Inside line: Ray Bellm

The BRDC Chairman tackles Le Mans in a GT40 and Isle of Man in an Escort — in a week

How did the Le Mans Classic go?

Very well. The car was fantastic. A GT40 around Le Mans is a real pleasure; you can tell it was made for that circuit. The car has won six of its seven races there now, but after our engine failure in the first race, the Lanzante crew changed the engine in four hours.

What do you think of the event?

A fantastic weekend and a real tribute to Patrick Peter; it’s a really brave event to put on. But there are people going there who have never really done any racing and the standard of driving in some cases is dangerous with the speed differentials. But everyone loves the principle of the event.

Was it hard adapting to the Isle of Man?

Le Mans has barriers, the Isle of Man has trees and banks. Some of the roads are tiny. In the dry it didn’t scare me, but in the wet I was thinking, ‘Why am I doing this?’ Sitting alongside me was Mark Solloway, who has got to be the maddest man on the planet. Every corner on the recce he was saying, ‘This is not a 3, this is a 4!’ But to come from racing and be first on the road on the IoM is a bit of a breakthrough.

What comes next for you?

I’m going to do Goodwood with the GT40 and I may do the Tour of Spain. I’m doing Wales Rally GB in a Subaru. One of my ambitions was to always do, what was, the RAC Rally. I’ll probably be absolutely scared to death, but if I really like it I might just do Monte Carlo. There are certain things I just want to knock off in my motor racing life. I’ll do the Roger Albert Clark Rally, too, which should be fun.