DAVID HOBBS
The multi-talented racer, commentator and raconteur tells all, from F1 to Indy
The anecdotes tumble thick and fast. David Hobbs is on a roll, laughter bouncing off the timber-panelled walls of the Segrave Room at Brooklands as each yarn unspools. As a racing driver, the Wisconsin-domiciled Briton competed in everything from Formula One to Can-am, via endurance racing and even NASCAR. He did so over 32 seasons before parlaying his experience into a secondary career as a commentator. Listen to him discuss his time as a wheelman, however, and it soon becomes clear that it wasn’t all japes and giggles. Success was earned, and often the hard way, as is made abundantly clear in his new autobiography, Hobbo: Motor Racer, Motor Mouth.
It all began with a visit to Mallory Park in the late ’50s. “I had considered racing motorcycles; I had a 500cc Triumph Speed Twin, and hardly ever fell off, which I thought was a good sign,” he deadpans. “I remember watching Tony Lanfranchi racing his Elva and it dawned on me that cars might be a better option. Naturally, I decided to race my mum’s seven-year-old Morris Oxford. It was her daily driver and had a sidevalve ‘four’ plus a Mecha-matic transmission devised by my dad.” Hobbs Snr was an accomplished engineer, whose clutchless ’box was evaluated by several mainstream car manufacturers: “He’d done some prototype work for BMC, and in his factory was a B-series engine, also attached to a Mecha-matic. This was levered into the Oxford along with a pair of SU carbs that I bought for a quid from Daimler, for whom I was serving an apprenticeship. I made my debut at Snetterton in April 1959; the engine gave up at peak revs on the Norwich Straight.”
A year later, the then 20-year-old graduated to his father’s Mecha-matric XK140, and inverted it first time out at Oulton Park: “I phoned dad and told him what happened. He said: ‘I know, I saw it on television. You broke it, you fix it.’ By then I was a Jaguar apprentice, because it had taken over Daimler, and I managed to purloin a few bits: bigger SUS, disc brakes and so on. I then started to win races. That attracted the attention of ‘Lofty’ England, who was a legend at Jaguar. Lofty put in a good word, which led to me driving E-types and Mk2s for Peter Berry.
“Around that time, Ford was proposing to make dad’s gearbox an option on various models, so I persuaded him that we should promote the transmission by racing it seriously. We bought a Lotus Elite and then set about converting it. I won 14 races from 18 starts in 1961, and also had my first-ever international foray in that car, competing in the Nürburgring 1000km race alongside Bill Pinckney. We were supposed to be in the 1300cc sports-car class but Les Leston protested the gearbox because it was non-standard. My having beaten him at Brands Hatch a week earlier might have had something to do with it. We were moved into the 1600cc class and shouldn’t have had a chance against the quadcam Porsches, but we won. The prize money was four times better in that class, too!”
A year later, Hobbs made his Le Mans debut aboard a different Lotus: “Team Elite offered me the drive for 1962 alongside Frank Gardner. We finished eighth, won our class and also claimed the Index of Thermal Efficiency. I did the 24 Hours 20 times, and that was perhaps the best race of them all and on many levels. That same year, I went back to the ’Ring with my Elite, and took along as my co-driver a fellow Jaguar apprentice: Richard Attwood. We led our class until the engine overheated. In return, ‘Atty’ let me drive his Cooper Formula Junior at Oulton Park. It was my first start in a single-seater.”
Hobbs won by 13 secs: “On the strength of that, I was offered a Midlands Racing Partnership Formula Junior drive for 1963. My teammates, all in Lolas, were Attwood and Bill Bradley. At Silverstone, I had a cracking race with Denny Hulme in the works Brabham. We swapped the lead repeatedly, only for my
gearlever to snap off. Denny just pipped me. At Le Mans, Richard and I shared the Lola Mk6. [Marque founder] Eric Broadley drove it from Bromley to the circuit on trade plates. The race ended in the barrier at the Esses after the Colotti ’box jammed, but the important thing was that I was being offered drives at a serious level.”
Outings in Formula Two led to a Formula One seat with Tim Parnell’s equipe for the ’65 French Grand Prix at Clermont-ferrand: “He had a BRM V8-engined Lotus 25, the deal being that I would tow the car there behind my Ford Cortina GT. I didn’t make it to France, though, because a five-ton laundry van pulled out in front of me near Aylesbury and I hit it with enough force to knock it over. I spent the next three weeks in hospital. Once I got out, I drove a Lola T70 for David Fletcher and won the Guards Trophy at Mallory Park among other races, but I still wanted to do single-seaters. I drove an F2 Lola T61 at Barcelona in April ’66, then Parnell offered me a ride in the non-points Syracuse GP. I finished third behind the works Ferraris of John Surtees and Lorenzo Bandini. At the end of the race, Tim said, ‘Bloody ’ell Dave, I thought you’d ’ave done better than that…’
“Bernard White, Lord Hanson’s brother, then asked me to drive his GT40 in the Springbok Series alongside Mike Hailwood. He was great fun and loved the ladies. Mike never seemed to eat breakfast and dinner with the same one. I also drove Bernard’s 2-litre BRM in the British GP at Silverstone, and finished eighth. After that, he sent it to Mosport for the Canadian GP. I finished ninth. I then landed a dream drive with the Gulf/wyer team for ’68. I would drive a GT40 alongside Paul Hawkins, while Jacky Ickx and Brian Redman would share the sister car.”
