Interview: Brian Redman, Part 1

Honored with his own night by the Road Racing Drivers Club this year at Long Beach, Brian Redman remains one of our sport’s treasures. A lifelong racer, he claimed 18 major international endurance race victories in a succession of Fords, Porsches, Ferraris and BMWs, and won the 1000 Kilometers of Spa four times in four different kinds of car. In the USA, he scored a record 16 Formula 5000 wins and, driving for Haas-Hall Racing in the category’s glory days, claimed three consecutive series crowns. He subsequently won a dozen IMSA races and ushered in that series’ GTP era by winning the 1981 championship aboard the Cooke-Woods Lola T600-Chevrolet. Beyond those individual honors he played a vital role in teams that earned four World Manufacturers Championships, two for John Wyer Automotive—with Fords in 1968 and Porsches in 1970—the Porsche works team in 1969 and the Ferrari factory in 1972. F1 was little more than a flirtation for Redman—more it luring him, than he pursuing it—as his mere dozen starts yielded a single podium and a handful of points, but he preferred sports car racing, and especially Formula 5000. Brian and his lovely wife of half a century, Marion, now reside in Florida, but when he came to Long Beach for his RRDC adulation, VR Associate Editor John Zimmermann sat down with him over lunch in the Ascari Room of the downtown Hilton to discuss selected aspects of his racing career. Even such a cursory exploration soon became extensive, so we present the first of two parts here, the second to follow in our October issue.

What was it that initially drew you into motor racing?