Historic Racing News podcast

Derek Warwick remembers his times in the junior formulae, also as a Le Mans winner and right up to date as a Driver Steward at Formula One races around the world. Goodwood TT winner, Mike Whitaker, gives Paul Jurd the lowdown on seven years of trying to get his TVR onto the top of the charts and Bob Evans recalls his career which saw him driving in Formula One for BRM and Lotus. His views on some of the 1970s team managers is worth a listen on its own!

Paul Tarsey talks to one of the greatest racing drivers of all time, Sir Jackie Stewart about racing, both now and then. Jim Roller hears from George Levy about his book about Jim Hall and his Chaparal cars and Nick Whale brings interesting thoughts on the current auction scene.

It is a bit of a different show this time around. Our broadcast colleague and producer Jim Roller is marooned in the basement of his home in North Carolina dealing with the recent devastation caused by Storm Helene. Consequently we are unable to bring you the intended podcast but instead Paul Jurd and Paul Tarsey sat down and reminisced about the racetracks of the UK mainland. Amongst their memories, Tarsey remembers his first ever motor sport outing to see the Silver Arrows demonstrated by Peter Collins and Tony Brooks at Oulton Park and PJ recalls Thruxton in the 1960s.

Richard Petty is on the show this month!  ‘The King’ tells Paul Tarsey about his NASCAR career, the highs and lows of being the leading stock car driver of his generation as well as a team owner. He brought over that incredible Plymouth Superbird from 1970 and his son Kyle drove that up the Goodwood Hill. Martin Warner brings us up to date on plans for the wonderful Shere Hill Climb which will take place on 1st September near Guildford in the Surrey Hills, plus auction news from Jim Roller and Paul Jurd’s reflections of this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Peter Stevens talks about his amazing career as a designer of road cars, supercars and much more, including the Group C derived Jaguar XJR15 and the notorious one-make series for these cars which supported 3 Grands Prix in 1991 and had a $1million prize fund. Plus Derek Drinkwater, who raced his Cadillac ‘Le Monstre’ re-creation at Daytona last November and then drove it (towing a caravan!) all the way across the USA to Laguna Seca in California.

The team takes a look back to Monaco Historique and Nick Padmore talks Paul Tarsey about how he he raced two of Colin Chapman’s famous JPS Lotus cars at this year’s event. He also explains some of the unique challenges which Monaco can pose and how he was invited to take Zak Brown and Adrian Newey on a track walk, the day before the action started, to explain to them both where Monaco’s most treacherous spots await the unwary. Zak was racing the ex-Alan Jones Williams FW07 and Adrian was racing his GLTL Lotus 49 over the weekend. Monaco is not just about the racing and Jim Roller discusses the three high-profile auctions which took place over the same weekend in the principality, especially looking at the sale of Jody Scheckter’s collection. Paul Jurd has been reading Peter Higham’s latest book in his ‘Grand Prix Cars, Car by car’ series which covers the decade 2000 to 2009.

May 1st marks the 30th anniversary of Ayrton Senna’s death and the HRN team talk about the legendary Brazilian and the legacy he left. The team play a Senna-themed round of their gameshow ‘Corridors of Power’ when they look for Ayrton’s greatest-ever Monaco Grand Prix. Nick Whale joins the team once again and this time talks about when is a historic racing car genuine and when is it just a new car with an old chassis plate!

Jim Roller talks to Ray Evernham about his full and varied career from the early days as a driver in ‘modifieds’ through his big break with the International Race of Champions (IROC) team, to his career defining role as one of the greatest-ever NASCAR crew chiefs. Bruce Jones, Peter Snowdon and Nick Padmore discuss the recent Goodwood Members Meeting and Joe Bradley looks back at the life of journalist and writer Michael Cotton.

Joe Bradley, Jim Roller, Paul Jurdand Damien Smith discuss ‘My Favourite BTCC Car’. The choices are wide ranging and Paul Tarsey is faced with some are pretty surprising ideas. Goodwood has asked for our help about what becomes of the famous Tyrrell Shed recently installed at the Motor Circuit and we have a look around the Goodwood Members Meeting test day. Gordon Shedden tells us about some of the cars he is now driving and just why he loves historic racing.

The team talks to Alan Brewer from the Goodwood Road Racing Club about the upcoming Members Meeting and John Pearson from Equipe Classic Racing tells us about their very ambitious 2024 calendar which includes historic F2 cars for the first time. Jim Roller, Paul Jurd, Joe Bradley and Paul Tarsey look into the surprising news that Felipe Massa is suing the FIA because he was ‘robbed’ of the 2008 World Championship and then discuss the surprisingly long history of the Australian Grand Prix.

