Tag Archives: Redman

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Despite the success of winning the 1969 International Championship for Makes handsomely with a maximum of 45 points with their 3 litre/183 cui 908 model Porsche officially withdrew from the series with two rounds to go having failed to win any of the three marquee events of the series at Daytona, won by Roger Penske’s Lola Chevrolet T70, Sebring and Le Mans won by John Wyers ancient Gulf Sponsored Ford GT40 Mk I’s.

Porsche came to an agreement with John Wyer to run a works supported team of 917’s in all but the Targa Florio and Nurburgring rounds of the 1970 series where the 908 was deemed sufficiently competitive to win outright as it had the previous season.

John Wyers JW Automotive Team tested a 917 at Zeltweg in October 1969 and developed the Kurz Heck, also known as K, KH and Short Tale bodywork seen on today’s featured car, the rear aerofoil would first appear mid season at Le Mans.

Porsche 917K, Niello Concours at Serrano,

The first round of the 1970 International Championship for Makes was the 24 hour race at Daytona where Pedro Rodriguez Leo Kinnunen and Brian Redman qualified chassis #917-015 2nd behind the debutant Ferrari 512S model driven by Mario Andretti, Arturo Merzario and Jacky Ickx.

Pedro, Leo and Brian won the race by 45 laps from the sister car shared by Brian and Jo Siffert with the Ferrari of Mario, Art and Jacky 3 laps further back.

Chassis #015 was used as a team spare at Sebring where Mario Mario was drafted in to join Ignazio Giunti and Nino Vaccarella to drive the race of his life to secure Ferrari’s only championship win of the season.

Porsche 917K, Niello Concours at Serrano,

At the 1970 Watkins Glen Can Am round chassis #015 made it’s only other race appearance of the season with a smart new paint job and a rear wing fitted, Brian finished the race in seventh place and for the remainder of the season the car reverted to the role of team spare.

Porsche went on to secure the 1970 International Championship for Makes with a maximum 63 points from Ferrari, JW Automotive won seven of the ten races only being usurped by the Porsche Salzburg 917 at Le Mans. JW Automotive and Porsche Salzburg each won a race Targa Florio and Nurburgring respectively with the older 908 spyder model.

Now it get’s complicated Porsche sold the chassis #015 to the Finish AAW team while retaining the chassis tag which Porsche reassigned to #917-035 which was taken from stock and given to JW Automotive for the 1971 season.

AAW rebuilt chassis #015 into a spyder and fitted the motor from their 917 chassis number #917-021, the complete car was given the identity #917-01-021.

Leo Kinnunen, who remember had won the 1970 Daytona 24 hours in the chassis with it’s orignal ID tag, was employed to drive #917-01-021 in the 1971 Interserie Championship, a European unlimited series.

The flying Fin Leo scored an outright win at home in Keimola with enough further placings to secure the 1971 Interserie Championship.

Many years later Kevin and Bob Rapp took #01-021 to Gunnar Racing who reconstructed #015 as it is seen in today’s photograph’s, using those parts of the original #917-015 chassis that remained and reconstructed the spyder #917-01-021 from the remainder with a new chassis.

Using respected historian Doug Nye’s principal that a chassis history is not transferable, with it’s chassis plate for example, then today’s featured car can be seen as the original #917-015, though I suspect the Porsche #917-035 which was given the #015 tag by the factory in 1971 probably still has that tag attached, 035/015 which is most certainly not the car that won the 1970 Daytona 24 hour race, today can be seen at the Porsche Museum.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for sharing today’s photographs of Bruce Canepa’s Porsche 917 at Niello Concours at Serrano a couple of years ago.

Thanks for joining me on this “A Short Tale” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t for get to come back now.

Improved Qualifier – Shadow DN3 #5A

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The Shadow team finished it’s debut 1973 season with two 3rd place finishes, one 6th and one top 10 start with it’s original DN1 model.

Both 1973 Shadow Formula One works drivers Jackie Oliver and George Follmer retired from the Shadow Formula One programme to concentrate on the successful 1974 Shadow Can Am programme.

Shadow DN3, Sonoma Historics

American winner of the 1973 British and Canadian Grand Prix Peter Revson was employed as the Shadow Formula One team leader for 1974 and he was joined by 1973 Formula Two Champion Jean Pierre “Jumper” Jarrier.

