Column: David Addison
Columnist-at-large tells us how he is filling his spare(ish) time
What are you doing now? You’ve been ages!” A familiar cry these last few weeks from a longsuffering Mrs Addison. This is for myriad reasons, truth be told, but one is that I keep being distracted by a cupboard. A very full cupboard. The Old Programme Cupboard. Some of you may have seen some of these posted on Twitter in recent weeks, the plan being to put the random filing into order.
But I keep opening one, looking at names and results and drifting back to certain memories. I need to confess here: I am a very sad soul. I was never a trainspotter, but perhaps the motor racing equivalent. Not only is there a programme (or entry lists all stapled together in the modern non-programme era) from every event I’ve ever been to, but they are all with grids and results filled in.
Yes, I know, it’s sad, but years later these pages are fascinating. I lie: there is one missing. Longridge, 1978. From memory, there were so few competitors, a programme was an indulgence.
Nowadays, they are rarer. Some circuits want the promoter/championship to pay for a programme, the promoter feels the circuit should and hence….nothing’s published. That’s why the nostalgia of old programmes still gets me! “Go on, then,” instructed MN editor Matt James. “Find some random ones…”
So, next to me are 10 at random.
Donington November 2001 and a BARC Winterseries event, with next year’s hopefuls getting some sneak practice in Formula Ford or Formula Renault. Formula Ford hopefuls included Mike Conway and Tony Rodgers who won the races, against Oliver Jarvis, Steven Kane, Stuart Hall, Toms Gaymor and Kimbersmith and Joey Foster. Winter Formula Renault honours fell to Rob Bell in both stanzas with the entry including Jamie Green (the dark horse as the programme’s preview described him) and future Spa 24 Hours winner Greg Franchi, although there was oddly little fanfare for Lewis Hamilton who took a fifth in race two.
Donington, especially under the guidance of Robert Fearnall, used to host many international series or events, and the Euro 3000 Series was a regular visitor in the early ‘00s. Augusto Farfus and Gianmaria Bruni headed the entry that contained Jaime Melo with whom Bruni would share GT Ferraris a few seasons later! Driving for John Village was one Romain Dumas, whose 10th place hardly served notice of his successes to come.
The Uae-based Speedcar Series in Dubai was one to boast random entry lists, such as December 2008 when Johnny Herbert,
Jacques Villeneuve and Jean Alesi took on Stefan Johansson, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Heinz-harald Frentzen. Liuzzi took the win in the sole race that weekend, while in GP2 Kamui Kobayashi triumphed over Davide Valsecchi and Roldan Rodriguez, although the likes of Pastor Maldonado, Vitaly Petrov, Sergio Perez, Alex Yoong, and Earl Bamber earned better successes in their careers.
Earlier that year, another crop of hopefuls in Formula BMW Europe lined up at Hockenheim. Many would go on to singleseater careers, some briefer than others, but Marco Wittman went on to score DTM title success and race against Daniel Juncadella who was on that same FBMW grid.
In 1979 and 1980 BMW ran a one-make championship in the UK called the County Challenge. It catered for 323i models, all run by TWR, and the championship was for dealers rather than drivers. That meant for some eclectic entry lists, such as at Oulton Park in 1980 when Derek Bell, Frank Sytner and Martin Brundle lined up against Aussie Brian Muir (driving for Kent…) but it was up-and-coming single-seater racer Philip Bullman who won the 10-lapper! That same Good Friday, the Gold Cup ran for the British F1 Championship, so Desire Wilson and Guy Edwards squared up against Geoff Lees, Emilio de Villota and Eliseo Salazar and many would meet up years later on Le Mans and other Group C grids.
Oulton’s Good Friday meetings were always a highlight and in 1984 the Gold Cup ran for Thundersports cars. OK, not the heyday of the Gold Cup, but with a random enough section of cars and supported by the RAC FF1600 Championship, won by John
Pratt from Dave Coyne in one of their fierce Reynard versus Van Diemen fights. But a rare defeat for Rover came in the British Saloon Car Championship with James Weaver guiding his BMW 635CSI to a win from the Rover of Andy Rouse. Weaver, of course, would be back in 1989 to win Class B and oh-so nearly win the overall title. On that same BSCC grid were Hot Rod legend Barry Lee in an Escort RS1600I, Paul Smith whose son Rob raced an Excelr8 MG6 in the BTCC last year and rally star Tony Pond who put his works Rover on the front row. And Thundersports? Having taken third in the BSCC race in his Rover, Peter Lovett teamed up with Ian Taylor in his Lola T594-mazda to win from evergreen David Kennedy in the Colin Bennett-run IBEC. Weaver, incidentally, repeated his Oulton success in part by winning his class on his return in 1989, now in an M3, but the overall win fell to Robb Gravett, by now a man to beat in his Trackstar Ford Sierra RS500. Hidden away under the hordes of Sierras and M3s was a Peugeot 309 with Mike Jordan starting his BTCC relationship. Mike doesn’t count the car as one of his favourites…
But one of the most eclectic entry lists in the programme cupboard comes from the 1984 British Grand Prix. In the days of race schools allowing a fleet of race saloons to “celebrities” came MCD boss John Webb’s idea to let readers of a weekly magazine vote for who they wanted to see on-track. So, 16 Escort Xr3is took to the Indy circuit with Derek Bell, Johnny Dumfries, an as-thenunknown-bike-racer Damon Hill and Barrie Williams taking on John Watson, James Hunt, Tiff Needell, Steve Soper, Tony Lanfranchi, Tony Pond and Mike Smith among others.
Yes, you read those names correctly! The winner? Julian Bailey triumphed from
Andy Rouse and Wattie….
Oh, I appear to be distracted again. What? Painting a fence? Yes, coming…
“I am, perhaps, the motorsport equivalent of a trainspotter”