Brian Redman

In his 17th and final column in what has been an extraordinary series, racing legend Brian Redman sits down with Tony Mcguiness to reveal some additional details, anecdotes and thoughts on his time during one of the most dangerous eras in motor racing

As I mentioned last month, my first race back from my horrendous accident was incredible, as I won the 1978 12 Hours of Sebring in Dick Barbour’s number two Porsche 935. In 1979 I raced my final stint at Sebring, finishing by taking 2nd place also in a Porsche 935.

I did four or five races a year which were mostly for Dick Barbour, until I had to make a decision in late 1979 as to what I was going to do. The last thing I wanted to do was sell the farm, the animals and all the equipment, but I didn’t have any means of earning a living. Without any racing contracts like those with Porsche and Ferrari, there was no way to sustain the farm.

It was clear I needed a regular job. No racing meant no income. Carl Haas, the US importer of

Lola racing cars and based in Chicago, suggested

I join him in selling Lolas but continue racing when opportunities arose.

I agreed to join him, so at the beginning of 1980, I uprooted the family and took them to Highland Park (just outside of Chicago) where I joined the Haas team. My racing in the USA picked up, with 12 events that year. All but one race was in Porsche 935s. My only non-porsche race of 1980 was a good one, winning the Mid-ohio 500 miles with David Hobbs (Hobbo) in a Lola T333.

In 1980 I read the new IMSA GTP rules and suggested to Carl that Lola could build a car to the new rules that could win the championship, which it did, with five wins and five 2nds. I found racers, Ralph Kent-cooke and Roy G. Woods Jr, who agreed to buy the first two cars. The new Lola T600 wasn’t ready until March of ’81 and for Daytona, Sebring and Riverside the team bought a used Porsche 935. At the Daytona 24 Hours I drove with Bobby Rahal and Bob Garretson. I had qualified 15th in the 935. Bobby wanted to move us higher, but I said, “leave it” knowing how unimportant qualifying was in that era of car fragility. If we circulated successfully for 24 hours, we could be assured of a top-ten finish and possibly a victory.

At 2:00am after one of Bobby’s stints he appeared in our motorhome to exclaim, “We are leading! I swear I didn’t pass a single car. Everyone broke down.” Our team went on to secure the overall victory. The 1981 win was my third and final victory at Daytona and extremely satisfying.

Through 1984, ’85 and ’86 I drove for Bob

Tullius’ excellent Group 44 Jaguar team and my last season of professional racing took place in 1989. It yielded little in the way of glory, but it was a glorious experience. I enjoyed racing in the Aston Martin

AMR1. It was a good car to drive even though it was uncompetitive. The team was composed of true racers. All in all, it was a nice way to end my career.

Many people have asked me how I helped start Rennsport Reunion in the USA. Essentially, in 1998 Bob Carlson, who was PR for Porsche Cars North America, rang me and said, we’ve five cars coming from the Stuttgart Porsche Museum that are going to various events this year, including Monterey in August. Could you test them at Sebring in March and write an article for Road & Track?

Afterwards, I said to Bob, “If I arrange an allporsche meeting at Watkins in September, would you send those five cars from Monterey to Watkins Glen?” He said he would, and the all-porsche Watkins 50/50 turned out to be a great meeting.

About seven or eight months after that Bob said, “Let’s do another one at Lime Rock in 2001 and call it Rennsport 1.” That was the first dry weekend of the year. We had a great turnout. The public roads were blocked with cars. For Rennsport 1, Porsche did so much. They brought journalists in, more cars, more support and helped out with all sorts of organisational things. It was a terrific success, so after that, Bob said, “Let’s do another Rennsport II in 2004 at

Daytona!”, which was even bigger than the previous one at Lime Rock. We held Rennsport III again at Daytona in 2007 by which time Bob was dying from cancer, yet he put a tremendous effort into Rennsport. That year we had an incredible turnout of Porsche 917s. If I recall correctly, it was 16 or 17 of them in total.

The following Rennsport Reunions were then held at Laguna Seca in 2011, 2015 and 2018. Each one became bigger and better than the previous.

The popularity of the Rennsport Reunions shows the affection, admiration and respect the public has for Porsche. Discussions are being held regarding Rennsport Reunion VII.

I have always been amazed by Porsche, but I never imagined it would become the incredible company it is now. When I went back to Weissach several years ago to test the Imsa-winning RS Spyder for a Road & Track article, I was amazed by the size of the place. I hadn’t been there since 1971.

It was staggering to see the Porsche buildings, almost unbelievable. One of the characteristics of Porsche has always been their great reliability. It has always been a feature of Porsche even since the early days. They have somehow maintained that. Here we are decades later, and Porsche is even more of an incredible company and certainly will remain so into the future.

I started racing 62 years ago. Those who are familiar with racing in the 1960s and 1970s know that we veterans are the fortunate survivors of that era’s terrible odds. Looking back, I remember how each time I stepped out of the car at the end of a race, especially at Le Mans, Spa and Monza, the grass was greener, the sky was more blue. I was happy I had survived. Better to be lucky than rich!