THE STORM THAT HIT DAYTONA
In 1996, cash-strapped Lister entered a race version of its 7.0-litre, Jaguar V12-powered Storm supercar in the Daytona 24 Hours. The omens were good. Those involved tell Paul Fearnley just what happened next…
SIMON WINSON (PHOTOGRAPHER): I was working for a commercial photo studio when in came this chap with pictures of a smart silver car. They were not the best and we got chatting. That was [Lister boss] Laurence Pearce – and I ended up photographing the Lister Storm’s launch. Then he said he had another job: Daytona! He didn’t want to pay a day-rate; he’d pay my expenses and we would make money on the printing.
LAURENCE PEARCE: My father Warren had raced E-types, among other things, and I have motorsport in my blood. But when the road car side took off, I focused on that. Then the recession of the early 1990s hit: from 50 staff to five or six of my best. And then Group C ended and suddenly there was impetus behind GT racing. It caught my imagination again. I drove my Lister Storm to Paris to meet Alain Bertaut, the boss of Le Mans. He said ‘Do it.’ I’d read the regs and my mind was full of it.
GEOFF LEES (DRIVER): I saw the car in a magazine and rang Laurence to ask if he’d thought about a racing version. We met and I took him for a ride: frit him to death!
PEARCE: Gary Watkins had written an article in
Autosport and Geoff read it. He was a mega driver, far better than I could have expected with the money I had. I had not expected to pre-qualify for Le Mans 1995, but we did. That was Geoff, Michelin qualifiers and a bit of luck.
LEES: I thought the car would be good with a bit of work, but I wasn’t quite right. The early version had BMW rear suspension and God knows what down the front. A road car on racing tyres, it was a pain. But it was quick in a straight line.
PEARCE: I’d been up to Kidlington to see Tom Walkinshaw about something and seen three Group C Jaguar V12s in plastic bags, rebuilt, ready to go. I offered £30k. Cash. He said ‘Don’t be stupid!’ But when I got back to the office my wife Fiona told me that Tom had phoned and wanted me to call. That was at the start of 1994. I had a chassis that a customer didn’t want and we put one of those engines in. No drawing office. We just got on with it.
LEES: It was when we got Newcastle United money and Geoff Kingston got involved that it improved a lot.
PEARCE: We had built a road car with everything in our armoury on it for Sir John Hall’s son, Douglas, and he loved it. He asked if he could come to Le Mans as a guest, liked what he saw and could see we needed backing. I flew to Marbella and they gave me a cheque; Newcastle wanted to set up a sporting club like AC Milan’s, and we were to be a part of that. I pulled my boys in and said: ‘We are on our way.’
GEOFF KINGSTON (DESIGNER): Tony Southgate, who’d been involved with that initial blue Storm, said that Laurence needed a guy. Or rather: ‘I don’t fancy working for this maniac. What about you?’ I was lucky to have had experience with Tony on the TWR Jaguars: five years in a converted bakery, just him and me. Loads of designers in an office didn’t suit. So I accepted Laurence’s offer. I moved to Leatherhead and was there three years.
PEARCE: He lived in a flat over the road and we looked after him like a son. But we used to argue. He threatened to jump out of a window once when I told him off. Anyone who worked for me found it hard. We were under-resourced and had too few people, but we had ambition and the car was constantly being developed.
KINGSTON: Laurence and Fiona took me under their wing. He was a brilliant salesman and good company; he was also ambitious and volatile. She was a lovely lady – the Sybil to his Basil. A calming influence. Fiona was a very important part of the team.
PEARCE: She ran the business – and the cars when I couldn’t be there, from the pit wall, all the race strategy.
KINGSTON: I was looking at the 1995 car with its bonnet off and there was this bloody great engine and tiny front tyres. We needed wider fronts to deal with the mass and a deep sidewall so we could stiffen the suspension because there was compliance in the tyre. Bolt the front end down, screw in pre-load to reduce droop, and you didn’t need an anti-roll bar because you already had all you needed in terms of control.
