Howden Ganley: My life in cars

When I was young, our family car was…

A Morris Minor, which my mother let me race once. We also had an MG TF 1250 which my father raced against Stirling Moss at Ardmore. He let me drive it on the road, but not in a race, as I wasn’t old enough. There were also various Vauxhalls and a Ford Anglia 105E.

The first car I owned was…

A Morris Eight, which I bought from an uncle for £50. It had a number of mechanical defects that I couldn’t fix because I was then working as a newspaper reporter.

I first became hooked on racing when…

My father took me and my brother Denis to the New Zealand Grand Prix at Ardmore in 1955 where I saw real grand prix cars for the first time. The race was won by Prince Bira in his Maserati 250F, ahead of Peter Whitehead, Tony Gaze and a young up-and-coming driver called Jack Brabham in a Cooper-Bristol. By the end of the day I had decided to give up my hobby of sailing and become a grand prix driver.

My first win was…

The Ultimate Trophy at Ardmore, a fairly prestigious race, in a Lotus 11 in 1961. Importantly, this paid £150 in prize money which funded the rest of my season racing every weekend in January and February, from Ardmore to Teretonga, winning prize money from each race. This was the forerunner of the Tasman Series.

But the win I remember most was…

The Interserie race at the Nürburgring in April 1972 in the BRM P167 Can-Am car. It poured with rain for the whole of a two-part aggregate race but that car was magic and I won both parts by a comfortable margin. We were a small team – two mechanics, designer Tony Southgate, his wife Sue as timekeeper, and me up against the might of the Porsche works team with their new 917 Can-Am. As Tony observed at the time, our budget for the weekend was probably less than Porsche’s catering budget.

Sprint race…

Lewis or Max?

Max.

Senna or Prost?

Senna.

Oversteer or understeer?

Oversteer.

Brands Hatch or Silverstone?

Silverstone.

If I could race in any era it would be…

The 1970s. It was such a great time for a driver, when you could race in so many different disciplines. You had Formula 1, Can-Am, the World Sportscar Championship, Tour of Britain, European Formula 2 and Indy.

The best piece of advice I’ve been given…

My parents always told me to never give up, keep your eyes and ears open, and shut your mouth. I may have sometimes failed to heed the last bit.

My favourite racing car is…

To look at, and admire, it’s the Lancia D50. If only Lancia had been able to afford to develop it, Mercedes-Benz would have had a problem. To drive, the Matra MS120, inset, is top of my list as are all of the cars designed by Tony Southgate.

When I’m driving I listen to…

Boom Radio. It used to be Radio 2, in the days of Terry Wogan, and latterly Ken Bruce and Steve Wright, but since the woke BBC wallahs outed them I have moved on.

If I could race one more GP it would be at…

The Nürburgring, if it was a grand prix, with its 14 miles and 174 corners. I think in the real world, however, it would have to be Monaco, a circuit I always loved and the reason for the title of my {2015] book The Road to Monaco.