The teams existing designer Tony Southgate devised today’s featured car the Shadow DN3 which featured a longer and wheel base and wider track than it’s predecessor.

Shadow DN3, Sonoma Historics

Peter Revson showed the new car was a vast improvement on the old qualifying 4th, 6th and 9th, in the first three events of the season, he retired in Argentina and Brazil and finished a distant 6th in the rain soaked non championship Race of Champions at Brands Hatch.

Unfortunately Peter was killed while testing his DN3 for the following race in South Africa an event from which the devastated team withdrew.

Shadow DN3, Sonoma Historics

Jean Pierre Jarrier and the team bounced back with a third place finish in the non championship International Trophy at Silverstone and was joined by Brian Redman for the next three races.

At Monaco Jean Pierre qualified 6th and finished an impressive third behind Ronnie Peterson and Jody Schekter.

After Monaco Brian, who finished a best 7th in the 1974 Spanish Grand Prix decided to quit the Shadow team in favour of a Formula A/5000 programme in the US with Jim Hall and Carl Hass which would net him three consecutive championships and a lot more cash than Shadow had available.

Brian was replaced by Bertil Roos for the Swedish Grand Prix where Jean Pierre qualified 8th and finished 5th.

Welshman Tom Pryce joined the Shadow team at the Dutch Grand Prix where Jean Pierre qualified 7th ahead of his team mate in 11th and both cars failed to finish.

Tom qualified a season high 3rd at the French Grand Prix where he was eliminated in his second consecutive start line collision.

Over the remainder of the season the teams qualifying performances slipped back and the teams remaining point came from Tom’s best 6th place finish in the 1974 German Grand Prix.

I believe the car seen at the Sonoma Historic Meeting by Geoffrey Horton in these photographs is chassis #5A first qualified 5th by Tom in the 1974 British Grand Prix where he finished 8th and driven by Tom to 6th in the German Grand Prix from 11th on the grid.

Tom also drive this car in the Canadian and US Grand Prix retiring from both and there is an unconfirmed possibility that this would have been the chassis James Hunt drove in an exhibition race supporting the 1974 Monterey Grand Prix for Formula A/5000 cars, coincidentally won by Brian Redman.

This exibition race between the Shadow Formula One cars and Shadow Can Am cars has been described as one of two grudge matches between Jackie Oliver and George Follmer who respectively won and finished 2nd in the 1974 Can Am championship.

For some reason Jean Pierre Beltoise was scheduled to drive alongside his countryman “Jumper” Jarrier in the teams second DN3, but when he could not make it due to injury one of the Shadow Teams 1973 Can Am drivers, James Hunt, was given the drive in the exhibition race.

James qualified fastest but finished second to “Jumper” but ahead of George in the surviving Cam Am Shadow DN4.

Looking at the photo in this link one can see Tom’s name is taped out on the side of the car James drove at Laguna Seca which alludes to the possibility the car he drove was quite likely chassis #5A, as I say this to not confirmation, but points to a better than even chance that he did.

Two years after the Laguna Seca Exhibition race chassis #5A appeared at the 1976 British Grand Prix, sans airbox, entered for Mike Wilds to drive by Team P. R. Reilly, unfortunately Mike was six seconds off the pace and unsurprisingly failed to qualify.

Mike then drove #5A in two Shellsport Group 8 races at Snetterton and Brands Hatch finishing 2nd and 6th respectively before the car appears to have been retired from competition.

My thanks to Geoffrey Horton for spotting the today’s featured Shadow at Sonoma Historics and sharing these photograph of it.

Thanks for joining me on this “Improved Qualifier” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow for Maserati Monday. Don’t forget to come back now !

Hot In Miami – Jaguar XJR5 #006

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If one foreigner deserves a knighthood for trying to keep the British Motor industry alive while it was in self destruct mode twixt the early 1960’s and late 1980’s my nomination without question would go to Bob Tullis who prepared and raced a succession of British sports cars from Triumph and Jaguar to numerous victories over the 30 years in question.

