I was in Fuji, quite a few engineers raised the notion of having a WEC round in Australia, In particular Phillip Island. Given you’re involvement on the FIA Circuit Commission, do you think that’s a realistic possibility if everything fell into place?
It’s a commercial decision. I think from a sporting perspective there’s no issue at all. As a Grade 2 circuit Phillip Island has the right license. At a push you could almost go to Bathurst.
Do you think?
At a push. It would be different at Bathurst, but Phillip Island has all the right credentials so it then becomes a commercial issue.
Just quickly on the endurance side of things. You ran your first endurance race at the Bueno Aires 1000 alongside Ronnie Peterson in 1972. Neither of you had had endurance experience or even shared a car before. What was it like having a co-driver like Ronnie?
We’d actually done some racing with co-drivers. Ronnie had been doing some 2-litre sports car racing with Jo Bonnier. I’d had Kyalami in a Chevron with Brian Redman, so we had a little bit of experience.
I think what was the surprise to both of us, was that in winning the first race in Bueno Aires was that we had to share the win! A driver’s ego isn’t about sharing. If you’re a golfer, a tennis player or any athlete it’s always about yourself. Suddenly we were sharing a win with someone else.
Did you like the same things in the car?
Setting the car up was interesting. Ronnie was a gifted driver who could drive the car in whatever state it was in whereas I was maybe more technical. Ronnie would do a good time in practice and if I got the car right I could go nearly as quick. When he got back in the car he could only do the same time.
The problem for drivers like Ronnie was that he took it out on the car to get the lap time, which isn’t very easy on the car. In endurance racing back then, when you got the car set up right the car and the driver had an easier time.
You’re not burning up tyres or over driving to drive around problems. If you get the car right, the car and driver becomes one. It doesn’t happen very often.
Image: BRDC