LEES: Bodywork and braking were changed for 1996, but the biggest improvement was putting the rear tyres on the front. I’m a late-braker and it’s all about nailing the front to the floor. It was much quicker into corners than a McLaren F1.
KINGSTON: It towered over the McLaren. But the McLaren understeered liked a pig whereas our grip and balance were very good: quite a short wheelbase with a very wide track.
TIFF NEEDELL (DRIVER): I’d never even looked at a GT, but the Storm was a delight. It was much more fun to drive than a Porsche 962. And pretty frisky.
LEES: I got Tiff the drive. We’re old friends – although we’d hated each other when we were in Formula Ford.
NEEDELL: Geoff didn’t like oversteer whereas I prefer to drive through a corner; it’s a more enjoyable style. But I was always number two in Laurence’s mind. Geoff was his striker, Kenny his midfield dynamo, I was the fullback.
KENNY ACHESON (DRIVER): I might have been further back than Tiff! Geoff was that bit quicker and thrived on being the centre of attention. He merited that. His set-up was fine for me. Fiddling and farting about with the technical bored me. I hadn’t raced in 1994. But in 1995 I drove for SARD: basically a Toyota MR2 with a Group C V8 in the back. If you’d crashed it you’d have been jelly. Anyway, I thought that was that. But then journalist Michael Cotton called to tell me about the Storm and its sponsorship from a football club. I’d met Laurence at Le Mans in 1995 and liked him; and Newcastle United is my team anyway.
LEES: I enjoyed the car – except it was so bloody hot. My left shoe melted and stuck to the floor.
KINGSTON: We moved the engine back 5in to put as much weight as possible over the rear axle. That meant the drivers were sitting alongside the last three cylinders.
NEEDELL: The centre console was like a frying pan. The hottest car I have ever driven. Eventually Laurence cut a great hole in my new helmet, stuck a pipe in and got air through it from the roof.
KINGSTON: We’d also moved the Hewland gearbox to the back. It was a nice gearbox – if you didn’t want to do 24 hours.
PEARCE: The first car had had a five-speed Hewland mounted behind the engine, but it was only good for 500hp and we had 700. I went to Hewland and saw this transverse sixspeed sequential. They were in their infancy, but I fell in love. My plan was to keep everything within the wheelbase. That gearbox was the basis of the next car.
LEES: We had to go the sequential route because it was so much quicker; McLaren had one. Ours would start to feel under the weather after a couple of hours.
KINGSTON: We ran up and down at Chobham test track to make sure everything worked and that was about it before Daytona.
PEARCE: We rocked up and nobody knew us. They hadn’t even given us a pit position. Rob Dyson’s was the top team and he had four slots for two cars. I asked: ‘Can we come in with you? I’ve come all the way from f***ing London to support your event – and we’re going to be quick!’ In five hours they had built one for us.
LEES: Americans like big front-engined cars and ours looked good in Newcastle’s colours. We got a good reception.
WINSON: It was a one-off. That’s why they liked it. They didn’t know Newcastle United but were intrigued. Some were wearing homemade Lister-Jaguar T-shirts by the end.
NEEDELL: There were a lot of characters involved. The Newcastle boys, with their limos with outriders, caused a scene.
WINSON: My first foray into motorsport photography, the amount of kit I was carrying was ridiculous. Walking around the track was daunting, too, because I didn’t know where I needed to be. The other photographers were helpful – once they’d realised I wasn’t a threat; I didn’t have a long lens. I preferred the pits and people to the action. The team was great to be with. Laurence ruled the roost and was a bit shouty, but there was a family atmosphere.
PEARCE: There were five mechanics, Geoff Kingston and me – plus this lad who was our gofer. Oh, and a few extras who had come along for no money. Enthusiasts.
LEES: The car was pretty quick. I thought we stood a chance and were trundling along quite well… I can’t remember what the problem was.
