Alan Rollinson

“My first race in Formula 5000 was in 1969 in Doug Hardwick’s Lola T142. That was the early days of wings on cars and they fell off with monotonous regularity.

“I raced the Lotus 70 in 1970 and it broke in half at Brands Hatch. It was totally rebuilt and they brought it out again at the end of the year. I went out in practice and going into Hawthorns, the same place, the rear radius rods pulled out of the monocoque again.

“I raced for Alan Mckechnie in 1971 and 1972 in the Duckhams Lola T300. It was a super car and it was under development all the time with Frank Gardner and Eric Broadley and I loved that car. At the end of the season Alan sold it to Terry Sanger and he wrote it off at Mallory Park, first time out.”