a fact of life, like the kid who gets infantile paralysis and has to wear braces so he can’t play football with the rest of us. I will say this, though: I think any black who can compete with a white today can get a better break than a white man. I wish they’d tell me where in the world they have it better than right here in America.” Wayne also spoke harshly about Native Americans when asked if he felt any empathy for them, considering they played an essential role in his films. “I don’t feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from them if that’s what you’re asking,” said Wayne. "Our so-called stealing of this country from them was just a matter of survival. They were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves… Look, I’m sure there have been inequalities. If those inequalities are presently affecting any of the Indians now alive, they have a right to a court hearing. But what happened 100 years ago in our country can’t be blamed on us today.” Reactions toward Wayne’s shocking statements were split on social media. While some immediately slammed the star, others wondered if Wayne, who has been dead for nearly four decades, was a product of his time. Some also pointed out it was worth more to focus on the injustices impacting America today. “To the people saying, “You can’t dig up the past & expect to like what you see” from this #JohnWayne interview you are missing the pointer,” tweeted one user. “We don’t like what we see now & sadly ppl still romanticize, venerate and imitate huge douche bags from the past. So calling it out is right.” “John Wayne died in 1979,” commented another. “The fact that some people are outraged now over what he said in a 1971 Playboy interview is just peak outrage culture. “It’s not only ridiculous but it cheapens truly egregious events worthy of real outrage and attention. It’s like crying wolf every time.” “You guys don’t need to go back to John Wayne to find racist homophobes,” chimed Whitney Cummings. “Maybe we should focus on the alive ones?” This isn’t the first time the infamous interview has stirred headlines. In 2016, The Guardian reported California lawmakers rejected a proposal to create John Wayne Day to mark his birthday after several legislators described statements he made about racial minorities. In December 2018, Wayne’s youngest son, Ethan Wayne, President of John Wayne Enterprises, told Fox News he was aware of negative statements made against his father due to his racist remarks. He insisted Wayne’s beliefs have been misunderstood over the years. “He wanted to work with people who earned their place,” the 56-year-old explained. “He didn’t think anybody should get a job because he was a man, because she was a woman, because they were gay, because they were straight, because they were Chinese, African-American or Mexican. He thought you should get a job because you were the right person to do that job. Because you had skill and talent and you would show up and get the job done. He didn’t care what you were. “Somebody, a Latina representative up in Sacramento, shot down a bill for John Wayne Day because he was racist. [But] he was married to three Latin women. It’s just crazy how things get blown out of proportion because he was really an open, caring, loyal, supportive man.” David Price, Thirty Years Without Getting Bored! The wheel has turned full circle for David Price, one of motor racing’s most experienced team managers. Having spent five years managing cars for Don Panoz, including running no fewer than five at Le Mans in 2000, he has just accepted an invitation to step back in time with the Irish-American and was last seen running the DeltaWing Panoz in the Sebring 12-hours. It was a short outing, as the car was far from ready. “I was at the Autosport International Show in January and I received a call from Don, he wanted to see me. It turned out he was at the show about a 100 yards away from me. So we met and we talked. “I need you to come back, I miss you pissing me off every day” he told me. “I’m not sure I miss you pissing me off every day” Price responded, but there was an inevitability about their renewed relationship. “He does take a bit of understanding and we’ve had our ups and downs, but we get on fine now.” It turned out that the main reason Panoz wanted to run the DeltaWing at Sebring was to show off the new coupe, which will race later in the season. Meanwhile, the open car is undergoing a test programme, with Katherine Legge and former Panoz driver Johnny O’Connell, and is scheduled to compete at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on May 11th in the hands of Ms Legge and Andy Meyrick. It’s an adventurous project with an all-new engine, designed and built by Panoz Group’s Elan Motorsports Technology, replacing the Nissan engine which was withdrawn at the end of last season. “A month before Sebring the engine hadn’t been finished, the installation hadn’t been done and Michelin had pulled out. I didn’t have any equipment and I didn’t have a crew, which isn’t really the way you want to prepare for the first race of the season” says Price. Bridgestone stepped in (“they were amazing, they produced tyres in a month”), he took crew from Krohn Racing which was moving to a new location, rented equipment, and the new