DEREK BELL
The Legend
Just to give you fair warning, this column contains a blatant plug. By the time you read this, copies of my new book Derek Bell: All My Porsche Races will be hitting the shelves. Hopefully, they won’t stay there. Written in conjunction with Octane regular Richard Heseltine, it details the many races I contested aboard a Porsche during my career as a professional wheelman. By my reckoning, I started 200 between 1971 and 2000, not including subsequent outings in Historics. That’s in everything from a 917 to a 962C via a 924 Carrera GTR and heaven knows how many variants of 935. To put it simply, there were plenty of them and my name remains inextricably linked with the marque as a result.
The funny thing is, I had no idea that I had done that many until I was approached about collaborating on the project. I had already done one book, or rather two versions of an autobiography with the late Alan Henry, and took some persuading. I wasn’t convinced the world really needed another Derek Bell masterwork, but then I was presented with the list of races, which went on and on and… I came around to the idea and it was interesting, if occasionally exasperating, trying to recall the finer details of what I was doing on a particular Sunday afternoon decades ago; how heroic I was in the race; what changes I made to the car’s set-up in free practice; what hi-jinks ensued after the chequered flag fell. I don’t know about you, but there are times when I will walk from one room to another and on arrival will have forgotten why I made the trip. My memory is, I think, pretty good, but I can’t remember everything.
What struck me during the early stages was that there were events that I could recall with pinpoint accuracy, or so I thought, but where Richard’s research didn’t quite tally with what I had told him. The year would be out, or suchlike. Then there were other races I simply couldn’t remember at all, including ones that I won, but, when presented with photos or old race reports, long-dormant memories came flooding back.
It’s a weird experience doing this sort of thing, especially for someone who, for a long period, rarely looked back. For me, life has always been about what’s ahead of you rather than what’s in the rear-view mirror, but I guess sentimentality has a way of creeping up on you in later life.
The fact that I couldn’t recall certain victories came as a surprise to my co-author. To be honest, there were times when I led a race from start to finish; everything went smoothly. So smoothly, in fact, that I couldn’t remember them precisely because everything went as planned. I was always focused on winning the next race. As such, some wins are bound to be forgotten. It’s when things go badly that you remember, and all too well. There were races where doors flew off repeatedly, or a co-driver stuffed the car on the first lap. Then there were races where my mount caught fire, or I had to fix the car by the side of the track. I’m not saying that I only remember the bad times because that’s not the case. It’s just that bad experiences are often more memorable than good ones and, over the course of 39 seasons, there were a few of them!
Putting the book together also made me think about how my career path was influenced by so many wonderful people. Some are no longer with us, while others beavered away in the background, so their praises have generally not been sung as loudly as they should be. I have had countless team-mates, from Jo Siffert, Jacky Ickx, Hans Stuck and other big names, to one or two local heroes via friends who were gentleman drivers. They all made an impact on my career in one way or another. Then there were the likes of the much-missed Al Holbert who was both wingman and team principal. And that is before you factor in the many chaps who designed and built the cars I raced. The works Porsche squad in particular had the most amazing brains trust, but there’s no ‘I’ in team and all that. As such, their names are probably unfamiliar to all but the most hardcore marque types.
The point is, you don’t win races in a vacuum. Behind every successful driver, there are a multitude of men and women working their butts off to make you look good. I hope this book goes some way to raising their profile as much as my own. I should also stress that coming home to my family always had a calming and stabilising effect on me. One thing is for sure: I feel that I now know much – – more about my career than I ever did while I was living it!
‘SOME WINS GET FORGOTTEN. IT’S WHEN THINGS GO BADLY THAT YOU REMEMBER, AND ALL TOO WELL’