Why the Lister Costin is my most memorable RAC TT racer | Frankel’s Insight

The car was the one-off Lister Costin coupe which through at least three different owners must be a candidate for the greatest number of TTs entered. It was a car that was thoroughly underdeveloped when new, but had enormous potential, which it was only part way through realising when I raced it a few times, including at the RAC TT Celebration sharing with Richard Attwood.

I’ve written about that race before so won’t dwell too much on it, but we’d had two distinct problems with the car in the run up to the race, one gearbox related, the other to do with the engine. We could not get the engine to run smoothly and tried absolutely everything until I believe Gary Pearson suggested the fuel we were using was actually too good for it and that someone should nip down to the supermarket and procure an altogether less exotic brew.

It worked a treat and we finally had a fully functioning Lister, but by now qualifying was over and we were halfway down the grid. I started the race simply because we figured it would take the smaller and slimmer Attwood less time to climb aboard and get strapped in at the pitstop, but almost as soon as the flag had fallen spots of rain began to appear on the windscreen.

You could set the Lister up very nicely for wet or dry, but not both, and on a damp track one of the sweetest handling race cars I’ve ever driven became a nightmare.

And I had it easy. By the time I came in to hand over to Richard the track was soaking and he had a miserable time, finally bringing it back in, I think 12^th place, which was an achievement all by itself. And disappointing as the result was, to share that car with one of my genuine heroes, at Goodwood? Well for me it doesn’t get much better than that.

But it can get a lot worse. It was I think the following year and the owner had decided to put Chris Harris in the car, with Richard’s place being taken by none other than Anthony Reid, one of the most ferociously competitive men I have ever met. That they were a quick pairing was not in doubt, and with an even healthier engine under the bonnet well, it was just possible they could win it.

And for a while it all looked good: Chris was leading by the end of his stint. I know just how much pitstop practice they did and it all paid off when Anthony was away in mere seconds. But then it started to rain. The car did its Jekyll and Hyde routine and by the time Anthony realised that Simon Hadfield had come from nowhere in the Aston Martin Project 212, it was too late. The Aston handled beautifully in such conditions and Simon drove a perfect race to take a car that had nothing like front-running pace in the dry to a thoroughly deserved win.

We were all gutted to see the car, which had seemed a nailed-on winner just a few laps earlier, come over the line, one wing mildly crunched after a slightly too close encounter with a barrier in an attempt to keep up with the flying Aston.

But the story does have a happier. Eventually, with new owner Fred Wakeham and the incomparable Tom Kristensen at the wheel, the car delivered on its promise and achieved a second-place finish in 2022.

Every time I go to the Revival I make a point of visiting the Lister coupe in the paddock. And I don’t dwell on what-might-have-beens. Even if all had gone perfectly for Richard and me, I don’t in all honesty think we would have won it; I’m far more glad to have raced it than I am remotely sad about not coming as far up the field perhaps we could and should have done.

Racing is about winning and not the taking part, but actually? To have driven that car with that co-driver at that track in that race? I am prepared to make an exception.

Main image photography by Nick Dungan.

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