team was formed from the ground up. “I was bored” Price reflects, a condition that has marked a few changes of direction in his career, but he seems to be bored no longer. From school, Dave Price completed a Ford apprenticeship then went to work for Jeff Urens’ Race Proved, building the Cortina Savage for the London to Sydney Marathon, then rebuilding it for the 1970 World Cup Rally in which he was one of the three drivers (and riding mechanic). Riding in the wake of the factory Ford Escorts, he collected spares and Minilite wheels that had been abandoned. “I would have made a few bob if I had a van to fill.” That was the end of his international rally career, but says he would “jump at the chance to compete again.” With former Willment employee, John Bracey, he formed the Bracey Price Racing partnership in 1975 to prepare and run race cars and subsequently formed David Price Racing to compete in the British Formula 3 Championship. In 1978 they would run the Unipart F3 team, separate from the touring car and rally programmes, with Ian Taylor and Tiff Needell, held back by the uncompetitive Triumph Dolomite engines. In 1979 with Nigel Mansell and Brett Riley, they won the first event of the year at Silverstone, but Nigel ended the season with a huge cartwheeling accident with Andrea de Cesaris, fracturing some vertebrae. Other graduates were Martin Brundle who, in 1982 won two race, took six poles and ended up third in the championship, and Johnny Dumfries, who dominated the British F3 Championship in 1984. DPR also branched out into the French F3 Championship, winning the title with Pierre Petit (1982). Moving away from single-seaters, Price accepted an invitation to manage Richard Lloyd’s GTi Engineering Porsche team in 1987-88, the highlight of this venture being Jonathan Palmer and Mauro Baldi’s victory in the two-part Norisring World Championship race. It was not a full-time job as Price was busy developing his composites business. Price was at the forefront of making carbon-fibre components and even monocoques for the Sauber Mercedes C11 and 291. After Silverstone in 1988, Sauber team manager Max Welti invited Price to run the team, which succeeded in winning the FIA World Sports-Prototype Championship in 1989, making Jean-Louis Schlesser the driver champion, and more important perhaps, scooped first, second and fifth positions overall at Le Mans. “When Max approached me at Silverstone it did Richard a favour as he was short of money. Max worried about the organisation while I ran the pitlane for them, as the team was expanding rapidly. I ran the Schlesser-Baldi car in 1988 while Leo (Ress) ran the other car for Jochen Mass, then in 1989 the Baldi-Acheson Sauber Mercedes.” The two Swiss cars were in contention for the World Championship right to the final round in Mexico City. The Sauber Mercedes team was withdrawn from Le Mans after qualifying in 1988 following an explosive tyre failure (“they had so much downforce!”) but made amends with a sweeping victory in 1989 with Jochen Mass, Manuel Reuter and Stanley Dickens taking the honours ahead of Acheson, Baldi and Gianfranco Brancatelli (who was, as we heard from Acheson recently, just too slow). “Those Saubers were lovely cars, proper cars. They had loads of power from their V8 twin-turbo engines and were easy on the fuel. It was a great team to work with. When Jochen Neerpasch came, he changed the setup for 1990” [he started the ‘young driver’ scheme with Schumacher, Frentzen and Wendlinger]. Price was then invited to manage Nissan’s World Championship team in 1990, taking Acheson and engineer Bob Bell with him, but it was not a happy time for any of them. “Too many people had vested interests” is all Price wants to say about that. He was then invited to manage the Brabham Formula One team in 1991, working with the Brundle-Blundell duo. After that he took a three-year sabbatical to further the burgeoning composites business. Apart from all the motorsports work, DPS Composites was at the forefront in making ultra-light bicycles, and he spent a couple of happy years running a mountain bike team. “They were expensive, cost a couple of grand even in those days” he recalls. “Flavio Briatore bought one and had it nicked from his garage in Belgravia in less than a week… I don’t think he ever rode it!” In 1995 John Nielsen was instrumental in introducing Price to Thomas Bscher, the German banker who was active in historic racing and fancied a switch to the new BPR Global Endurance Series with the McLaren F1 GTR. “I knew John from Formula 3 days. He and Thomas were making plans to compete in BPR and he asked me if I’d be interested in running their team. He called me at the right time: I was bored. Then Moody Fayed came along and we ended up running two cars.” Bscher had backing from the West cigarette company, while Fayed was a scion of the Harrods-owning family, and the two DPR run McLarens presented top class opposition to the Gulf sponsored team’s two lead drivers, Ray Bellm and Lindsay Owen-Jones. “We spent quite a lot of money developing the car, particularly the wheel retention and fuel filling systems to speed up our pit stops as the Goodyear tyres we were using had to be changed every stop, unlike the Michelins of the Gulf cars which could double stint. We