Brian Redman Just Isn’t the Retiring Sort : Race Driver Can’t Stand Spinning His Wheels; He Keeps Coming Back

Brian Redman retired as a race driver in 1962. And in 1970. And again in 1977.

Then he retired “for the very last time” at the end of the 1981 season.

There’s one thing about Redman, though. Each time he retires he comes back better than ever. And yes, he’s back again and, at 48, apparently better than ever.

Sunday, in the Los Angeles Times/Nissan 600-kilometer race at Riverside, he will be one of the favorites. He will be driving a V-12 Jaguar XJR-5 with endurance racing veteran Hurley Haywood. They won the last IMSA Camel GT race, 500 kilometers at Road Atlanta, two weeks ago.

Redman is a soft-spoken man who grew up in a 300-year-old country home in Yorkshire, England before he caught the racing bug. The reasons for his retirements have been as diverse as his long career.

The first time it was because he was newly wed and had run out of money. The next time was to manage one of the largest BMW dealerships in South Africa. His ’77 retirement followed a horrible accident during practice for that season’s Can-Am opener at St. Jovite, Quebec.

Redman’s Lola crested a hill at 170 m.p.h. and took off like an airplane, climbing an estimated 30 feet into the air before turning over and crashing on its top. The impact broke Redman’s neck, left shoulder and two ribs, and split his breastbone. It was six months before his eyesight was back to normal.

In 1981, he quit after one of racing’s most successful seasons. He had taken over a new Lola, owned by Ralph Kent Cooke and Roy Woods, in mid-season and, in eight races, had five wins and three second-place finishes in winning the IMSA championship. Earlier in the season he had won the Daytona 24-hour race with Bobby Rahal and Bob Garretson in a Porsche.

In the final race of 1981, however, Redman thought he saw the handwriting on the wall. He and John Paul Jr. were side by side on the last lap at Daytona when a slower car spun and partially obscured the track with dust. Redman slowed, almost imperceptibly, allowing Paul to charge through to the checkered flag.

Later, Redman said: “It was the difference between a 45-year-old driver and a 21-year-old driver. Twenty years ago, I’d never have let up either.”

Redman retired to a comfortable position as general manager of Brumos Porsche, the highly successful dealership started by the late Peter Gregg in Jacksonville, Fla. No one was more pleased that Marion, Redman’s wife of 20 years, who had been at his side through all the accidents, all the excitement of winning, and the all the deep depressions of losing.

After one of his earlier retirements, however, Redman had said: “Everything else seems second-hand after racing. It seems a downward step and, of course, human nature is to go on achieving and having something to aim for.”

So, when he strolled through the pits at Road Atlanta in October, 1893, to watch the Sports Car Club of America’s national championship runoffs, he was ready when the opportunity came to return to racing. He had been out of it for two seasons.

“I ran across Bob Tullius one afternoon and he asked me if I would consider driving one of his Jaguars the next season,” Redman said. “I knew the reputation of his Group 44 team and I knew it would be a good effort, so I agreed. I couldn’t turn it down.”

In his second race, the 1984 Miami Grand Prix, Redman was back in the winner’s circle. He and Vietnam veteran Doc Bundy led a Jaguar one-two finish, with Tullius and Pat Bedard second. The Jaguar team skipped Riverside and several other IMSA races last year to concentrate on a bid for the 24 Hours of LeMans, a bid that ended when the gearbox broke after 16 hours with the car in fourth place.

At Atlanta two weeks ago, Redman and Haywood averaged a race-record 108.893 m.p.h. at Road Atlanta and won by more than a lap over their Jaguar teammates, Tullius and IMSA rookie Chip Robinson, a former Super Vee driver. Haywood drove with a cast on his left foot, which he broke 16 months ago in an accident at Mosport, Canada.

Riverside, with its long straightaway a dominant feature of the twisting nine-turn course, calls for more horsepower than handling and may be better suited to the turbocharged Porsche of Al Holbert or the turbo V-6 Buick of John Paul Jr., than the Jaguar. Redman feels, however, that the normally aspirated V-12 will be competitive despite having only 625 horsepower to close to 800 put out by the turbocharged engines.

“Holbert definitely has the car to beat at Riverside, but Riverside still places an emphasis on handling, and that is our strong point,” Redman said. “And Riverside has been good to me in the past.”

Redman has not driven there since 1981, but he won Formula 5000 races in 1972 and 1973, and in a night race in 1975 he drove what he calls one of the most satisfying races of his career.

It was May 10, 1975 and a six-hour race that started at 3 p.m. called for a good deal of night driving. Two BMWs, one driven by Hans Stuck and Dieter Quester and the other by Redman and Sam Posey, and a Porsche Carrera driven by Gregg and Haywood were the favorites.

“We lost about 30 minutes in the pits early in the race,” Redman recalled. “When we got the problem fixed the car ran perfectly. We drove absolute flat out, right at 9,000 RPMs, and the BMW was purring. I was really juiced up and I ran a couple of laps at night that were faster than anyone ran during daylight. We almost caught the leaders but even finishing second was a very satisfying ride for me.”

During a four-year span from 1973 through 1976, Redman finished first or second in 52 of 60 Formula 5000 races and won three national championships. Among his wins were a California Grand Prix at Ontario in 1974 and the inaugural Long Beach Grand Prix in 1975.

Being back in a Jaguar has brought Redman’s racing career full circle.

“Jaguar played a big role in my getting started as a professional driver,” he said. “I started racing as an amateur in 1959, but when I was married in 1962 I had to give it up. I rode motocross for two years until a friend asked if I would like to drive his car. He had an XK 120 that Stirling Moss had raced once. He let me drive it in a sprint. You Americans call it a time trial, where you go one against the clock. I got the quickest time and my friend said he knew someone who had an even faster Jaguar.

“It turned out to be Charles Bridges of Red Rose Motors and I drove his lightweight E Jaguar for several years until I moved up to Lolas and a Gulf Mirage in 1967, but it was the Jaguar that gave me my start. Until then, I had spent the week working in my grandfather’s mop factory and weekends racing my street car.”

The one he and Haywood will drive Friday in qualifying and Sunday in the race is like his earlier models in name only, however. It is a built-to-race prototype created by Tullius and race car designer Lee Dykstra at Group 44 headquarters in Winchester, Va. Its semi-monocoque chassis is constructed of honeycomb aluminum with stainless steel supports and the body sections are molded Kevlar. The engine is a V-12 similar to those in the Jaguar sports coupe.

“It makes quite a tidy package,” Redman said.