Brian Redman

Great Britain’s Brian Redman is unquestionably one of the greatest drivers of his generation. The former Porsche factory driver continues his sit down with Total 911’s Tony Mcguiness for part eleven in a series looking back at Brian’s remarkable life and career

Last month in Total 911 issue No.199, I discussed my experiences racing at the 1968 and 1969 24 Hours of Daytona. In 1969, I was officially a Works Porsche Driver. That year at Daytona, I partnered with Vic Elford in piloting a 908 LH (long-tail). Vic had put us on pole, but it was not to be, and we were out by the halfway point. We weren’t alone in our ill-fated attempt at securing victory for Porsche, as all five factory 908s were forced out with mechanical issues.

This month, I will take you back almost 51 years in time to the legendary battle of the 1970 24 Hours of Daytona. The January 1970 race marked the debut of the JW Automotive team’s remarkable Gulf Porsche 917Ks (above). As I mentioned earlier this year, JWA Gulf was considered the exclusive Porsche factory team. John Wyer’s team was the official Porsche entry at Daytona with full factory backing,

Therefore, when our team arrived at Daytona in late January, we were surprised to learn Ferdinand Piëch, head of Porsche Motorsport, brought another factory 917K to compete. We discovered the car was entered by Porsche Konstruktionen, basically the Porsche factory development department. Painted in the white and red Porsche Salzburg livery, this 917K would be piloted by none other than Vic Elford and Kurt Ahrens.

John Wyer was rightly bothered by the unexpected competition from within Porsche itself. Our team recognised we would be battling against three new Ferrari 512s, manned by talented Ferrari factory team drivers including Mario Andretti and Jacky Ickx. We also understood the presence of the Salzburg 917K meant we would be racing against ourselves too.

For the race, Pedro Rodriguez was teamed with Leo Kinnunen in a 917K painted in the iconic Gulf livery colours of Cerulean blue and orange. A black number 2 was emblazoned on the bonnet and doors. I was paired with Seppi Siffert in the equally magnificent Gulf 917K number 1 car. Due to the 31-degree banking corners at Daytona, the roof of both cars were fitted with an oval-shaped window to provide the drivers a view of the banking ahead of us.

Mario Andretti in the new Ferrari 512S took pole position. Jo Siffert in our Porsche was on the outside of the front row. Shortly after the start, Siffert jumped Mario for the lead. Everything was going pretty good as both our Gulf 917s were running 1st and 2nd.

Our 917K stayed in the lead for three hours until we had problems. Fairly early on in the afternoon, I was heading down the back straight before turn 4. There were a bunch of Trans-am cars ahead of me (Camaros and Mustangs). Even though they were pretty much taking up most of the track, there was room for me to shoot in between them. Just as I got through them, my left rear tyre burst.

It did a lot of damage to the oil tank and the body work, so we lost about 20 minutes. Of course, we then started in traffic, having to drive ourselves out of it. We also had other issues including a fuel leak, which cost us another 20 minutes.

In the early morning at 2:00am, I had come off the banking over what used to be a bump where the tunnel was. As I went over the notorious NASCAR 4 hump, there was a bit of a lurch and a bang. Suddenly, I was spinning down the front straight. Normally, drivers of racing cars experience almost no sense of speed even at 200mph, except when out of control. That night I saw Daytona’s infield lights and outside wall swap places over half a dozen times – I found the velocity terrifying. Hitting the hump caused the right rear shock absorber to break off its mounting. We lost 20 laps fixing all the problems, dropping us to 3rd.

In the meantime, the Pedro Rodriguez/leo Kinnunen Porsche was now leading and running flawlessly. After repairs, we rejoined the race and followed our teammates through the night until 7:00am when the clutch failed. The Porsche engineers were standing looking at it and said it would be possible to change the clutch in just over an hour.

The JWA mechanics had never changed the clutch. I thought we were out, but they pushed it behind the wall and changed the clutch. It was a huge job and it dropped us from 20 laps behind to over 50. Incredibly, however, we were still retaining 3rd place.

While the mechanics were working on the clutch, John Wyer came up to me and said, “Brian, would you mind doing a session in the Rodriguez car? We can’t make Kinnunen understand what we would like him to do.” It was difficult to know if Leo didn’t understand team orders to slow down and conserve the car or if he refused to obey them. It was difficult to know which, as he spoke no English and back then our cars didn’t have radios.

I took Leo’s place with strict instructions to run calibrated times, fast enough to win but slow enough to protect the car. Out I went in the number 2 Gulf 917K. Towards the end of that session on the banking, Siffert came hurtling past me in our own 917K and gave me a wave of course. Not only was the Porsche factory team racing its competition director, I found that I was now racing myself!

I had an incident during the race where I slid on the left-hand turn going onto the banking out of the infield. I got a little bit wide and got onto the dirt and slid into the wall. I didn’t hit too hard, but it damaged the nose and had to be taped up. In those days, the nose on the 917 wasn’t detachable. It was all part of the car’s structure.

I drove flat out in my car to the end of the race, as did Seppi. And near the finish, he managed to pass the Andretti/merzario factory Ferrari to capture 2nd place. With the number 2 Gulf 917K of Rodriguez/kinnunen taking victory, it gave Porsche, Gulf and JW Automotive an incredible 1-2 finish on their shared debut.

Officially, I finished 1st and 2nd at the 1970 24 Hours of Daytona. Since I contributed to the win by driving a session in the number 2 Gulf 917K, I was expected to join Rodriguez and Kinnunen on the top of the podium. However, I chose not to do so and was content to stick with Seppi one level lower.