The team look back on the life of Hugh Chamberlain, who died at the end of February. They also share personal memories and stories about a man described as ‘one of the last great characters of motorsport’. Nick Whale, boss of Iconic Auctioneers, talks about all the behind-the-scenes work that goes on simply to stage the auctions for which his company is famous and Corridors of Power this time is about the inventions of Lotus founder Colin Chapman.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: THIS SHOW WAS RECORDED ON MONDAY 19th FEBRUARY. DURING THIS SHOW WE TALK EXTENSIVELY ABOUT RACE RETRO WHICH WAS DUE TO TAKE PLACE 23-25TH FEBRUARY. DUE TO HEAVY ON-SITE FLOODING RACE RETRO HAS BEEN CANCELLED. On the show Jim Roller looks at the very buoyant auction scene and Paul Tarsey reviews the Retromobile event in Paris. Paul Jurd has a delve into upcoming events. In the wake of Lewis Hamilton’s defection to Ferrari, Joe Bradley leads a discussion about other champions who have done the same thing (including Nigel Mansell), with varying success.

On a packed programme we hear from Tim Foster who is the man behind much of the resurgence in interest in those fire-breathing Group B rally cars of the mid 1980s which we are looking forward to seeing at Race Retro on 23rd, 24th and 25th February. As usual host Paul Tarsey is joined by the regular Historic Racing News Radio Show team, Jim Roller, Joe Bradley and Paul Jurd who will all, as usual, not hold back on thoughts and opinions. The theme for Corridors of Power is called “My Favourite Motorsport story”. Donald Campbell’s nephew Don Wales tells us about the controversy that has blown up since the wreck of his water speed record breaking Bluebird K7 was raised from the bed of Lake Coniston in Cumbria. There is now a bitter dispute involving family members, the local museum and the man who raised the boat from the depths.

Damien Smith talks about his new book which covers the highs and lows of the Benetton F1 team and tells a few good stories in the process. The HRN team of Joe Bradley, Jim Roller, Paul Jurd and Peter Snowdon talk to Paul Tarsey about their views on the news and Jim makes a poignant tribute to his friend, Porsche kingpin Herbert Linge, who died earlier this month. Plus discussion of the latest ‘Ferrari’ film.

Our first show of 2024 is, as usual, full of chat and witty banter (well we think it’s witty anyway!). Jim Roller talks to Patrick Peter about the many historic events that Peter Auto will be running in 2024 and Jim also discusses with Nick Padmore, amongst other things, driving a Formula One car in the rain round Monaco. Corridors of Power asks which was Ayrton Senna’s greatest race? Not only do Roller and Padmore have their say but Paul Jurd and Peter Snowdon state their cases as well. As usual Paul Tarsey struggles to keep everyone under control.

The Racer’s Concours is the unofficial name of ‘The Amelia’ and Jim Roller and Paul Tarsey took a trip to Florida to see what was happening. Tarsey took a detour on the way and talked to George Levy at the Motorsport Hall of Fame of America in Daytona and then met with Jim to visit the auctions at Amelia before the concours itself. Hans Wurl from Gooding and Co gives us a peek behind the curtain and talks about the world of high quality auctions and Kevin Jeannette talks about a secret passion in a vehicle which isn’t a Porsche!

The Historic Racing News Radio Show is back on the road, this time at Race Retro. The show is very much aimed at the club racing historic competitor and we will talk to friends we met at the show. Paul Jurd looks at events happening around the world in March and Jim Roller previews the first big auction weekend of the year when The Amelia opens its doors. Four separate auctions are being held on Amelia Island over the weekend which is traditionally known as the “Racer’s Concours” because of the huge number of race cars on display.

Formula Ford has launched the careers of some of the greatest champions in our sport. In this episode the team takes a look at why the formula has been so successful, right up to the present day. We talk to Jeremy Shaw about his ‘Team USA’ initiative, James Beckett who, amongst many other things, started and runs the Walter Hayes Trophy and Rick Shortle tells us what it was like racing against, and beating, people like Johnny Dumfries, Damon Hill, Mark Blundell, Andy Wallace and Derek Warwick. Jim Roller also looks at some interesting auction results which have ended to 2022 season with some big surprises.

Paul Tarsey and Paul Jurd discuss the world of historic motorsport, looking back at recent events, including their opinions on Goodwood Speed Week, and some of the notable anniversaries marked in 2020. The team rewind to Porsche’s first outright Le Mans win and the loss of Jochen Rindt fifty years ago before rounding off with a look at the cream of the recent book releases in the first of our regular Historic Racing News podcasts.

Motorsport legend Dick Bennetts talks about everything from being Ayrton Senna’s team owner before the Brazilian superstar got to Formula One to running Nigel Mansell in a Ford Mondeo. Derek Drinkwater met up with Jim Roller at Watkins Glen and they talked about Derek’s epic coast-to-coast-and-back-again trip across the USA in his Cadillac Le Monstre, and Joe Bradley investigates the best and worst books about Ayrton Senna.