McLAREN F1 GTR LONG-TAIL

Gulf’s sports car programme had ended in 1975, and the company went through many changes over the next decade. It was bought by Chevron in the mid-1980s and the Gulf brand was relaunched in 1991, leading to a return to Le Mans in 1994 with Derek Bell and a Kremer Porsche. This captured the imagination of fans, company and customers alike, and Gulf executive Martin Allerton decided to take the Gulf name into GT racing for 1995.

While Gulf had been running the Kremer Porsche, British ‘gentleman driver’ Ray Bellm had persuaded McLaren Cars to build a racing version of the F1 road car. Allerton met Bellm and was impressed by his plans, signing a deal before Gordon Murray had even completed his design. Bellm bought the second car off the production line; fellow gentleman racer Thomas Bscher bought the first. Bscher won the 1995 GT title in his McLaren, but the Gulf team was the leading runner in 1995 and 1996, winning the title for Bellm in 1996.

For 1997, the FIA took over the running of the GT Championship in response to Mercedes’ desire to run a car that was far outside the way GTs were then defined. McLaren had little chance of competing with the Stuttgart Steamroller, but Murray designed a revised car, known as the ‘long-tail’ GTR. Bellm joined forces with Bscher to run a pair of the new cars; Bscher being partnered by John Nielsen again in chassis 022R. Bscher’s car would carry No. 2 during the GT season.

The series opened in Hockenheim in April with one of the new Mercedes CLK GTRs on pole, with a shoal of McLaren GTRs behind it. A McLaren won, the BMW Motorsport entry of Lehto and Soper, but a Gulf team car was second (Gounon and Raphanel) with the Bscher/Nielsen 022R in third. After finishing Le Mans pre- qualifying in a disappointing 15th position, the team returned to the GT trail at Silverstone where a Mercedes was again on pole, but a Panoz GTR-1 took second leaving the leading McLaren in third. Nielsen and Bscher led the Gulf team McLaren, qualifying sixth, but finished a distant ninth.

The BMW and Mercedes teams were head-to- head again at Helsinki, with the Gulf guys leading the independents, and Bscher and Nielsen qualified sixth. The leading cars dropped out and No. 2 was third, albeit a bit surprised to be behind one of the unfancied Porsche 911s. The car was then damaged at Le Mans, and wasn’t repaired until September’s Coupes D’Automne ACO, a four- hour race at La Sarthe. Nielsen and Bscher qualified among the LMP cars in third slot and were second in the first heat, beaten only by the LMP class Courage C41. A third place in heat two secured second overall. The season ended with the Six Hours of Vallelunga, the final round of the 1997 Challenge Endurance Italia. With the only McLaren on the grid, Bscher and Nielsen took pole and won comfortably.

Bscher retained 022R for 1998, now with Geoff Lees as his team- mate, and won the first round of the GTR Euroseries and also the prestigious Monza 1000km, both by massive margins. Then the Mercedes CLK GTR and the impressive Porsche 911 GT1-98 took over, and chances of overall victory evaporated. The car did visit Le Mans again in June, co- driven by Rinaldo Capello and Emanuele Pirro, but failed to finish.