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Legendary Sports Car Drivers Give Their Take on the State of the Sport

Spoiler Alert: The Sport Is Looking as Good as It Ever Has

 

By Godwin Kelly

 

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The Motorsports Hall of Fame of America recently held its 35th annual induction ceremony and among those attending were four former sports car championship drivers.

 

They were asked to compare today’s racing to motor racing of years gone by and to get their opinion on the state of the sport.

 

The consensus among the drivers was that the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship is entering a “golden era” of competition.

 

Here is what they had to say:

 

Derek Bell

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Three-time overall Rolex 24 At Daytona winner (1986, ’87, ’89), five-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner (1975, ’81, ’82, ’86, ’87)

 

“It’s very obvious it’s a great era we are going into now. The era I raced in was just that. We had it for 20 years. It was fantastic. They are going into that right now. IMSA has done all this all right. It’s the same with the WEC (World Endurance Championship). They are all working together. Sports car racing is in the best shape it’s been since the time we were out there. They have the opportunity to overcome what we did.

 

“IMSA and the WEC had the relationship back in my era. They didn’t have quite the same rules, but you could still go over and do Le Mans with a car raced in America, or they could come over here with a European car. You had teams from America going to Europe and teams from Europe racing in America. That was 30 years ago. What happened was they drifted away from each other because the rules kept changing. Now they have it all back together. The Europeans and Americans realized the value of us all working together. The cars now are basically the same and you can compete on either side, and that’s the way it needs to be. Motor racing, which looks like it’s going through a wonderful time, would not be that strong if you have two separate types of cars across the world. This way, they can intermingle, inter-compete and that’s what we had back in the 1980s.”

 

Brian Redman

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Two-time overall Rolex 24 At Daytona winner (1976, ’81), two-time class winner at Le Mans (1968, ’78)

 

“I remember back in the 1970s that sports car racing was as big, or bigger, than Formula One. The crowds were immense. The factories were all there, then it started to fade away. IMSA’s John Bishop rewrote the rules and introduced Grand Touring Prototype. At that time, I was working with Carl Haas, who was the Lola importer for North America. I said to Carl, ‘Lola can build a car to these new rules that could do very well in this new championship.’ He agreed and we won the 1981 IMSA championship with the Lola T600 GTP. We raced it 10 times and won five races and finished second five times. We had no DNFs. There was little change in 1982, but by 1983 we started to see people like Jaguar coming in. Then in 1984 we had a March chassis with a Porsche engine, then the Porsche 962s. From the late 1980s to early 1990s, racing was extremely strong.

 

“Right now, it looks very, very strong for IMSA. It is astonishing the number of people who want to go racing and have the money to go racing. We’re seeing people spend millions of dollars to go racing, so it’s a very healthy situation at the moment. The cars themselves are extremely reliable now. You can drive them flat out for 24 hours. I think the state of sports car racing in America is very good.”

 

Elliott Forbes-Robinson

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Three-time Rolex 24 At Daytona winner (Overall: 1997, ’99; Class: 2000)

 

“Today’s racing is so much different than we did a long time ago. We had no radios. We had very little communication with the paddock. The cars weren’t as safe as they are today. The cars today are so good, you don’t have to worry about the engine expiring or the brakes going away, you know, all that stuff is so good today. Back when I raced, you would have many cars drop out with mechanical issues. That’s not the case anymore. If you start 70 cars, you may lose five or six of them from incidents, but cars don’t break any more. They are just so darn good.

 

“Right now, it’s amazing to me. They started a new class called VP Racing SportsCar Challenge and it’s growing. Normally, you have a first race and that’s as good as it gets as you see people drop off. They are seeing more people show up for the second race than they had in the first race. I think that shows the state of racing today – that it’s good. I think the sanctioning bodies, such as IMSA, are doing a good job of getting the people to race well together.

 

“The manufacturers are getting involved and doing a good job. They are not doing what they used to do before, which was come in and taking over the factory effort. They are helping teams and getting them to race. When we ran the (Porsche) 962s, the factory cars were a little faster but a customer car could still win. For a while, that was not the case, but I think it’s getting back to that.”

 

David Hobbs

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Four years in Formula One (1967, ’68, ’71, ’74), two-time class winner at Le Mans (1962, ’82)

 

“After watching this year’s Rolex 24 At Daytona, sports car racing looks pretty healthy to me. The Le Mans 24 Hour will be a master success with that machinery. The hybrid cars were a lot more reliable than we thought they would be. There’s been good racing through every class. Every class had a close finish. I think the first four or five cars in each Rolex 24 class were covered by a handful of seconds. After 24 hours of racing, that is pretty impressive. Most of the cars finished. There weren’t as many retirements as I thought there would be. The GT classes have always provided a tremendous amount of excitement. The Rolex 24 LMP2 race was amazing. The winning car won by 0.016 of a second – after 24 hours. I think sports car racing is very strong. I do think we are heading into the next golden era. We have a lot of young, good drivers. The cars are very good.”