Racing and Rallying for Rootes

An invitation to drive in the Tulip Rally of 1959 led to my meeting Norman Garrad, manager of the Rootes Competitions Department. He was a rather gruff old chap, known to many as the “Fuehrer.” On reflection, with the aforementioned description, it was rather naïve of me to approach him with a dilemma. However, I did. I told him of my invitation and the fact that I was undecided whether to use a Sunbeam Rapier or a Volvo for the event. Naturally, it came as no surprise that Norman was very miffed that I chose to utter the word Volvo in his presence, an insult I suppose. Despite his sternness, he was very good and offered to help, where he could, with spares and bits. With this in mind, and the fact that I had already competed with a Rapier in the Monte Carlo Rally earlier that year, I chose to buy a Sunbeam. Many drivers of the day would enter just one rally a year, hoping they would do well and get noticed by a team manager. This, in turn, would hopefully lead to a works drive in the not-too-distant future. My idea was to enter two or three events, and see how successful I was. More to the point, did I enjoy it? I put an entry in for the Alpine and RAC Rally later in the year and thought that would be a good enough challenge. If, at the end, I didn’t get anywhere I would call it a day. My racing experience up to that point had started in 1954 with cars from a DB2-4 Aston Martin to a 500 Cooper Norton.

In 1961, the Rootes Group was looking to make an entry for a team of Sunbeam Alpines for the Le Mans 24 Hours. The decision to go to Le Mans or not would be based, firstly, on the results of a test to take place at the MIRA test track in Warwickshire, England. Should the car stay together, the next step would be the Sebring 12-hour race. If all went well there, then the Le Mans entry was on. At MIRA, the job was to keep the car in one piece. Using the banked track, we went around at speeds of 95 to 100 mph, covering a lot of ground in a short space of time. The results of the MIRA test impressed Lord Rootes very much. He looked at the figures and said, “Oh, Christ, you managed to achieve all this!” I agree, in itself the MIRA test only gave a longevity test and did not put too much strain on the car. Our goal, as drivers, was to give the car the mildest test possible to persuade Lord Rootes that it was up to the job. Fortunately, for us, he didn’t realize that an Austin Seven would have almost achieved what we had, as the car was not really under any great stress!

We were entered for the Sebring race and did very well; I led the class for some of the opening laps. As with sports car races of that type there was quite an eclectic mix of machinery. The “big boys” were the Maserati Birdcages and Ferrari V-12s. Our main opposition was Porsche, not with the cars like they have today, but the smaller-engined cars. The Alpines were heavier cars than others in the class, so we did lose out a bit on that. Sebring, at that time, was a circuit around the airfield; while most of the track was fine, other parts were very abrasive and wore the tires considerably. We had had a tire test at Silverstone just prior to Sebring, not only to see how the tires would stand up but also to get the team prepared for tire changes at pit-stops. In the end we finished 17th.