Motorsport Legends Speak
Interviews & Words With The Heroes of Motorsports
This is where the rubber meets the road, where the smell of burnt rubber and high-octane fuel mingles with the sharp insights of those who have lived and breathed motorsports. Here, the legends of racing take the wheel, sharing their firsthand experiences, hard-won wisdom, and unique perspectives in a collection of captivating articles and exclusive interviews.
The Driver's Seat: Insights from Motorsports Legends
This is where the rubber meets the road, where the smell of burnt rubber and high-octane fuel mingles with the sharp insights of those who have lived and breathed motorsports. Here, the legends of racing take the wheel, sharing their firsthand experiences, hard-won wisdom, and unique perspectives in a collection of captivating articles and exclusive interviews. Get ready to dive deep into the minds of champions as they dissect race strategy, reflect on career-defining moments, and offer a glimpse into the intense pressure and exhilaration of life at the limit. Hear from visionary engineers, team owners, motorsport executives, and influential figures who shape the sport from behind the scenes.
Our Pepsi Challenger Eagle from 1981 was sort of unique. It didn’t owe anything to Europe, it was developed right here in California. It had our own brand of aerodynamics. It had a stock block Chevrolet—essentially a sprint car engine we had done a bit of development on. It was...
One of the things that comes up is a little record I am very proud of that there are only four people in the world, to my knowledge, who have taken part in the Olympics and in a World Championship Grand Prix event. One of the others was Alphonso de...
We concluded last month’s opening segment of John Zimmermann’s interview with David Hobbs as he was preparing to turn his attention toward North America. Even though he would still contest a number of major races in Europe, the main focus of his competitive efforts turned toward the USA where he...
Southgate’s sleek Jagusr XJR-6 draws a crowd in the paddock at Brands Hatch for the World Endurance Championship round in September of 1985.Photo: Pete Austin The first time I met Tom Walkinshaw was in 1984. I had been invited to meet him at Tom Walkinshaw Racing’s (TWR) headquarters in Kidlington,...
Frank Costin had a reputation for innovation and creativity unsurpassed in British motorsport. He brought skills and knowledge from the aviation industry to a wide range of motoring projects and played a major role in the success of the Vanwall Grand Prix car, which won the first Constructor’s World Championship...
It’s amazing how some of the names forged into the history of motorsport were first introduced to it. Some have a family background associated with it, while others have their personal “road to Damascus” moment. This was the case with Mike Pilbeam, the designer and engineer who first worked with...
The world of motorsport has many colorful characters, but few as interesting and humorous as Akton “Ak” Miller. A founding member of the National Hot Rod Association, Miller combined his passion for hot rods and straight-line speed with an interest in open road racing to create some amazing specials for...
Over the course of his life, Frank Gardner has been a boxer, a surfer and a motorcycle mechanic before moving on to motor racing in Australia, England and eventually, throughout the world. Our Patrick Quinn managed to catch up with Frank at his Australian driver-training facility and found him to...
It had been a long, hard ride from winning masses of kart races when he was a kid to winning the 2009 Formula One World Championship. But, like so many other kart stars of the last 30 years or so, Jenson Button did it, with a lot of team changes...
Dr. Stephen E. OlveyPhoto: Dan R. Boyd USA LAT Photographic I met Alex Zanardi back in the late ’90s when he first came into Indycar racing. My impression at the time was: what a happy, friendly guy. Alex is the type of person who shortly after you first meet him...
Two names have become synonymous with Corvette over the years—Zora Arkus-Duntov and Dick Guldstrand. From the airport circuits of California to the open roads of Le Mans, Guldstrand’s list of racing accomplishments is long and legendary, and on the occasion of his recent passiing we remember him by rerunning Casey...
For a “round peg,” John Cooper Fitch fits remarkably “squarely” in the pigeonhole marked “True American Hero.” In his 85 years so far on this planet, he has risked life and limb for his country as a WWII fighter pilot as well as for his own pleasure in racing cars...
