A good start und lots of zeal

Best remembered for his role as Lotus team manager during the JPS glory days. Peter Warr was also a handy race driver. One of his best results was a flag-to-flag victory in the 1962 Elfelrennen aboard a Formula Junior Lotus 20. lronlcally, though, it was this race that helped persuade him his future lay on the other side of the pltwall.

“My job that weekend was made easier when Bob Anderson was disquallfled before the race,” says Warr. “A scrutlneer had dared to lay a hand on his car [the works Lotus] and Bob punched him!

“The Südschlelfe was a serious circuit. I guess that drivers today would put It on a par with Spa. Except that the Südschlelfe was bordered by ditches, hedges and trees. Not a place to go off.

“I remember that I made a superb start, and that set me up for the rest of the race. Kurt Ahrens, who knew the circuit very well, closed at one point, but I was able to pull away again. It was just one of those days when everything happened in slow-motion: every gearchange was just right, my lines were spot-on, and my focus never wavered.

“It was only later that I realised this was the state of mind the top guys fell into every time they drove: I’d felt it just once or twice.”

He now knew he was good – but not quite good enough.