After qualifying 2nd for the Rothmans F5000 round at Thruxton in May of 1974, Ashley took his Lola T330 to one of the two 5000 wins he scored that season. Photo: Ferret Fotographics
Legends Speak

No Luck in Formula One

Following my initial foray into motor racing, I soon found I needed money, money, and more money. There were many false dawns with many teams, including Lotus. I did the Temparada series with Emerson Fittipaldi; the promise was, if Emerson did well, he would end up with a lot of sponsorship from Brazil for the F2 season. If I did well, I would end up the Lotus Components F3 driver. We ended up dueling for the championship, and when we returned Emerson got his deal, but Lotus said they were very sorry but hadn’t got the money to run me.

Left out in the wilderness for 1970, I ended up doing a couple of “rent-a-drives.” One in particular was good; it was the support race for the Silverstone International Trophy race. I was in the Petonyer Air Navigation Racing F3 Chevron B15 and was sandwiched in between Dave Walker and Bev Bond, ironically, in the Gold Leaf F3 Lotus 59s. Bev and I had had an exciting dice throughout the race interlocking wheels at one stage.

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