RACING ROVER
Tom Kristensen in the SD1 at Goodwood
PRECONCEPTIONS CAN BE difficult to shake. He’s bound to be a prima donna, what with his resumé including nine Le Mans 24 Hours victories, to say nothing of six Sebring 12 Hours gongs. Or a brace of Formula 3 titles for that matter, not forgetting victories in F3000, the German Touring Car Championship and…
It would be easier to list the categories of motor sport in which Tom Kristensen has not excelled. This, however, is something else entirely, perhaps his greatest-ever challenge, for he is only hours away from venturing trackside in anger aboard a Rover SD1.
But first there is a meeting of minds. It’s the 2017 Goodwood Members’ Meeting and the Dane is already discussing tactics with team insider Neil Godwin-Stubbert. The one-hour Gerry Marshall Trophy thrash later in the day will see Kristensen do the final stint after taking over the reins from British sports car ace Stuart Hall. So he is leaving nothing to chance. There simply has to be a swift driver change.
‘I’ll stand in front of the Rover and call you out into the pitlane when it’s safe,’ GodwinStubbert outlines. ‘It’s going to be very busy and there’s little room for error.’ Kristensen is having none of it. ‘When I go, I GO!’ he exclaims. ‘You don’t understand, Tom, I’ll check to make sure that it’s SAFE!’ GodwinStubbert outlines fires back. Matters have taken a turn for the upper case, but then it is hard to be heard in the pitlane over the sound of V8s being revved to valve bounce. ‘No, Neil, it is YOU who does not understand. When I go, I GO!’ Kristensen insists. Right you are, then.
Our hero clearly doesn’t make a habit of worrying about such things. When he is ready to go, he, er, goes. His mock-frown has, however, now morphed into a grin of the widest variety. But then you only need to spend two minutes in the company of this sports car colossus to realise that he doesn’t have an inflated ego, after all. While some modern-day F1 drivers are known to alternate between hostility and indifference should you so much as attempt to engage them in conversation, Kristensen wears his status lightly.
‘I only saw the car for the first time yesterday when we had the seat fitting,’ he admits. ‘It was freezing cold, too. The Rover looks fantastic, though, doesn’t it? Touring Cars back then had great colour schemes, plus it is a V8. There’s a great bunch of guys running it, too. I love racing here so let’s see how we get on.’
And at that, Kristensen is whisked away by Lord March, no less – though not before former World Touring Car Champion Rob Huff chides him for wearing Audi overalls rather than something that bit more ‘period’.
Scroll forward a few hours, and qualifying for Saturday ’s race lasts only three laps. ‘Just getting the car here has been a race against time,’ Godwin-Stubbert makes clear. ‘We have only tested it once since it was restored, and that was a few days ago at Silverstone with Stuart driving. The differential had to be changed as the gearing was too high, and we made a few minor adjustments. There wasn’t time to do much beyond that. Qualifying has highlighted a few problems: the newly rebuilt brake calipers blew their lower seals on the nearside front, which resulted in fluid leaking. Both brake caliper seals and halfshaft seals have now been replaced. The bottom nylon gear-linkage bush has also deteriorated, which made selecting gear something of a lottery. We also had a loosening front anti-roll bar bolt. If we’d had 20 more laps at Silverstone prior to the Members’ Meeting, these problems would have been identified and sorted beforehand.’
Team principal Martin Thomas, whose SRG team built the car in period, adds: ‘It didn’t help that Tom clouted the chicane during the second lap of qualifying, which seems to have knocked things out of alignment. I know this because of all the red paint on the tyres! It was very wet, though, and it meant he was trying. We expected nothing less. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves just getting the car here, especially as we only received the invitation rather late in the day. Then we were asked if we would mind if Tom drove the car. We weren’t about to say “No”, were we?’
For Thomas, the Goodwood outing represents only his latest comeback, the