Greatest Racecar? Tony Trimmer’s Lola T330 F5000

My favorite racing days were with John Jordan. John Jordan was a great man, he was a true enthusiast who loved the sport. He was a man of speed, racing on land and water, and he loved flying too. For me, they were the most enjoyable times competing in the National British Championships, particularly the Formula Libre races. I drove John’s BRM and then, my greatest racecar, his Lola T330. Indeed, John had raced the car himself, he’d also run Tom Belso in it as well. In its day, the Lola T330 was the car to have in F5000. In July 1984, I broke the outright lap record at Castle Combe, I think the record had stood since the European F5000 series way back in 1970. My best year with the car in the Formula Libre Series was 1986, when I won the championship, I was runner up in 1987 and 1988.

My motor racing career began working for (Sir) Frank Williams as a mechanic. Frank would buy wrecked Formula Three cars from the UK and the Continent, strip them and rebuild them using new parts. During this time I built my own Formula Ford car from the wreck of an F3 Brabham. The car was my entry into the sport in the late 1960s. Being exuberant, I thought I’d take on two Formula Ford racing series in one season. It was a little too much, but I managed to be runner-up in both. Runner-up, as all drivers know, is first of the losers! Fellow competitors at that time would be Emerson Fittipaldi, James Hunt, Gerry Birrell and other good English drivers who somehow fell by the way. I feel I got known by more people, doing both events, and that led to Formula Three people looking at me. Indeed, in 1970, I gave up working and raced full time.