The dream soon soured, however: “I didn’t get on with the team manager, David Yorke. He was in love with Jacky, and the little Belgian had him wrapped around his finger. I enjoyed the GT40, though. At Daytona, Paul and I were challenging for the lead at half-distance, but then a bit of wire wore a hole in the bag tank. At Sebring, we were leading until ‘Hawkeye’ had a coming together with Liane Engeman’s AMC Javelin. We then won the Monza 1000km race, which included some of the old banking. Later on that year, Paul and I were a lap ahead of Ickx, who was sharing his car with countryman Lucien Bianchi, but then Yorke put out the ‘EZ’ sign; I was obliged to relinquish the position. It made no difference to anything which of our cars won, so I was not happy. The Gulf boys weren’t, either. We bumped into them at the airport a day later and they handed us $1000 each – by means of an apology, I suppose. It was more than the team had paid Paul and me to do the race.”
For ’69, Hailwood replaced Hawkins and the great mates were serious contenders for honours at Le Mans: “Ickx and his then co-driver Jackie
“Mike Hailwood was great fun and loved the ladies – he never ate breakfast and dinner with the same one”
Oliver lost time following the first-lap accident that claimed John Woolfe, but we were well clear. What did for us was the brake pedal going straight to the floor during my second stint. I was doing 200mph down to Mulsanne Corner and had to take to the escape road. I limped to the pits and Yorke batted away what I said and told the mechs to change the pads. I knew it wasn’t the pads, but they changed them anyway and off I went. At the end of the pitlane, I gave the middle pedal a prod and almost ran over a marshal. I did a full lap with no brakes and pitted again. They then discovered that a wheel weight had been fitted on the inside of a rim rather than the outside and it had snagged a caliper pipe. By the time they had replaced it and bled the system, we’d lost a chunk of time. We ended up third.”
In the ’70s, Hobbs carved out a niche racing in the USA: “John Surtees built an F5000 car in which I won the 1969 Dublin GP. He then sent it to North America and I won a ton of races; I lost the Formula A title by one point despite having missed the first five rounds. That was a major turning point in my career. I was third in the points a year later, despite having started my season in July. That led to me driving for Roger Penske in sports cars and selected Indycar races for ’71, and also for Carl Hogan in F5000. I won the championship with Carl, and shared Roger’s Sonoco-sponsored Ferrari 512M with Mark Donohue in the USA and at Le Mans. Mark was a chippy bugger, but he worked like a dog. We led so many races in that car in ’71, but just couldn’t win any. Driving at Indy was incredible, too. I was in Mark’s Lola-ford from the year before and everything was going well until halfdistance, when I heard an almighty clatter from the back of the car as I exited Turn 4. I was just ahead of Rick Muther in the Sugar Ripe Prune Special. Rick spun to avoid hitting me, smacked the wall and ricocheted back on to the track and took me out. That was my first Indy 500. I did it four times, with a best finish of fifth in 1974.”
While Hobbs continued to make fleeting appearances in Europe that decade, most memorably in the Broadspeed Jaguar XJ12C, the USA remained his happy hunting ground: “For me, the most enjoyable period was the three seasons I spent driving the Mclaren-run BMW 320is in IMSA [1977-’79]. They produced around 680bhp and had incredible turbo lag. I did most of the races solo, but drove with Ronnie Peterson in long-distance events.” Scroll forward to ’83 and Hobbs won the Trans-am series aboard the John Dick-fielded, Budweiser-liveried Camaro, while also racing for John Fitzpatrick in assorted Porsches that were famously sponsored by future jailbird Jerry Dominelli (aka J David). Our hero rounded out his driving career at Dijon in 1990, where he shared a Joest 962C with Jonathan Palmer: “I had done little racing that year and wasn’t fit enough. We finished eighth and I knew it was time to stop.”
Asked to name his favourite race, the answer comes as a surprise: “I cannot pick one, but if you will allow me two… The Formula Junior race at Silverstone in ’63 when I battled with Denny Hulme was fantastic, because way behind us was the cream of up-and-coming talent. Obviously, the F1 dream didn’t quite happen. I did all of seven World Championship Grands Prix spanning eight years, but that race showed that I was bloody quick in single-seaters when given decent equipment. My other favourite race was another I didn’t win. I drove a works Lola T310 in Can-am in 1972, and it was the worst car I ever sat in. A year later, I raced Roy Woods’ Mclaren M20, which was one of the best. It was no match for the Porsches, but at Watkins Glen I finished second to Donohue’s mega-horsepower 917-30 and ahead of all the other Porsches. I derived a lot of satisfaction from that.” Pause. “There were lots of races I should have won. My career has been full of ‘what ifs’ and ‘maybes’, but on balance I did all right.”