Why I Love...
David Richards on the appeal of Mulsanne in both race and road cars
‘We found ourselves driving down the Mulsanne Straight. As the speedo needle edged its way round the dial we were encouraging my father to hit 100mph. My mother was having hysterics’
Ihave loved the Circuit de la Sarthe ever since I went there as a ten-year-old with my parents and my three brothers in the family Ford Zodiac during the early Sixties,’ recalls David. ‘We were on our way to Spain on holiday and found ourselves driving down the Mulsanne Straight. I was sitting in the back with my two brothers while my youngest sibling was in front nestled between my parents on the bench seat. As the speedometer needle edged its way round the dial we were encouraging my father to drive faster and hit 100mph. My mother, meanwhile, was having hysterics. After all, there were no safety belts in those days.’
David was immediately bitten by the Le Mans bug and followed the racing and activities on the legendary French track, sporadically listening to radio broadcasts and reading motoring and motor sport magazines. ‘Then, in 1981, my wife and I drove ourselves to Le Mans, this time in a Mercedes 500SEL that we’d just collected near Stuttgart from Lorinser, which had grafted an SEC front end onto it. It had grey coachwork with blacked out windows, we must have looked like the Mafia! When we arrived at the track to see the race for the first time it was the atmosphere that struck me most with all its pageantry, the sound of the engines and the roar of the crowds. An important part of that magic is how the town totally embraces the event and it’s easy to understand how it has secured legendary status as a world-class motoring festival.
‘During the Eighties I was involved with the Roth m ans sponsored Porsche teams, first with drivers Jackie Ickx and Derek Bell who were victorious in 1982 in the 936, and later Derek Bell with Hans-joachim Stuck and Al Holbert in 1986 and ’87 in the 962C, all Le Mans legends. These drivers really made the Le Mans race their own and helped to reinforce my passion for the event.
‘Looking back I can still recall those early days of sitting in a restaurant by the side of the track and watching the cars as they streaked past during the night, accompanied by the shriek of their tortured engines.
‘Over the years, the most significant change to the circuit has to be when, for safety reasons, they added the chicane along the fabled Mulsanne Straight, the very road my father had driven us along all those years ago. ‘With all those memories, Le Mans remains my mostloved race venue and somewhere that I hope to return to for many years to come.’