Formula for Success
02/01/2006
The racecars of historic grand prix are to vintage automobile collectors what original manuscripts are to bibliophiles. In each, authenticity is forever embedded in the object; its place in history fixed.Rivaled only by Europe’s Grand Prix Masters and TGP (Thoroughbred Grand Prix), the California-based organization represents and embraces every motor sportsman’s dream—to own and drive a Formula One car that once performed under the racing genius of the world’s best Formula One drivers, such as Jackie Stewart, Alain Prost, James Hunt, Niki Lauda, and Mario Andretti.
Roughly 60 of these prized cars, dating from F/1’s 3-liter era (1966–1983), are alive and still racing, thanks to the efforts of a cache of HGP owners and drivers in the United States and Canada. For HGP’s year 2000 birth, we look no further than Monterey Historic Automobile Races impresario Steve Earle, who, along with vintage racecar engine and restoration wizard Phil Reilly, set HGP rules and standards that have propelled the sketchy earlier-seeded show into motion. Bringing the number of HGP cofounders to four, Rebecca Hale-Tweedie and James King joined to serve as directors of what now amounts to half-a-dozen appearances per year.
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Photography by Kyle Burt. (Click image to enlarge.)
The venues are as revered and varied as these historically correct F/1 cars—road courses including Laguna Seca near Monterey; Infineon Raceway at Sears Point; Long Beach on the Pacific; Road America at Elkhart Lake, Wis.; Watkins Glen in upstate New York (home to the 1961–1980 U.S Vintage Grand Prix); as well as Canada’s Circuit Gilles Villeneuve in Montreal and St. Jovite at Mont Tremblant, Quebec. Never before have the exotic sights and sounds of Formula One been so accessible to North American fans. “These cars are the stars,” says HGP ringmaster Hale-Tweedie. “A combination of attitude, skills, mutual respect, and a sense of camaraderie between drivers is essential.”
“There’s a real and often romantic reason we buy these cars,” adds King, who
drives what was once Italian ace Vittorio Brambilla’s 1976 March. “They are a
living connection with older technologies and history’s most brilliant drivers.”
Earle wheels a McLaren M-23, as did Emerson Fittipaldi and Peter Revson. Hamish Somerville, an Isle of Skye émigré, races former World Champion Alan Jones’ Williams FW07, powered—as are most of these HGP machines—by gutsy V-8 Ford Cosworth DFVs that develop nearly 500 hp. Bud Moeller pilots his Ferrari 312 T-5, a Maranello creation with a screaming flat-12 engine, made famous by Gilles Villeneuve and Jody Scheckter. Patrick VanSchoote owns the ex-Bruno Giacomelli Alfa Romeo V-12, which sounds lusciously fortissimo at 12,000 rpm. The racing Busbys—father Jim or son David—will be at the sharp end of the grid in Jim’s former Michele Alboreto “Benetton” green Tyrrell 011, while Buzz’s shop partner, Rick Knoop, handles the blue Tyrrell 009 that Derek Daly played leapfrog with at Monaco.
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Unmistakably green, the Benetton Tyrell 011, formerly run by Michele Alboreto
and now by the racing Busbys, gets some pre-race attention. Photography by William Edgar. (Click image to enlarge.)
At 79, the oldest out there, Pete Lovely is the one HGP driver who has driven in regular-season Formula One races—and he still gets his 1968 Lotus 49B around in a style that recalls those F/1 greats who drove this Colin Chapman jewel: Jimmy Clark, Graham Hill, Mario Andretti.
Then there is 1986 Indy winner Bobby Rahal of today’s racing partnership with Late Show host David Letterman and their Indy Racing League 2005 superteam drivers Vitor Meira, Buddy Rice, and media-darling Danica Patrick. Rahal comes to HGP as a guest in Reilly’s immaculately restored, Gordon Murray–designed, 1973 Brabham BT-42, a pearl that was transformed to BT-44 specifications because most of its kind didn’t escape the constructor’s absurd crusher. Rahal, who admits he is “romantic about racing,” fell for a BT-44 while he was a rookie at Watkins Glen 31 years ago. His love lasted. After Rahal accepted the BT-44 seat from regular driver Reilly, his retro dream came true in September 2005, when he drove the Reilly Brabham in an HGP race at Watkins Glen and won. Even though winning may not be le grand prix of HGP, it feels pretty good anyway.
Historic Grand Prix, www.historicgrandprix.com