Perhaps most remarkably of all having been a successful driver for 20 years, which included driving a few non British vehicles like the Dodge Dart, AMC Javelin,Bruce Jennings Porsche 911 and a one off drive in a works Oldsmobile Cutlass, Bob and Group 44 Inc business partner Brian Feurstenau managed to persuade Mike Dale of Jaguar Cars Inc, New Jersey, to fund an IMSA GT Prototype project which would see Jaguar return to Le Mans nearly 30 years after their last official appearance at the circuit in 1955.

Tullis who’s diverse endurance experience included driving the Triumph Spitfire Coupé and Howmett gas turbine car at Le Mans employed Lee Dykstra to design the new Jaguar XJR5 IMSA GTP challenger.

Jaguar XJR5, Miles, Silverstone Classic

The XJR5 was to be powered by a variant of the 2 valve per cylinder 5.34 litre / 326 cui Jaguar V12 which Bob had successfully campaigned in his Trans Am Quaker State Group 44 Inc Jaguar E-Type and later XJS models since the mid 1970’s.

In August 1982 Bob and long time co driver Canadian Bill Adam drove the XJR5 to a debut 3rd place finish behind two of the outgoing Porsche 935’s at Road America to score a debut class victory.

Bob and Bill scored the teams first overall victory at Road Atlanta in April 1983, two more followed at Lime Rock and Mosport, Doc Bundy then shared the final XJR5 victory in 1983 at Pocono with Bob.

Jaguar XJR5, Miles, Silverstone Classic

Today’s featured chassis #006 first appeared at the 1984 Daytona 24 Hours where Bill Adam, Pat Bedard and Brian Redman qualified 6th and were classified a disappointing 24th, the sister car driven by Doc Bundy, David Hobbs and Bob Tullius qualified and finished 3rd.

Next time out at Miami with Brian and Doc at the wheel chassis #006 qualified 4th but more importantly crossed the line first when the chequered flag fell. Despite the team increasing the capacity of it’s V12 motors to a full 6 litres / 366 cui a couple of months later this would prove be their only overall victory in 1984.

After Porsche’s top driver Derek Bell had been suitably impressed with the XJR5 after testing it in 1983 Jaguar gave the green light to Bob and Group 44 to take the cars, one of which would be #006 driven by Tony Adamowicz, John Watson and Claude Ballot-Léna to Le Mans in 1984.

Jaguar XJR5, Miles, Silverstone Classic

Tony, John and Claude qualified 19th and retired after an accident on lap 212 while the sister car driven by Brian, Doc and Bob qualified 14th and made it to lap 291 before the gearbox gave up.

Chassis #006 returned to the States and finished the season with a 2nd place finish in the Daytona 3 Hours with Brian and Hurley Haywood at the wheel.

For 1985, by which time Lee Dykstra reckoned he had redesigned 99% of the XJR5, #006 was prepared for the Le Mans 24 hours.

Jaguar XJR5, Miles, Silverstone Classic

Jim Adams joined Brian and Hurley in chassis #006 where the car was qualified 17th and retired after only 151 laps with a constant velocity joint failure.

The sister car driven by Bob, Chip Robinson and Claude qualified 16th and finished 13th overall and first in the GTP class.

The cars final two races were back in the States where Chip Robinson joined Hurley to score a best 2nd place finish at Pocono in September 1985 on it’s final in period race appearance.

At Daytona in December 1985 the XJR5 model appeared for the last time, before it was replaced by the all new XJR7 in 1986, Brian and Hurley sent the model into retirement with a fine second place less than 8.5 seconds behind the winning Hobert Racing Porsche 962 driven by Al’s Holbert and Unser.

Today #006 is owned by Don Miles who can be seen driving the car at Silverstone Classic events in these photographs.

Thanks for joining me on this “Hot In Miami” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again for Ferrari Friday tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

Giant Killer – Chevron Chevrolet B24 #B24-73-02

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Having developed a passion for engineering through his interest in model aeroplanes Lancastrian Derek Bennett took an apprenticeship in mechanical and electrical engineering to become a mechanic, during this time he was exposed to (British) Stock Car racing.

It was not long before Derek graduated into building, maintaining and racing vehicles in the British Clubmans series for small Ford powered vehicles and into Formula Junior.