Dining with the Giants
Allan McNish was awarded the Segrave Trophy at a ceremony at the head
quarters of the RAC in Pall Mall, London. It sounds like just another award,
but even before we all sat down to lunch, there was a realisation that this was
more than just your average gong. Having spotted Sir Jackie Stewart hiding
around the corner, and greeted John Hindhaugh’s bright orange tie, attached
to the neck of the man himself, things changed somewhat when the table
plan revealed Andy Green to be in the room. He was the first man to break
the sound barrier on land, and the image, taken from a balloon high above the
Balckrock desert in Nevada of the shock waves emanating from the nose of
Thrust SSC, is unforgettable.
At my table was Louise Aitken-Walker, the former World Rally Ladies
Champion who was one of my childhood heroines, and Brian Milton. I had
never heard of Brian Milton before, but he won the Segrave Trophy in 1998
having flown around the world in 80 flying days. His stories of pitching into
cold seas made for a highly entertaining lunch. Would I, he asked, like to join
400 microlights crossing the channel in two weeks? The answer was yes, but
then the day job got in the way – the Spa 24 hours. Damn.
A flick through the press pack revealed the enormity of what was being
bestowed on McNish. Previous winners include holders of world air, land and
water speed records, test pilots of direct-lift aircraft, and Richard Branson,
who was awarded the trophy having recorded the fastest crossing of the
Atlantic in a boat. These were true pioneers of speed and exploration and to
know that Donald Campbell once raised the trophy three times, (his fourth
award was posthumous), Malcolm Campbell twice was truly humbling. Bruce
McLaren was on there, having won every race of the 1969 Can-Am Challenge
Cup in cars of his own design and construction. McNish’s achievement was
the first since then to recognise endurance racing.
The 1960s and early 1970s are always regarded as the golden age of sports
car racing. Michael, my father, remembers it differently, having to write an
obituary almost every week, but the cars, the drivers and the events were all
in place. Today, we are living through another of those periods, but with safer
cars. Last year, we had two manufacturers with top line drivers going hammer
and tongs against each other all year. Audi and Peugeot employed the best
drivers they could find, gave them the best equipment they could, the best
tacticians, and sent them racing.
It was great racing, full of drama with extreme speed, top cars and top
drivers. Le Mans 2009 will long be remembered as one of the great races, no
doubt embellished over time to be even better than it actually was. Central to
Audi’s campaign, over the past ten years or so, has been McNish.
It wasn’t that long ago that a preview for the ALMS race in Sears Point in
2000 highlighted the wee Scot’s record. Not since Le Mans in 1998 had he
won a race, and before that, he was back in 1990 that he last took the
chequered flag. “Thanks,” he said when the point was raised at the time. He
responded by going out and lapping the entire field, including his team-mate,
in a breathtaking double stint. Rinaldo Capello had only to step aboard and
finish the race. It was their first of six wins that year. Then, Capello was still
learning his way around sports car racing, very much the pupil to McNish’s
tutelage. It seemed criminal that, at the final race of the season, Capello
would be champion if McNish didn’t get over his back problem, caused whilst
donning a kilt in Adelaide. McNish climbed aboard, did the necessary, and
more, and was champion for the first time since Formula Vauxhall in 1988.
Multiple Sebring winner, multiple ALMS champion, now multiple Le Mans
winner. Tom Kristensen has the lion’s share of Le Mans wins, but the Dane
has also concentrated on slaying another demon – the DTM, leaving sports
car racing to others. McNish has consistently delivered breathtaking race
after breathtaking race, able to produce magic where others could not. Le
Mans in 2007 was an incredible race, perfect in every way until a wheel fell
off. Le Mans in 2008 was even better, because the wheel didn’t fall off. Petit
Le Mans was a stunning recovery after crashing on his way to the grid. His
rivals from Peugeot acknowledged that they were beaten by McNish, and he
again produced pure magic at Sebring in March to deliver another win. Le
Mans in 2009 was a disappointment because Audi’s race wasn’t perfect, and
Peugeot’s was, but he still had a ball.
“Now I am happier than I have ever been in racing because the cars are the
way they are, the racing, generally it is not work, it is fun,” says the 39-year-
old. “Even not winning Le Mans, not even having a chance, was
disappointing, but it was a fun race, and that is something that has not
always been there in my career. Certainly the last 12 years, is when I found
my feet, after my illness, after the point where I stopped searching for
something that was not there, Formula One. I got back to who I was when I
was 12 years old starting out in karting, you were just racing. My return
coincided with the return of sports cars. I came back with the manufacturers
and the races, and the car counts.
“When I started there were some good drivers, and excellent names, but they
were probably not excellent names at their heights. Now we have…I was
going to say a current but as of yesterday he is an ex-F1 driver in Sebastien
Bourdais still competing at Formula One level and also doing sports cars and
that has not happened for a very long time. The way I have to drive and
compete is at a higher level because you cannot out-fox people easily, you
have to work at it, and that is what makes it satisfying race, win or lose.
“There is a lot more to sports cars now than people realise, and that is teams
and drivers, and not restricted to our group. The cars are like Formula One
cars, and it is a very aggressive no holes barred attacking attitude, and that
is the way you approach it. If you don’t, you lose. The guys coming through, I
think will be from the single seater line-up. They will be seen as the next
generation. From a driver development point of view, you get more seat time,
in a powerful, heavy car, your brain is always active because you are
constantly overtaking, and you have the chance to develop a car with a tyre
manufacturer, and develop a tyre. You don’t get to do that in any other
formula on the way through. Even F1 is fixed, but that will change at some
point.”
It seems that the panel looked for a reason to acknowledge McNish’s
achievements, awarding the trophy for “exceptional endeavour in motor sport
including two victories at Le Mans” but in fact that is a fitting tribute. The
panel does not award it every year if there is no worthy recipient, but this
year it was McNish’s turn. “It is very nice, partly because it is not a
standardised award, it is not every year that you have to award it, and it does
bring up a different element, and it is not against people within your own
industry,” he said. “I didn’t know much about it until I received notification of
it. Then I looked into it and saw what Segrave had done. The story that got
me was when he was injured, and his last croak was “did I beat the record,”
that is gutsy stuff.
“It is more than just the results. It is partly the way the results are achieved.
That is part of the panel’s judgement. Look who is in the room, Andy Green.
He is in a totally different sphere from what we are trying to do, but that is
what makes it special and very different. I looked through the list and saw
Donald and Malcolm Campbell on there, and you remember the words “she’s
going,” and all those words you hear from being a little boy, and Geoff Duke.
We all have to start somewhere and have an interest, and my interested
started from hearing those stories and now to have my name at the bottom of
the trophy with all those people on it, that is quite an honour to sit on your
shoulders, and I am proud in a way that is different to those trophies I have
lifted in racing.”
Andrew Cotton, August 2009
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