Where did your initial interest in motorsport come from. With some people it was a family interest passed down from parents. Some had a parent who either raced or was part of a race team, and therefore, much time was spent at race circuits from an early age. In my case, as a young bloke I had an affinity with all things mechanical, as young blokes tend to do….. planes, trains and automobiles plus throw in motorcycles! F1 at the time, was the real deal for me, as far as motorsport was concerned. Australia’s living treasure, Sir Jack Brabham had won not one, not two, but three F1 world championships, the last, being in a car that he designed and built. So Australia had its very own F1 champ, that so many kids idolized from that era.
Being in Australia, which at that time was a motorsport backwater, as far as getting any up to date news from overseas was concerned, F1 was about the only international motor racing that the mainstream media here, covered. Some may say, things haven’t changed much. When news did arrive, it was usually a month late, by way of motorsport magazines. In 1969, fresh after Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins had been to the moon and back, there was another spaced out looking vehicle that had burst onto the scene.Although the Le Mans 24 hour race has been around since 1923, it got very little coverage in Australia, consequently sports car racing rarely got a mention out here. Along comes Steve McQueen and produces one of the greatest motor racing movies of all time “Le Mans”, the stars of course being the beautiful Gulf Porsche 917’s.
I was in love. That was my thunderbolt moment, which started a lifetime of fascination with these magnificent cars. The movie itself was pretty average from the plot standpoint. I think it was about half an hour or so before Michael Delaney (McQueen) even spoke a word. But, who cares, it had the cars and the race. That’s all that mattered. With Steve McQueen no longer around to talk about it, there have been many stories since retold about the production of the film in and around the Circuit de la Sarthe. For diehard sports car racing fans, it’s become one of those films that we quote the famous lines from……
”A lot of people go through life doing things badly. Racing’s important to men who do it well. When you’re racing, it… its life. Anything that happens before or after… is just waiting”
………..”Michael, I want you to drive flat out. I want Porsche to win Le Mans.”
The irony of course was that the Gulf John Wyer Automotive 917s never actually won at Le Mans, unlike in the movie where they came 1st and 2nd. They did however get on the podium in 1971. Porsche owned the World Sportscar Championship in 1970 & 1971, completely annihilating all the opposition. The real drivers, Pedro Rodriguez, Jo Siffert, Brian Redman, David Hobbs, Mike Hailwood, Leo Kinnunen, Derek Bell, Jackie Oliver, Richard Attwood and Herbert Muller, who were in the sky blue and orange Gulf JWA cars in ’70 and ’71 became my heroes and of course, all the other guys who drove in the other Salzburg, Martini and privateer teams.
24h Le Mans 1970: Leo Kinnunen, Pedro Rodriguez, Brian Redman and Jo Siffert
Many of the guys driving in the world sports car series back in those days were of course, already accomplished F1 drivers. In fact most F1 pilots at the time, also drove in many other series as well. It sort of puts into perspective how the F1 drivers these days are such a sheltered, pretentious lot. I was shattered when, at the end of the ’71 season, it was all over for the Porsche 917 in the world sports car series.
It wasn’t completely all over however. In 1972, Porsche entered the 917/10 in the American CanAm challenge series, that had been dominated over the previous 5 years, by McLaren. The Porsche 917/10 (1972) and 917/30 (1973) destroyed everything in those years that the other teams could throw at them. The Turbo Panzers, in the hands of George Follmer and Mark Donohue were nearly unbeatable. Again, Porsche had produced a car that meant that just about everyone else was making up the numbers and only ever hoping to achieve a lower step on the podium. 
Never mind, I got over it fairly quickly, and soon started following the exploits of other teams and drivers, and as they say in the classics, the rest is history. But it did kindle inside me a flame that has stayed with me since then, that grew into a passion for sports car racing and the Le Mans 24 hour race.
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