Return of Marshall’s Vauxhall Firenza
Gregor Marshall has racing in his blood. His grandfather started the ball rolling, then his dad became a legend. His ambitions are more modest, though a Goodwood return beckons
It takes a special person to follow in the footsteps of a parent who achieved eminence, particularly in the same field. Expectational or aspirational, this apparent gravitational pull is for some irresistible. Not least in motorsport, which is less dangerous than it was but far more difficult to break into. Losing world champion fathers as children did not deter Stuart Graham from taking up motorcycle racing, or Damon Hill (whose Formula 1, Indianapolis 500 and Le Mans-winning dad Graham couldn’t stay away, even after grave injuries) jumping from two wheels to four to chase the same dream, then make history as F1’s first second-generation title-winner.
Faced with such a dilemma, other offspring have dabbled at racing then walked away, ploughed their furrows successfully in different directions, or competed for the hell of it at a sustainable level. Although there was no shortage of driving ambition, Gregor Marshall was told by his dad that if he wanted to race it would be without his help.
Gregor’s father Gerry Marshall, who died in April 2005, is
a legend. The greatest British showman, ‘Big Gerry’ was one of the few drivers followed by legions of fans from circuit to circuit. A promoter’s dream, which increased burger, beer and ice cream sales, his swashbuckling throttle-heavy style defied conventional logic that sideways isn’t fast. Over 40 years he racked up more than 620 race wins from 1445 starts, most against quality opposition, in an extraordinary range of cars.
Named after Autosport’s charismatic hard-drinking Scottish founder Gregor Grant, Marshall’s son was born in November 1977, after his father – with Hertfordshire-based Dutch tuning wizard Bill Blydenstein – had put General Motors’ Vauxhall marque on the racing map. He’d raced Fords, and would again, but Gerry’s brilliance in Viva GT, Firenza and Magnum models did much for sales to brand fans created by his on-track prowess.
In the mid-1970s, Marshall was almost unbeatable in the ultimate Formula 5000 Holden Repco V8-engined ‘Baby Bertha’ Supersaloon, a caricature Firenza which succeeded the massive and less wieldy Ventora ‘Big Bertha’, destroyed following brake failure at Silverstone in 1974. He subsequently cheated death when his Triplex Triumph Dolomite Sprint was tripped into a series of aerobatic rolls at Silverstone’s British Grand Prix meeting in 1979.
Best known as a tin-top sorcerer, Gerry also raced Historic sportscars from Lister-jaguar to Can-am Lola T222 and (unfathomably given his weight and girth) single-seaters, including a Lotus 61 Formula Ford! “I remember the Marsh Plant Lister living in a double-glazed, centrally heated carpeted ‘garage’ at his home, when the house didn’t have heating,” says Gregor.
He also recalls travelling with his dad when he was racing one of the Aston Martin DBR4 GP cars. “I called it the Green Tank, which may have been a little unkind,” he says of the bulbous front-engined machine, contemporary of the 1959 Le Mans 24 Hours and world sportscar championship-winning DBR1S, yet rendered obsolete by Cooper and Lotus rear-engined F1 chassis.
“After my parents split up, Mum, my two sisters and I lived in a top floor council flat in St Albans,” adds Gregor. “I like to think that grounded me. I was privately educated, but the only kid in a Catholic boys’ school with divorced parents. Mum dropped me off in a beaten-up Mazda estate. Dad had a beautiful house with a pool, and as a motor trader drove whatever flash cars he had in stock. The only time he took me to school we were late, so my friends didn’t see me arrive in one of the first Moonstone Blue Ford Sierra Cosworths, which was annoying.
“Buying an old Mini shell from Andy Hack, one of Dad’s mates, with the intention of turning it into a Mini Se7en racer at 17, didn’t change his mind so that was forgotten,” says Marshall. Eventually, though, he achieved his driving ambition, making his debut in the current Vauxhall Firenza at Castle Combe on 28 May 2007. At the age of 29 he thus became a third-generation racer.
Grandfather Albert Moses – who changed the family’s name in the 1950s – had competed in trials in a Dellow, then raced an ex-tulip Rally MG Magnette, his road car. He competed against Blydenstein (driving a tweaked Borgward Isabella), but hung up his helmet after rolling the MG at Snetterton. The car was still driveable, but Gerry and his younger brothers John and Martin rode home with a rope holding the rear doors closed!
“THE LISTER LIVED IN A CENTRALLY HEATED CARPETED ‘GARAGE’, WHEN THE HOUSE DIDN’T HAVE HEATING”
Triumph TR4 at Donington Park and two previous GMT races at Goodwood. In 2014 he saddled a clone of his dad’s 1969 Vauxhall Viva GT, and in 2019 finished 16th in Stuart Caie’s “fantastic” replica of Gerry’s 1978 Triplex Capri 3.0S. Despite his relative inexperience he’s impressing people. At six feet three and 115kg, he’s taller than his father was, and an altogether more equable character, quietly spoken and urbane.
But there’s no mistaking the determination and talent in those Marshall genes. Regrets? Gregor rues the family selling his Dad’s favourite car, the faithful Firenza ‘Old Nail’ in which Gerry won 63 races. Guyana’s General Motors guru Philip de Freitas and American Mervyn Dornford subsequently raced it. Paul Chase-gardener, who bought it at Bonhams’ Goodwood sale in 2010, had it restored and invited Gregor to drive it at the 2012 Festival of Speed. The old warhorse is for sale again, with the ex-dave Millington Brookhire club racer of the 1970s in the package! In bygone days a philanthropic patron would have wanted Marshall Jr in the hotseat. Any ardent Vauxhall fans fancy making new history?
“JUST STUDYING THE ENTRY LIST WAS DAUNTING. MY CO-DRIVER MATT NEAL AND I WERE GOING TO BE OUTGUNNED”