KINGSTON: A nose-bearing carrier that held the back of the prop before it went into the gearbox came loose. Finger trouble.
PEARCE: Gearbox. It always was going to be the gearbox. I knew in my heart of hearts that it wasn’t going to do a 24-hour race. But being competitive was more important than being reliable at that point.
NEEDELL :The Top Gear crew was there and I was about to go out and do a piece to camera when Fiona said, ‘It’s destroyed! It’s over!’
PEARCE: If we hadn’t put the car back in the race it wouldn’t have happened. But there’s no point crying. These things make you stronger.
ACHESON: I was running laps, having a nice time, and there was a white Mazda that, every time you passed it, made you wonder: ‘How is that even allowed to race?’ Its third or fourth
Right, clockwise from main image
Lead driver Lees in car and in conversation with team owner Laurence Pearce; engine set well back, good for weight distibution, terrible for comfort; Tiff Needell meets fellow racer, comedian and TV star Tim Allen.
‘GEARBOX. IT WAS ALWAYS GOING TO BE THE GEARBOX. BUT BEING COMPETITIVE WAS MORE IMPORTANT THAN BEING RELIABLE AT THAT POINT’ - LAURENCE PEARCE
‘THE LEFT REAR WHEEL CAME OFF, I STARTED TUMBLING’ - KENNY ACHESON
driver was on his first stint. Fast cars go high on the banking, slow ones stay low – but he came up. I knew it was going to be close. But I didn’t even feel the tap.
NEEDELL: You couldn’t see out much because of the shape of the A-pillars.
ACHESON: Something broke and my left-rear wheel came off. The infield is sandy and I dug in and started tumbling. I remember thinking, ‘I’m keeping my eyes open because I might not open them again if I close them’. The car stood up to it fantastically well, but Tiff might have had more of a problem because he’s 4-5in taller.
KINGSTON: The A-pillar part of the cage moved more than you would have wanted, but it protected Kenny. It was difficult to get a brace to the top because of the way the structure was: it’s a VW Corrado from the door-line up.
ACHESON: I got out, dazed. I’d lost vision in the centre of my right eye. Have you seen a
Tom & Jerry cartoon when the eyes go on stalks? That’s what my chest injury caused. I think I broke a rib, too. I had a medical about three or four years ago and my lung capacity on the left is 60% and there’s a big scar.
WINSON: The car came back in bits on a lowloader. I didn’t photograph it. Didn’t feel right.
ACHESON: I felt bad for Laurence. But he had so many ideas and was running at 100mph all the time: ‘I can change this and this on the new car.’ And the Newcastle United guys were enthusiastic still.
WINSON: Amazingly, Kenny was in the bar with everyone that night. Yes, they were upset but it was obvious that they would continue.
KINGSTON: The replacement was built by G-Force alongside Thrust SSC; we couldn’t have done it ourselves in time for Le Mans.
ACHESON: I went to Donington to test it. I remember ringing my wife a couple of times to talk over a problem with our business. When I got home I said ‘I don’t need racing any longer. I’m done.’ I’d enjoyed working with
Laurence. He expected his people to do something of everything and taught them how. If they couldn’t, off they went. If he’d been around 20 years before, he could have done something even bigger in racing.
LEES: It was not a large team and its premises were tiny. He was very much a handful, but he warmed to me because I was the one who had to do the quick lap: his striker.
KINGSTON: He taught me a lot and I have a fondness for those days – but that ‘Italian’ temperament was always there. He ‘sacked’ me four times before it actually happened.
NEEDELL: Never a dull moment with Laurence. Throwing spanners into the back of the garage: ‘I’m just a f***ing mechanic!’ But he did a great job creating his dream car and a team to run it.
WINSON: I went to more races but established motorsport photographers were supplying the photos. We remained friendly, though. A Storm was my wedding car. My best man and I were waiting in a hotel – with the number for a taxi firm, just in case – when we heard a rumble. Five minutes later we were doing 140mph. End