DEREK BELL
The Legend
‘COLIN CHAPMAN SHOUTED DOWN FROM ABOVE. IT WAS AS THOUGH GOD HAD SPOKEN. I WAS IN AWE OF THE MAN’
The note politely asked onlookers to stay behind the ropes but I couldn’t help myself. Indianapolis International Airport is the last place I would have expected to discover an old flame, but there she was: a Lotus 56 in bright orange, adorned with STP ovals in red, white and blue. I hadn’t so much as laid eyes on it in 49 years, not since I got behind the wheel at Silverstone back in 1968. It was more of a brief dalliance, strictly speaking, but nonetheless one that left an indelible impression on me so early in my motor sport career.
I never ran the Indianapolis 500. My briefest of outings in this turbine-powered single-seater was the closest I ever got, and even then my drive came out of the blue and was somewhat curtailed. I cannot remember the exact date when I got my bum in the car, but it was ahead of my fourth season of ‘proper’ racing.
I was on hand to test a Chevron for Tom Clapham before a proposed outing at the Nürburgring. I had very little experience of sports cars, apart from the Lotus Seven in which I won my first-ever race at Goodwood in 1964 and a lone outing in a Marcos. Nor had I ever raced at the ’Ring, for that matter.
While I was kicking my heels waiting to drive the Chevron, I couldn’t help but notice the Team Lotus transporter, which was in the process of disgorging a pair of wedge-shaped ‘turbocars’. Graham Hill was on hand to test them, and obviously I was keen to get a closer look.
While he was out on track, I was milling about under the old pitlane balcony when Colin Chapman shouted down from above. It was as though God had spoken. I was in awe of the man, even more so after we had chatted – if ‘chatted’ is not too relaxed a word for these unreal circumstances – for a few minutes.
He commented on how well I had been going of late, before casually enquiring if I had ever driven a car with an automatic ’ box before. I blurted out that I had not. He then gave me the keys to his Jaguar and told me to drive it up and down the Club Straight. Assuming I didn’t screw that simple assignment up, he would then let me drive the turbine car which, of course, didn’t have a conventional manual transmission. There was no clutch and only one gear, although it did have four-wheel drive.
A little while later, I returned to the paddock, handed back the keys to the Jag and said that I felt more than capable of driving the 56. I wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity to be a Team Lotus driver, even if it was only a test. Ten minutes later, I was strapped in and given what passed for a briefing, before slowly inching my way towards the actual circuit.
But I never actually ventured on track. The problem with turbine cars is that you cannot hear much when they’re at speed and, consequently, you can’t hear that they’ve stopped. Graham had come to a halt somewhere on the circuit so he needed ‘my’ car. I hopped out and that remains the only occasion that I have ever driven an IndyCar, even if it was at walking pace. I’m not sure if the Lotus on display at the airport was that same car, but it was great to see it regardless. My son Sebastian took a quick snap of me with the 56 and we then headed on our way. I didn’t think much more about it until a week or so later, when Fernando Alonso announced that he was going to miss the Monaco Grand Prix. Instead he would contest the Indianapolis 500.
The news may have shocked the Formula 1 pitlane, but not me. Yes, it’s a big deal for a team to let its star driver sit out the most famous Grand Prix on the calendar, even if the car he races at Indy is in McLaren colours, but Fernando has had a miserable few seasons of late. I suspect he is looking to the future, a future outside ‘Eff One’.
I am a great admirer of the former double world champion, not least because he is one of the few Grand Prix stars who recognises that there are other categories. He has often said that he hopes to emulate Graham Hill by winning the Indy 500 and the Le Mans 24 Hours in addition to taking his F1 titles.
Will he succeed? Fernando has bags of talent, but he has never raced on an oval track before. It’s a bit like asking Roger Federer to switch from tennis to squash. You expect him to do well, but not to do so immediately as it requires a different set of skills. I raced on ovals for three years back in the 1980s, when I did the IROC series. I enjoyed it and was competitive, but the learning curve was as steep as the banking at those tracks. I will be rooting for Fernando, though. Somehow, I expect many of you will be, too.