DAVE COYNE: I WISH I HAD PUSHED MYSELF HARDER
The 1990 Formula Ford Festival winner and scourge of the up-and-comers in the 1980s, Matt James puts the questions to a hero of national motorsport
It almost seemed impossible when Dave Coyne removed his crash helmet and emerged from the cockpit of his racer for the day. His chosen machine was usually a Formula Ford car, and Coyne wouldn’t look the same as all the waif-like teens climbing out of their own cars.
Regularly, they would all be roundly trounced by a car dealer who was far more advanced in age than them and, bluntly, far more round too.
Coyne’s path through single-seaters was a patchwork one as he juggled his business life with grabbing any motorsport opportunities he could. Formula Ford was his heartland and he drove for all three of the leading constructors – Van Diemen, Reynard and Swift – in the halcyon days of FF1600.
His victory in the 1990 Formula Ford Festival Final at Brands Hatch remains among one of the greatest climaxes to the event as he held off a fierce attack from Jean-Christophe Boullion and
Fionn Murray throughout the tense race.
There were bit-part appearances in Formula 3 that shone an all-too-brief spotlight on the latent ability he had behind the wheel. He was a winner in British F3000 in 1991 as well, which brought about a sliding doors moment that, via an International F3000 cameo, could have led him to grand prix racing.
Sliding doors – or, more accurately closing ones – is a theme for Coyne. Without the deep pockets to put himself in exactly the right place at the right time, the doors to Group C, the British Touring Car Championship, IndyCar and even Formula Nippon in Japan all creaked ajar briefly before slamming shut again.
Since the top-flight drives wound down, Coyne has dabbled on the short ovals and has more recently found a happy home in historic racing. And, we are grateful for the fact he found time to tackle the Motorsport News readers’questions and take a long walk down memory lane.
Question: What prompted you to go racing in the first place?
James Hilton
Via email
Dave Coyne: “I had a friend who used to race karts and I would go with him at the weekends to Blackbushe. I had a go a couple of times and my friend’s father told my dad he should buy me one as he thought I seemed to be quite quick, and it all went from there.
“I took up karting and it wasn’t long until I was semi-professional and I didn’t really go to school much after that. From the age 14, I was off around European racing. I raced for Martin Hines’s team. I was 1978 European Kart champion.
“Inevitably the move to cars came and my dad helped get me a Merlyn Formula Ford car and I progressed onto the tracks.”
MN: Was there always the plan to make a career out of motor racing?
DC: “In the beginning, after my first few years on the tracks, I thought it might happen. I used to work for [Ferrari road car dealership] Maranello Concessionaires just after I had left school and founder Colonel Ronnie Hoare used to help me out. A couple of guys from there would go and spanner when I started out in Formula Ford, and it all grew from there, really.
“I met a guy called Ken Stanford. In the beginning he was OK and I was racing for him in Formula Ford and we were down there testing for the Formula
Ford Festival. I got called up to John Webb’s office one day.
“Webby was the boss of the Brands Hatch Circuits and ran all these formulae. I went into Webb’s office, and it felt a bit like being sent to see the headmaster when you were at school. Webb said he had some good news and some bad news.
“He explained that the good news was that he would like to take me under the Brands Hatch Racing wing and he wanted me to ‘join’ them – although he didn’t say he was going to get me a race drive, or anything like that – but he said that the bad news was that I would have to get rid of Ken Stanford because Webb had had a load of run-ins with him in the past.
“I had only just met Stanford and I knew nothing about motor racing. I think that Festival would have been about my 10th ever race. I said to Webb that I didn’t see how I could part ways with Stanford because then I would really have no way of going motor racing, he had my car and he was running it for me. I said to Webb that I would have to decline.
“He was very unhappy and said that
I was just about to get a [young driver] Grovewood Award and if I don’t get rid of Ken, I wasn’t having it. After that moment and I decided to stay with Ken, Webby hated me with a vengeance [MN: Coyne did take a Grovewood Award in 1980, but it was one of the smaller value ones as a result of finishing second in the Star of Tomorrow FF1600 Championship].
“I was on the outside as far as Webb was concerned. I used to talk to Gerry Marshall quite a lot and he helped me out a bit when I started and he would tell me that Webb had the hump because I hadn’t listened to him. But I was so green at that stage, and I really didn’t know about the world I was entering.
“It was a horrible time to the point that when I went back to try and do the Formula Ford Festival after I had raced further up the ladder, he tried to ban me…”
MN: You were never rich and you didn’t come from a well-heeled family, but you managed to race. Who funded it?
DC: “Stanford sorted me out initially and he got [Moody Blues and Wings musician] Denny Laine and his Magpie Hotel firm onboard and it all went on from there. If I got the results, things would happen.
“And then the Delta constructor got involved and I did Formula Ford 2000 with them in 1981 and I shouldn’t have, really, because it wasn’t a good car. I should have concentrated in FF1600 really, but it was what Ken wanted to do. Things went on and on and on like that and I listened to people I really shouldn’t have done. I got offered a few drives that I couldn’t do because I was being looked after by Ken.
“Then I split with Ken for a bit and somehow he found out that Ralph Firman, the boss of Van Diemen, was interested in me driving for him in Formula Ford. So I went up to Snetterton at the end of 1983 and I spoke to Ralph and did a test and he offered me the works drive for 1984. We got some Duckhams sponsorship – Ralph was always quite good at getting a bit of money sorted out; he always was!
“We won the British FF1600 championship, although I didn’t really have a good Festival that year…” MN: It wasn’t one of the best Van Diemens, the RF84…
DC: “It wasn’t the best car in the world, no. I carried on in FF2000 with Ralph for 1985 but we never really got on top of that [although Coyne took three wins in the campaign].”
MN: All the while you were racing in Formula Ford 1600 and Formula Ford 2000, you were dipping in and out of Formula 3 although you never managed to put a full season together…
DC: “Gary Anderson, who was running the Anson chassis, got in touch through a mutual friend and I did a couple of races with them, but they never really had any money. We had some OK results though and I had a third place to Dave Scott and Tommy Byrne in the end-of-season TV race at Thruxton in 1981. But I was in and out, in and out of F3 but I just never really had any money…I was taking whatever drives I could. I would get in anything I could and try to show what I was worth.”
Question: Besides yourself, who was the best Formula Ford 1600 driver you raced against?
Michael Sarli Via Facebook
Question: Who do you consider the toughest Formula Ford rival you have ever raced against?
James Beckett Via email
Question: Who was the toughest rival that Dave ever had to face during his career?
Adrian King
Via Facebook
DC: “John Pratt. He was a really good driver. He was tough, we had some really good battles me and him. I went toe-to-toe with him for the British FF1600 title in 1984. He was in a Reynard, which I always thought was a slightly better car than my Van Diemen, but we used to go at it hammer and tongs.”
MN: Are there any other names you rate? DC: “There were lots of people I spent a lot of time wheel-to-wheel with! People like Gil de Ferran, Fionn Murray, Bernard
“I took a few drives that I really shouldn’t have...”
Dave Coyne