John Cooper: Formula 1's pace-setter
Lifetime achievement awards are usually consolation prizes for people who made a career out of finishing second. John Cooper so rewarded by the historic racing world is clearly an exception.…
Teatime in McLaren’s paddock palace, The Brand Centre. ‘Team Button’ – father John and manager Richard Goddard – are having a natter. They might be talking business, but just as…
The formation finish, staged for the benefit of the cameras, has become commonplace at Le Mans thanks to a certain manufacturer from Germany. Before Audi’s domination of the event, though,…
It is purely an age thing, I suppose, this, peculiar tendency we have to forget whole swathes of people who did their stuff before a certain age. An atrophied sense…
Take out of the equation those pedal-to-metal laps around the old eight-mile Spa-Francorchamps or the pre-Hella Licht-S Osterreichring, and a Porsche 917 couldn't live with a Formula 1 car in…
Bonneville and the Black Rock Desert; before Daytona Beach or Pendine Sands in Wales, the Land Speed Record belonged to an exclusive turn-of-the-century holiday resort — Ormond Beach, Florida. Ormond…
Just as it finally seemed within his reach, a broken titanium component crushed Peter Revson's F1 dream Peter Jeffrey Revlon Revson had it all. Good looks, breeding, an attractive personality…
It is early afternoon on Saturday November 1, 1980. A call is placed to the Brabham headquarters in Chessington, Surrey. The conversation goes something like this: “’Allo?” “Ah, hello. Could…
Karl Kling, who died recently, may never have been a great racing driver but he was certainly one who had his days. I interviewed him only once, appropriately close by…
Ambition is a funny thing. For some it burns so bright it sears a lasting scar on their personalities. Others look as if they don't have a scrap of it…
Group Five race, Mainz-Finthen Airfield, 1978 Of course there have been a lot of memorable races over the years, especially in the days of the Porsche 962. I particularly remember…
If a racing driver has to die young, there is an almost gladiatorial rightness that he do so in his element on the track. Gunnar Nilsson was denied even that,…
When we speak of legendary partnerships in motor racing, perhaps the one that would spring first to most minds is that of Colin Chapman and Jim Clark: throughout his eight-year…
The man is a tidal wave of anecdotes spanning more than half a century of motor racing. Some consider him a lovely man. Some consider him an old rascal. Many…
With his dark features and thick, curly, slightly receding hair, Gabriele Tarquini looked not unlike American comedian John Belushi during his time in Formula One. Sadly, the Italian's machinery often…
Gerhard Berger chose Jean Alesi without hesitation. Very Berger, no messing about, things to do, people to see, a Grand Prix team to run. “Sure, I give you 15 minutes,…
Down at the tip-top bar, that Sunday night in May 1970, we waited and hoped for Jochen Rindt to arrive, as the winner of the Monaco Grand Prix traditionally did…