won the World Championship in the first season – I still call it the World Championship! – and we finished third at Le Mans after leading for 21 hours.” In the West McLaren, Bscher and Nielsen scored outright wins at Monza and Donington Park, and were on the podium at Le Castellet, Jarama, the Nürburgring, Anderstorp, Nogaro and Zhuhai. The results were ample to give Bscher and Nielsen the BPR title, to the chagrin of Ray Bellm who won four of the first five races and another later in the season, but was still out-scored. “Thomas was a good driver, better than I expected” Price admits. “He and John were fast and consistent” but their bid to win Le Mans failed as the Dane crashed the McLaren on cold tyres after a long pit stop. The Harrods McLaren joined the contest at Monza, the third round of the series, with lead driver Andy Wallace partnered by Justin Bell. The yellow and green car looked a picture, and the debut was accompanied by a posse of glamour girls with teddy bears (the stuffed variety!). This was Bscher’s first win, while Wallace and Bell finished fourth, just off the podium. Bellm and Maurizio Sala won at the Nürburgring, Bscher and Nielsen were third, Wallace and Bell fifth, and the result really stunned the German fans as McLarens claimed all five top positions. German pride was restored only by the knowledge that the McLarens were powered by bespoke BMW V12 engines, beautiful power units designed to last an entire season without a rebuild. Wallace and Justin were joined by five-time Le Mans winner Derek Bell for the 24-hours and theirs was a valiant effort, leading for much of the distance in constantly changing weather conditions. In the night, JJ Lehto was catching the Harrods McLaren by as much as 12 seconds per lap in the Ueno Clinic-sponsored McLaren (“he was absolutely fantastic in the rain, in the night” admires Price), but the Harrods effort was ultimately undone by a clutch failure three hours from the end, steadily losing ground to finish two scant laps behind the Ueno Clinic McLaren. Moody Fayed might have been disappointed by the result, but the next three BPR races cheered him up no end. Olivier Grouillard replaced Justin Bell, and he and Wallace dominated three of the next four events at Silverstone, Nogaro and Zhuhai. What a way to finish the season! The only let-down was a retirement in the hot, humid Suzuka 4-hours when a wheel fell off the Harrods McLaren, inexplicably, while third driver Karl Wendlinger was driving. “Andy was mighty in the McLaren, and although Grouillard was a bit wild he did get results, so all in all it was a very good season.” The pendulum swung to the Gulf McLaren team managed by Michael Cane in 1996. Bellm and James Weaver won four races outright, enough to take the BPR title. Bscher won two events, at Monza with Nielsen and at the Nürburgring with Peter Kox, while various incidents befell the Harrods McLaren, Wallace and Grouillard winning only at Silverstone. Wallace will never forget the race at Anderstorp, the airfield circuit in southern Sweden, when a huge ball of rubber was thrown up and smashed the windscreen right in front of his face, showering the interior with fragments of glass, some of which went into his eyes. Wallace steered the car back to the pits, a new screen was fitted in double-quick time and the yellow McLaren still managed to finish in fourth place overall. Finishing fourth and sixth at Le Mans in 1996 was more satisfying than finishing third the year before. “We were so disappointed to be third in ’95 after leading for so much of the time” says Price. “In ’96 there was a much stronger field and at midnight we were so far behind, about 22nd, we were nowhere. But we kept at it and in the end the West car was fourth [Bscher, Nielsen and Kox] and the Harrods car was sixth” [Wallace, Grouillard and Derek Bell]. Under increasing family pressure, Moody Fayed then withdrew the Harrods McLaren from the series (“his uncle reckoned it was more expensive than bank-rolling Dodi’s efforts as a film producer”). The debut of the Porsche factory’s GT1-96 at Brands Hatch in September had the effect of a hand grenade tossed into the paddock. The BPR series was framed for gentlemen drivers, effectively, in privately run team cars, and the GT1-96, which duly won the Kentish four-hour race at a canter, was hugely controversial. Ray Bellm formed a protest movement which took root at Suzuka, but their protests fizzled out when the FIA, fronted by Max and Bernie, announced that the controlling body would run the FIA GT Championship in 1997, and further, that it would be run by Stéphane Ratel, the ‘R’ in BPR. Game, set and match to the FIA. Bscher switched his car to the Gulf camp, with support from BMW, and it was time for David Price Racing to move on. Boredom? Not a bit of it. DPS were supplying monocoques and other components to Adrian Reynard, who designed and built the Panoz Esperante GT cars for Dr. Donald Panoz. “Don said he would like me to run a couple in the World Championship. I said ‘talk to me about it’ because I thought he wanted me to buy them, but it turned out that he would own them and I would run them and Jean-Paul (Driot) would run one. Trying to set up a front-engine car was not easy and we had a lot of problems with the engines, horrendous, but