Mansell’s speed secrets
Jim McGee is happily retired and living in California these days. McGee was one of the most successful Indycar crew chief/team managers. Over the years his cars won more than…
The Lotus name returns to Formula 1 this year. Neither Tony Fernandes nor Mike Gascoyne are pretending this new team has any direct link to Colin Chapman’s great squad, but…
We all know that Mario Andretti was one of the world’s most versatile drivers, winning in Formula 1, Indycars and long-distance sports cars, as well as NASCAR stock cars, sprint…
Everywhere I go these days the hot topic is Michael Schumacher. Will he or won’t he? Everyone wants to know. And this got me thinking back to 1984. I can…
A few days after Christmas I had the pleasure of talking to Jacky Ickx for a book I’m writing about the history of Carl Haas and Newman/Haas Racing. Thirty years…
Richard Petty is known as the King of NASCAR, and rightfully so. Over 25 years between 1960-84 Petty won 200 NASCAR races and seven championships. He started racing in 1958…
It has always interested me whether a great racing driver can be taught, or whether he must have some special natural talent. I suspect it is a mixture of the…
“Even the slow ones are fast.” So said Denis Jenkinson as we stood watching final practice for the Grand Prix of Monaco in the early summer of 1978, our feet…
Can you believe it’s 17 years since Nigel Mansell banished his Formula 1 demons by finally clinching the World Championship? It only seems like yesterday, and yet young firebrand Michael…
Are you planning to be in, or near, northern Italy between now and the Christmas holiday? Perhaps you’re already there. If the answer to either of these scenarios is yes,…
It’s a painful truth for US race fans that 31 years have passed since Mario Andretti scored the last Formula 1 win by an American driver. Phil Hill, Dan Gurney…
As Mike Doodson writes in this month’s excellent cover story, BMW has bottled it. The manufacturer has backed out of Formula 1 without reaching its goal of winning the World…
Lime Rock Park in north-west Connecticut stages its annual Vintage meeting this weekend. This is Labor Day weekend in the United States, the traditional end of the stateside summer season,…
It’s not every day that you come to work and find Sir Stirling Moss sitting in your chair. But that was my pleasure – and real honour – when Britain’s…
Eddie Irvine came to the Goodwood Festival of Speed last weekend to drive a Ferrari. Nothing especially remarkable about this, you might say, but Irvine does not get out much.…
During last weekend’s IRL race at Watkins Glen I had dinner every night at the Glen Motor Inn. It’s always a pleasure to stay at this unpretentious motel on the…
They called him ‘Il Grande John’ and adopted him as one of their own. Italians have a soft spot for John Surtees, as he does for them. Hardly surprising, given…