ON
TRACK WITH RICK PEARSON
By Rick Pearson
Hello and welcome to the ninth in my series of weekly columns about the UK National racing scene and my journey through it. Firstly, I'd like to thank all the people who have taken the time to rate my articles after they have read them at Parc Ferme. If you keep rating me, Craig will keep letting me air my views. If you think I stink, you have the right to tell us and I'll go back to whatever it was I did before 10 Tenths was created. (Was there life before 10 Tenths?) This week I'd like to look at the phenomenon that is "Dad and Lad Go Racing"
In every race series in which I have competed, one of the things which is always present is the father and son combination. Father is more often than not bankrolling son and is often an ex-racer himself. One day he realised that Junior is a faster driver than him and hung up his own helmet to live vicariously through the racing career of his son. Or alternatively, he never had the opportunity to race himself and this is all of his dreams come true as the family race car is pushed out onto the grid.
The problem with this scenario of course is that the support can border on the fanatical and rational judgment can be impaired significantly! The arrival of Jenson Button in F1 with his "best mate" father watching over him has only served to confirm the doting father's belief that Junior is quite definitely the next best thing to sliced bread; it is only a matter of time before he is in F1 or a Touring Car, and it will be payback time for all the investment of time and money over the years.
Hence, the arrival of a driver with his father leading the way is generally recognised as the team owner's greatest nightmare, as illustrated by this anecdote from the world of F3 and related to me by a senior member of the team involved: The location is a test day at Silverstone and the team had been struggling all season with an uncompetitive driver whose father refused to understand that his son simply didn't have what it took. The gentleman in question had been getting increasingly vociferous as to why the team couldn't fix this "sub-standard" car and get his son on the pace.
The team owner was getting increasingly frustrated because all attempts to coach the lad were being thwarted by this inbuilt belief, created by his Dad, that it was the car that was the problem not him. After another particularly poor session, the usual row was taking place when one of the team's old drivers dropped into the garage to pay his respects. The driver in question was there for the Formula 1 testing that was due to start the following day and out of sheer desperation, the team manager asked if he would mind taking the F3 car out for a couple of laps and see if he "could find the problem".
So, the guy piled into the car did an out lap, flying lap and an in-lap. His one timed lap was two seconds quicker than the car had gone previously and a fraction quicker than the best lap set all day. Ayrton later admitted that he'd lifted-off the throttle whilst going down the Hanger Straight because he didn't want to make the kid look bad in front of his father. The father in question was strangely silent for the rest of the year.
I too have fallen foul of a couple of over zealous fathers during my race career. I remember an incident where a father had sought me out at a race meeting to complain about me knocking his son off at the previous round, which left a very bad taste. The father in question was downright unpleasant and left me in no doubt that he thought very little of me, repeatedly calling me a liar.
When the coverage of that previous round was shown later the same day for the first time, his son had the decency to concede that his move on me had left me nowhere to go. The father decided an easier option would be to ignore me for the rest of the season! I did in fact have the last laugh when I was the key man in an inquisition that greatly affected his son's position in the Championship. Even if I hadn't been in the right (which of course I was, I'm a race driver for crissakes, I'm always right!), I would never have done anything to help the kid involved purely because his father had upset me in this fashion. I won the protest and his son lost a place in the Championship. What goes around.
Later on that same year, as we were trundling down the pitlane at the end of a race, I had a father running after me, yelling some really substantial abuse, clearly audible above the noise of the engine, because "I had knocked his son off". Despite the fact that his son had actually been making a good attempt at knocking me off when he had crashed and this incident had been completely out-of-sight of the pitwall so father had not even seen the accident, he left me in no doubt that if I had stopped the car he would have throttled me!
To prove every rule has an exception, this year the Clio Cup has provided it. On the first lap at Croft I was knocked off by an over ambitious overtaking manoeuvre by a lad and whilst stewing in Parc Ferme afterwards, I was approached by his father. Coming fast on the heels of the verbal assault described above I was pretty apprehensive, but the gentleman in question merely inquired whether or not his son had been across to apologise to me yet!
Whenever we spoke thereafter, he was always quick to congratulate or commiserate, still proud as punch of his son and keen to let you know how his race had gone, but all the time managing to maintain a balanced view. The gentleman in question was Andy Gibson, whose son, David, was the Fiesta champion last year and is likely to one of the main contenders for the Clio crown in 2001. Especially since I see that they have decided to branch out and launch their own racing team, Elite Motorsport for the new season. May I take this opportunity to wish them the very best for next year, I look forward to renewing my battles with David when the Championship commences!
Next week, by popular demand, sees the return of the Greek in "Why does that Renault 5 Turbo sound like a Spitfire?"