Brian Redman
Total 911’s Tony Mcguiness sits down with former Porsche factory driver Brian Redman for part two in a series looking back at Redman’s remarkable life and career
In last month’s issue of Total 911, I mentioned that instead of Jo Siffert starting the 1971 Targa Florio, John Wyer asked me to begin the race. The day before in practice, Jo crashed the car, causing serious damage. The Porsche mechanics spent all night rebuilding it. Unfortunately, it didn’t get tested before the race.
When I asked John Wyer why he wanted me to start the race, his answer was essentially he didn’t want Jo and Pedro taking each other out at the start of the race. Wyer hadn’t forgotten the past and didn’t want a repeat of the drama at the 1970 Spa 1,000km. He wanted to avoid a Siffert/ Rodriguez contest of egos.
I had won the Targa Florio the previous year in a 908/03. There wasn’t much difference in the 908/03 for 1971 (see the no.1 car, pictured) except the new model had fins on each rear corner to improve high-speed stability.
As I was on the grid ready to go, conflicting thoughts went through my mind… Since the car had not been tested after Jo crashed it, I thought I need to drive it carefully until I am confident it’s safe. The other thought going through my mind was, winning the race could launch my career back to the top level. I decided to go flat out.
Right from the start, handling on the Porsche 908/03 wasn’t normal. I knew something was wrong with the steering. I was 22 miles around the 44-mile course when the steering broke.
And as I mentioned last month, when the steering broke, the right side of the car was thrown against a stone roadside kilometre marker. That marker pierced the fuel tank, causing fuel to pour over me and the hot exhaust pipes. The car exploded.
I was extremely lucky to get out. I was soaked in fuel and on fire. I threw myself on the ground and rolled down a hill to smother the flames. After waiting 45 incredibly agonizing minutes, a helicopter came to get me and took me back to the pits.
Eventually I was taken in an old ambulance to a clinic in the Sicilian hills, which was an absolute hellhole. After arriving at the hospital, I was examined and taken to a bed in a filthy ward. No one spoke English and I didn’t speak Italian. It was during this time my helmet and my racing uniform went missing.
Nobody knew where I was, so I spent the next ten hours in this decrepit place. About 10pm at night, Richard Attwood and Pedro Rodriguez came looking for me and found me. They took me back to the Porsche hotel where there was a team doctor. The doctor gave me pain killing injections so I could sleep. The next day Gulf and Porsche hired a jet out of Geneva which came to Palermo and took me to Manchester.
Recovery was incredibly painful. I had been badly burned and could see the disfigurement in the mirror. A superb plastic surgeon in Manchester, Dr. Randell Champion, told me he could perform reconstruction with skin grafts. He had become the expert by repairing wounded RAF pilots during the Second World War.
Things were looking a bit dim, but I was determined to return to racing as soon as possible. Seven weeks after the accident I was in a Sid Taylor Formula 5000 car and racing pretty well. However, at a check-up my doctor noticed that my balaclava had rubbed against the skin grafts around my eyes. I had to rest from racing, or I risked infection, which would cause the grafts to fail.
At the end of 1971, somewhere around September, Sid borrowed a BRM Can-am car for me to drive at Imola in Italy. It was raining quite hard at the race. The car was a Tony Southgate design which was very good in the rain. It was so good, I lapped the entire field. That field included the factory Ferraris.
After the race, the Ferrari team manager Mauro Forghieri, who I met in April 1968, approached me and said, “Breean, what are you doing next year? You are the only driver Signor Ferrari ever asked twice.” I’ll discuss it more in an upcoming column but in 1968, Ferrari had called me to test for them. After the test in 1968, Ferrari offered me a Formula 2 drive for the current season and in September, a Formula 1 drive at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza. I said, “I’m sorry but no thank you.” This time I said, “Yes!”
My first race for Ferrari was in the 312PB at the Kyalami 9 Hours in November 1971. I actually put the car on pole position ahead of my teammate Clay Regazzoni and ahead of
Mario Andretti and Jacky Ickx in the other car. It was a great start for my career with Ferrari as Regazzoni and I won the race.
I drove for both Porsche and Ferrari and I would say the teams were all about the same. They are both at the top of their game. I drove for the factory Porsche team in ’69, and for John Wyer when he was running the official Porsche team in 1970 with the 917 and 908/03. And I drove for Ferrari in 1972 and ’73. Porsche and Ferrari engineers are all superb. They both have the best mechanics. You really feel sorry for private owners who are running against them in races. Next month I will share what it was like when I first drove the 917.