Michael Steele
FORD GALAXIE
Jack Sears, the first British saloon car champion, would have loved the pre-’66 tintop thriller named in his honour. Mighty Ford Galaxies produced a spectacular feature, with Michael Steele and Bill Shepherd drag racing their 1.8-tonne, 500bhp Detroit leviathans to the chequer for 12th with just 0.01secs separating them as they crossed the line.
“We had an issue with the handling in practice but Mick Richardson managed to sort it for the dry race,” enthuses Steele. “Goodwood is a lovely circuit that suits the big brute and, now we have refitted servos, you don’t have to stand on everything to get it to stop for Woodcote.”
“I just couldn’t catch the Minis ahead but after seeing Shaun Lynn’s scary accident before St Mary’s, the main objective was simply to keep all the wheels on the track. Tom Kristensen drove my car brilliantly in 2013, and gave me a few tips: ‘Make it very wide into the Chicane and create a convoy. Once straight just let it go and they can’t touch you.’ It worked this year.”
A former aviation engineer with Gloster working on Javelins, Steele later made his fortune in the valve industry. Over the years he’s raced some spectacular machines, including ERA R4D, Bentley Speed Six and HWM. Now his racing alternates between the Galaxie and a Cortina. He explains: “It’s horses for courses; the Galaxie is best for Goodwood and the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit. It seems to like big open spaces.”