Brian Redman on his "Top racing achievement"

Brian led a parade of around 30 F5000 machines, all (apart from one) Chevy V8 powered and from the likes not just of F5000 masters Lola but also Gurney-Eagle, McLaren, March, Surtees, Trojan and Chevron. Brian was in the twin-seat Lola 192 – occupying the front seat, naturally – for demo laps of the 500-plus bhp cars on a snowy Goodwood Motor Circuit.

“The last time I drove a racing car in the snow was in 1968 at the Nurburgring south circuit in an F2 Lola,” says the 81-year-old who, these days, is more used to the warmth and sunshine of Florida. “I don’t think a drive around a cold Goodwood will be a problem…”

F5000 lasted only 14 years, 1968 to ’82, but Brian took the championship title three years running from 1974, giving him what he says were “the best years of my racing career”. He would have won the title in 1973 too except that he missed two races because he was busy driving a Ferrari 512 in the World Sports Car Championship.

Brian arrived at F5000 after six seasons in F1 and then excelling at sports cars not just with Ferrari but also with Porsche, Jaguar and Aston Martin, his victories including the 1970 Targa Florio, Sebring 12 Hours twice and the Spa 1000km four times.

His enthusiasm for F5000 is despite it almost killing him.

In fact after the race in Canada in 1977, when his Lola became airborne at 170mph, Brian’s injuries were so extensive that the headline in the Montreal paper the next day was “Redman est mort”. It was accompanied by a photograph of the ambulance that was rushing him to hospital stuck at the side of the road – with a flat tyre. That didn’t help, but he not only proved the papers wrong and survived, but recovered so well that a few months later he won the Sebring 12 Hours in a Porsche 935.

“Yes it nearly killed me but I just loved F5000. In sports car endurance racing you were a co-driver. But here you were by yourself, and I liked that. The four years between ’73-’76 are to me my top racing achievements, above winning the Targa Florio.”

His worst F5000 experience was obviously that Canada race, but his best? “That might have been the Long Beach Grand Prix in 1975 where there was a huge and impressive turn-out of both F1 and F5000 drivers. That was a good win.

How did he get into F5000?

“In 1971 I needed a drive – of any type. My introduction to F5000 was with the McLaren M18 but we struggled with the car and I said to Derek Bennett of Chevron in Bolton, how much and how long to build an F5000 car?

“Ten weeks later we had a new chassis for £3000, much less than an Indycar or F1 chassis.  On the first day of testing we broke the lap record at Oulton Park and went on  to win the first two races. When we saw that first prize in the F5000 race at Watkins Glen was $20,000 that was it – we were off to America.

“We bought a $500 station wagon in New York and towed the  Chevron to Watkins Glen. We were leading the race by 45 seconds with seven laps to go…when the the battery went flat, and bang went our $20,000.”

Fifty years after the first F5000 race the cars today – still relatively affordable and easy to look after as they were then – are popular historic racers, something that Brian Redman has been passionate in encouraging. The Lancastrian, who left school at 16 (“the headmaster said the school couldn’t teach my anything”) is now looking forward to more F5000 events, including Mosport in June and Laguna Seca in August.

After the noise and fury of Chevy V8 power on a freezing Sussex day Britain’s F5000 triple World Champion will surely be ready for anything…

Photography by Tom Shaxson