Charlie Kemp was born in Mississippi, and his inimitable southern drawl once led Carroll Shelby to say that had Charlie raced as slowly as he talked he’d never have won anything! Charlie did win, however, and he won big. He finished 3rd in his very first race in a jalopy...
Oosthoek’s first car was this ’50s Fiat 1100, which was so rusty, he covered the holes with decals! VR: How did you first get started with cars? WO: I guess it was around 1959, when I was at the age of 12, I became aware that there was such a...
After leaving Lotus, I was “sucked in” by Don Nichols and rejoined Shadow. He said James Hunt would be our driver, and that all the problems of the past had been sorted out. I’d had offers from Fittipaldi and Renault, but in the end I went back to Shadow. Tab-a-tip...
Bob Dance I started work with Lotus Components in 1960. I really wanted to join the Lotus Formula One team, but unless you were in the right place at the right time and talking to the right person, it was difficult. It was very curious in the way it worked,...
Everybody knows who Bobby Unser is. During his extensive racing career, the third of Mom and Pop Unser’s four race-driving sons won races in stock cars, sports cars and sprint cars, as well as reigning over the second edition of the International Race of Champions in 1975 and the only...
John Coombs was literally born into the motoring business, as his multi-talented craftsman father was already working with automobiles when John appeared on the scene. As John grew up he eventually began racing, soon moving successfully into 500-cc Formula Three. Eventually, the family firm, Coombs & Sons, Ltd., became known for...
For me, to think of the important moments in motor racing means to think of the people I knew and had some good times with…and to think of the races. Sometimes these memories are both good and bad, happy and sad. I remember the days in Argentina at the Temporada...
Today, Franco Cortese is, perhaps, one of motor sport’s forgotten stars—and he shouldn’t be. He was the driver who put Ferrari on the map. All in a career spanning 156 races and 20 victories in 36 years of racing in his own cars and those of the cream of the...
Christopher TatePhoto: Kary Jiggle Christopher Tate is the Managing Director of Donington Race Circuit in the UK. In his career, he has held many senior positions with various organizations including Lola Cars International, Elan Panoz and the Rockingham Motor Speedway in Corby, UK. In recent years, he was one of...
For three short years, in the early 1960s, Christabel Carlisle, now Lady Watson, was the name on the lips of everyone who attended race meetings in the UK. At that time, it was controversial for women to race cars. However, from out of nowhere she was an instant success. During...
Bruno Giacomelli was born in Brescia, Italy, in 1952. He was always enthusiastic about racing and especially about single-seaters, working his way quickly into Formula Two, where he won the European F2 Championship in 1978 driving a works March-BMW. He managed to break into F1 in a 3rd McLaren in...
Before the outbreak of WWII, motor racing in South Africa had been developing strongly and, in fact, the last pre-war South African Grand Prix, held in January 1939, was the first major ‘scratch start’ event in the country and included a top class field of voiturettes comprised of nine Maseratis,...
Many motorsport enthusiasts remember the names of Bruce McLaren and Denis Hulme as part of the Bruce and Denis Show, which dominated Can-Am racing from 1967 to 1972. However, part of the success of the McLaren team stemmed from the people with whom Bruce McLaren surrounded himself; people like Phil...
When last we left Bruce Burness (April VR) he had just initiated his lasting association with Trevor Harris where they performed what he called “the ultimate male-bonding experience.” In this second part of VR Associate Editor John Zimmermann’s interview, Burness discusses the achievement he considers the pinnacle of his career,...
Probably the most important thing I considered in designing a racecar back in the ’50s was to try to achieve the maximum possible power-to-weight ratio. To that end, I was always figuring out how I could safely reduce the car’s weight while maximizing the horsepower. Of course, things like handling,...
Not only did Rubens win 11 Grands Prix, competing in more of them than any other driver, came 2nd in the 2002 and 2004 Formula One World Championships and win a couple of national and world titles, he also beat The Stig. Who, you might ask, is that? Well, he’s...
As a young boy James Mitchell shared his father’s hobby and passion for classic and historic cars. Always fascinated by history, his education took him on a very different journey as he studied and gained a degree in Theology at Edinburgh University. However, on a train journey home, reading a...
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