we got them sorted to quite a good level though they’d never compete with the McLarens and the Mercedes.” David Brabham and Perry McCarthy drove one car; Andy Wallace and James Weaver the other, and they climbed steadily up the results sheets as the Roush Ford V8 engines were improved. Towards the end of the season Brabham and McCarthy mounted the podium at Sebring, third overall in the first American round. To Don Panoz, and Price, it felt like winning. Panoz Motorsports settled at Road Atlanta in 1998 under the direction of Tony Dowe, while Driot’s DAMS organisation ran a respectable team in Europe, including David Brabham and Eric Bernard on the driver lineup. David Price Racing was put in charge of an exciting new project, preparing the Zytek hybrid assisted Panoz Q9, famously dubbed ‘Sparky’. It was the first-ever hybrid car to compete at Le Mans and was finished only just in time for pre-qualifying, and failed to make the cut for the 24- Hours. James Weaver was 16 seconds off the pace of the top GT cars, handicapped by the Q9 carrying 160 kg of extra weight with the batteries and electric motor, but more work was carried out before the inaugural Petit Le Mans in October. Nielsen was recruited to drive with Christophe Tinseau and Doc Bundy. ‘Sparky’ qualified 12th and had a steady run, delayed by a broken suspension to finish 12th. Living up to its nickname, the Q9 was seen shooting sparks into the cockpit as darkness fell on the Atlanta track. “John asked me what he should do. I told him ‘just don’t touch it’ and he kept going, and finished second in the GT1 category.” Price took time off from Panoz to run two BMW V12 LM prototypes owned by Thomas Bscher and Kasumichi Goh in key events in 1999 with Steve Soper, now the team’s professional driver. The season started badly, very badly in fact, as Soper crashed the precious BMW out of the last turn at Sebring. “Be careful Steve, there’s an accident in the last turn.” “I know, Dave, it’s me!” This exchange has passed into folklore, but it’s still worth repeating. Bscher was seriously angry, not so much that Soper had crashed, but that the Englishman refused point blank to offer an apology. “I am a professional driver and I do not apologise” Steve told me. “The entrant takes that risk.” That’s as may be, but a little ‘sorry’ would have calmed things down no end with the ‘gentleman owner’. Amends were made, handsomely, at Le Mans. Bscher, Soper and Bill Auberlen raced to fifth place overall, thanks in large part to Soper driving the maximum permitted 14 hours, a sterling performance which earned him fulsome praise from Bscher. “I’ve never driven so much in all my life” Soper told Price. “I’ll never drive for you again!” Nor did he, but they are still firm friends. Price was back running the Panoz sports car programme in 2000, a season that included a five-car onslaught at Le Mans, including a couple of privately owned Esperantes. Mario Andretti joined the stellar line-up and against expectations all five reached the finish, “not all in one piece, we had a couple of engine problems and lots of punctures, but they were there at the end and Don seemed pleased.” That same year Panoz achieved a rare victory in Europe, when David Brabham and Jan Magnussen won the 3-hour race at the Nürburgring, one of two European events within the American Le Mans Series. “We got a bit lucky as there was some rain early on and we kept David out, on slicks, while the others changed tyres. The track dried quickly and we got a handy lead which we kept to the end.” Price continued with Panoz into 2001, introducing the new and troubled LMP07 prototypes which suffered at Le Mans from electronic troubles and engine vibration. It was the first time that neither car finished the race and after Le Mans, Price received a call from Panoz saying he wasn’t needed anymore. Panoz continued to run the LMP cars for another couple of years before switching to the GT category with an Esperante. In 2003 Price gave John Nielsen, his then son-in-law, a hand running a Zytek prototype in the FIA Sportscar Championship, then took a break from racing to concentrate once more on building up his composites business, which had expanded into facilities in America and Wales. Missing racing again, he got involved in the Formula Renault V6 Eurocup series in 2004, running amongst others, current McLaren GT factory driver Rob Bell, then was granted one of the much coveted GP2 franchises and ran GP2 with Ryan Sharp and Olivier Pla in 2005, winning two races. David Price Racing also managed the A1 Team USA in the A1 Grand Prix series in 2005-06, but after four seasons back at the sharp end of single-seater racing, Price sold his team (“I got out at the right time”). Proving that you can’t keep a good man down, he reappeared back in sportscars/GT racing in 2011 running the Gulf Racing Middle East team, with Aston Martins the first year and – turning full circle – with McLaren’s new MP4-12C GT3 the following year. Apart from the driver management he already does, he says he would like to do some TV punditry. “Just to give an opinion, I think I know a bit by now.” I don’t want to retire, I’d get bored!” There’s the b-word again. Working with Don Panoz, though, is guaranteed to keep boredom at bay for a bit longer yet.