BRIAN REDMAN
Starts Best result 5th (1978, 1980)
Redman is surely one of the all-time most underrated drivers. As well as being a three-time Formula 5000 champion in the United States, he won almost all the classic enduros and drove for some of the most legendary teams: Porsche, Ferrari, JWA and Jaguar. He won at diverse venues too, including the Targa Florio, Daytona 24 Hours, Sebring 12 Hours and Nurburgring 1000Km.
Arguably Redman’s best season came in 1969, when he and Siffert won half of the world sportscar championship’s 10 rounds. Le Mans, however, eluded the duo, despite them eschewing the new and very fast 917. “The reason we chose the new long-tail 908 spyder for Le Mans is that we thought it would be more reliable,” says Redman. “We were leading when the gearbox failed due to a lack of cooling because of the long tail.”
The following year Siffert missed a gear and blew the engine on their 917 when they were in the lead, while in 1973 the Ferrari of Redman and Jacky Ickx was still fighting Matra for victory when the engine failed in the penultimate hour.
Such a result was typical for Redman in the French classic. Of his 14 starts, he only finished four times. He was fifth overall and won his class in a Porsche 935 twice, but that was poor reward for his efforts: “Winning the IMSA class in 1978 and ’80 means very little to me, although if it was today,
I’d be telling everyone that, ‘I won Le Mans!’”
“Le Mans is the pinnacle of sportscar driving success, even though it’s not as difficult as the Targa [Florio] and the Nurburgring, or for that matter Daytona and Sebring, at least in a Porsche 917K.”