► Gavin Green recalls his most terrifying drive
► A Reynard-Honda IndyCar at Homestead Speedway
► Join Gavin onboard Gil de Ferran’s racer
Only once have I felt very nervous before driving a car. It was a Reynard-Honda IndyCar, driven at an oval racing circuit in Florida in December 1997.
The car was so powerful that Gil de Ferran, the usual driver, warned against accelerating too hard from a standing start down the pitlane. ‘So many rookies spin these cars before they even get out onto the circuit. The enormous power going through the rear wheels sometimes causes a 180° spin.’ That did not settle my nerves.
There had been many awe-inspiring cars before, and many since, from an ex-Fangio F1 Alfa to a Le Mans-winning Porsche, to a €50 million Ferrari GTO, which certainly made CAR’s insurers nervous. But none made me anxious like that IndyCar. For those unfamiliar with IndyCars (once known as Champ Cars): it’s America’s premier single-seat racing series, held on both road circuits and ovals. The Blue Riband event is the Indianapolis 500.
I was reminded of that memorable drive by two recent events. The first was Gil de Ferran’s death, aged just 56. Gil (pictured above at Long Beach in 2001) was driving his son at a private motorsport event in Florida when he suffered a heart attack.
Although well known in Europe, the Brazilian was far more famous in the US. He was twice series champion and won the 2003 Indianapolis 500.
The second event was seeing Dario Franchitti a few weeks after Gil’s death. The Scot won the Indianapolis 500 three times and was a four-times IndyCar series winner. He retired in 2013 after a serious accident in Houston.
On the morning of my IndyCar drive I met Gil, who was charming, and team boss Derrick Walker (above left, with Roger Penske), who was clearly wondering why he was letting a rookie – whose most recent race experience was in a Honda Civic touring car (with 700bhp less) – anywhere near his car.
We were at Homestead Speedway, a 1.5-mile ‘short’ oval in the tip of Florida. Next door is an airforce base where F-18s buzz overhead. It was the last day of a Goodyear tyre test. I would drive when the serious stuff was over.
Gil, driving a Honda CR-V, showed me the racing line. ‘It’s easy to be intimidated, he said. ‘The speeds are unreal.’ The previous year, pole at one circuit (Fontana in California) averaged more than 240mph. Plus there are no run-off areas at ovals, just a concrete wall. Gil told me about crashing backwards at 220mph and how, a few months earlier, he knocked himself unconscious in Milwaukee.
None of this helped.
The Reynard weighed 700kg and used an 860bhp 2.6-litre turbo V8 that revved to 15,500rpm and ran on methanol. It was designed to cleave the air as cleanly as possible and was a very beautiful thing longer and more graceful than an Fi car. Higher top speed, too.
I snuggled into the cockpit. Two big plastic polyurethane blocks were then inserted to support shoulders and head, to combat the g-forces. The clutch was monster heavy but I did not spin the car in the pitlane (first challenge over!) and nor did I stall, another worry. The gearshift was a six-speed sequential. Gil said don’t use the clutch to change gear, just back off the throttle and shift quickly.
Out onto the banked oval and, praise be, it wasn’t hard to drive. The engine was surprisingly tractable. I came in after five laps, as instructed, and reported all was well.
On my second run, I gave it full power… it felt as if I’d hitched a lift to a low-flying F-18. It wasn’t so much a power kick as the recoil from a rocket thrust. The wide oval track suddenly felt narrow. The walls felt close. After 10 laps, the telemetry said I was averaging just over 150mph. Gil had been running at high 190s all day…
To me, all that mattered was that I didn’t end up in the wall or make an idiot of myself. When it was all over, Derrick Walker looked as relieved as I did. Lovely Gil just kept smiling and invited me to dinner in his favourite restaurant in Miami. He was one of the nicest racing drivers I’ve ever met.