Trying to keep drivers in check
The regular clerk of the course for the Dunlop Rover Turbo Cup was the British Racing Drivers’ Club’s Chris Norman who now looks back fondly on some frenetic race meetings.
“It was great fun with the benefit of hindsight but really kept me busy in the day! There was great manufacturer support and professional backup from Roversport combined with BRDC co-ordination and dates on British Touring Car Championship and Formula 3 race programmes, support races at British Grand Prix plus overseas events at places like
Spa and Zandvoort.
“The cars were evenly matched, powerful and, with 200bhp through the front wheels, quite a handful. This, allied to the competitive field, meant that I had a busy time quite regularly. There was a lot of contact and no quarter given out on track between a lot of wily experienced racers.
“I particularly remember the grand prix races. I would have a queue of drivers outside the office in race control post-race waiting to give me their side of the story, much to the bemusement of visiting F1 officials! I remember remarking one year that I had had virtually all 25 drivers talk to me and, in summary, they were all telling me that there were 24 nutters out there and they were the only sane one!
“The abiding memory I have was at the final ever round at Silverstone. There had been a great debate about what to do with the redundant cars once Rover withdrew its funding. I watched the start with Christopher Belton from Roversport.
As the grid formed up, Christopher said to me: ‘You know the best thing that could happen for us now is if the entire field goes off into the Copse gravel trap on the first lap and rolls every car into a ball, but all drivers walk away from the incident safe and sound!’”