Brian Redman

9/3/1937

Record updated 09-Mar-07

He participated in 13 Grands Prix for Cooper and Shadow, debuting on January 1, 1968. He achieved 1 podium, and scored a total of 8 championship points. However his real strength was in sports car racing at which he was one of the great drivers of his era.

Brian Redman, the son of a Lancashire retail grocery chain owner, began racing in 1959 with a Morris Minor Traveller. Redman had fitted a supercharger to get to cutomers quicker as the Morris normally served as a delivery wagon. Next came an 850 Mini and a brief encounter with an XK120 Jaguar which proved to expencive to run.

Having aquired a Morgan Plus 4 he campaigned it in just about anything that it was eligable for. By 1965 he had come to the notice of Red Rose Motors who had just aquired a lightweight E-Type Jaguar. He was invited to test it at Oulton Park and promply lapped 1.5 seconds under Jackie Stewart's lap record. He raced it the following weekend and won. He won another 15 times that year out of 17 races entered.

Redman was now firmly on the map. For 1966 he raced a Lola T70 in national ecvents and a GT40 at Spa with Peter Sutcliff, finishing 4th.

1967 was a mix of European F2 with a Lola and sports car racing with a private GT40. At the end of the season he was approached by John Wyer to join Jackie Icky in thier GT40 at Kyalami for the 9 Hour race. They won and Brian was signed up for 1968. He also signed with Cooper to join their F1 team.

He was also approached by Ferrari for their F2 team. Following a test he drove Dino 166 in the Eifelrennen on the Nurenburg Sudschleife. After a stone smashed his goggles and injured his eye, he made his way back to the pits only to be ordered by Forghieri to get back out onto the track now wearing a spare pair of goggles. From last and 2 minutes and 15 seconds off the lead, he finished 4th, braking the lap record on the way. That evening he was offered a contract withthe Scuderia for F2 that year and F1 in 1969. Redams famously turned them down.

In the Cooper he came third at the Spanish Grand Prix but then had a massive accident at spa after a wishbone failure. The car vaulted the barriers and Redman suffered a serious break to his right forearm which required two steel pins. He was sidelined for the rest of the year and still has two steel pins in his arm.

Back racing in 1969, he was a member of the 1969 Porsche factory team in the World Manufacturers Championship. With co-driver Jo "Seppi" Siffert, they won five of the ten events including the Nurburgring 1000 Ks, Monza 1000 Ks, Spa Francorchamps 1000 Ks, Watkins Glen 6 hours, Brands Hatch 6 Hours. Porsche clinched the Championship for the first time ever.

In 1970 he drove for the factory backed John Wyer Gulf Porsche team, again with Siffert, in the fabulous 917 and 908/3, they won at Spa, the Targa Florio and the Osterreichring. He also shared the Daytona 24 Hours winning Gulf 917 with Pedro Rodriguez and Leo Kinnunen and a 908/3 to win the retrospective Targa Florio with Hans Herrmann in 1985.

Won 1978 Sebring 12 Hours in a Dick Barbour 935 with Bob Garretson and Charles Mendez and the Daytona 24 Hours in 1981 with another Dick Barbour 935 with Bobby Rahal.

In the years that followed he won all the major sports car races except Le Mans and made occasional forays into F1 with Frank Williams, McLaren, BRM and Shadow, with whom he also drove in CanAm.

He was also hugely successful with Chevron sports cars and had a long association with the marque, founded by fellow-Lancastrian Derek Bennett.

In 1971 he won the Springbok sports car series and raced in Formula 5000 in Europe. Later that year driving a John Wyer Porsche on the Targa Florio he suffered a steering failure and crashed heavily. The car hit a concrete post and split the fuel tank which ignited. He managed to jump out but still suffered burns to his face, neck and hands. Seven weeks later he was racing again finishing 3rd in an F5000 race at Mallory.

In 1972 he was approached by Ferrari again and this time he signed to race the 312PB in long distance races. He was with them for two years first with Regazzoni then with Ickx. During his second year he started racing in F5000 in the USA. At the end of the year he left Ferrari and moved to the States.

There he became very successful with Jim Hall and Carl Haas, winning the US F5000 title three years running, in 1974, 1975 and 1976.

In 1977 F5000 became CanAm but at the first race at St Jovite he became airbourne at 150 mph in practice. Reaching a height of 40 feet, the car landed upside down. Redman suffered a broken neck, sternum, ribs and shoulder but he was back in action at the start of 1978, winning the Sebring 12 Hours for Porsche.

He won the Daytona 24 Hour race in 1981 and took the IMSA Championship as well.

He continued to race well into the 1980s with Bob Tullius’s Group 44 Jaguar team in America and the factory backed Aston Martin team in Europe. In the 1990s he was involved in the Redman-Bright F3000 team.

Currently Brian races a 1973 Lola T330 F5000, 1971 Chevron B19, 1968 Lola T70 Mk III & Ford GT40 in vintage/historic events. Also drives a variety of cars for private collectors such as the Collier Collection and Speedmasters at events such as Goodwood and the Montery Historics.

He also promotes vintage/historic races, including Brian Redman’s Jefferson 500 (15 years), the inaugural Nassau Classic Car Festival in 1997 and the Double 50 Porsche Celebration at Watkins Glen in 1998. Porsche Rennsport Reunion I at Lime Rock in 2001, Porsche Rennsport Reunion II at Daytona International Speedway in 2004.

Owner of Targa 66, a limited membership club for owners of high performance road and race cars. Provides also individual and group driver schools.

Works driver for the following teams:

• John Wyer Gulf Ford
• John Wyer Gulf Porsche
• Dr.Ing h.c.F.Porsche AG
• SEFAC Ferrari
• Group 44 Jaguar (USA)
• BMW Motorsport GMBH
• Proteus Aston Martin
• McLaren Racing. F1
• Frank Williams DeTomaso. F1
• Cooper Car Company. F1
• UOP Shadow. F1
• BRM. F1
• Chevron
• Haas/Hall Chaparral Lola F5000 

• 1974, 1975, 1976 U.S. Formula 5000 Champion. Carl Haas/Jim Hall Lola T330/332
• 1981 IMSA Camel GT Champion. Lola T600 GTP.
• 1970 South African Springbok Champion. Chevron B16/Spyder. 

•  1968 John Wyer Gulf Ford
• 1969 Dr.Ing h.c.F.Porsche AG
• 1970 Chevron (2 Liter Championship)
• 1970 John Wyer Gulf Porsche
• 1972 SEFAC Ferrari 

• Nurburgring 1,000 Kilometers- 2 times
• Imola 500 Kilometers- 2 times
• Kyalami 9 Hours - 2 times
• Brands Hatch 6 Hours - 2 times
• Sebring 12 Hours - 2 times
• Monza 1,000 Kilometers - 2 times
• Daytona 24 Hours - 3 times
• Targa Florio
• Spa Francorchamps 1,000 Kilometers-4 times
• Osterreichring 1,000 Kilometers
• Spa Francorchamps 500 Kilometers
• Dijon 1,000 Kilometers
• Nurburgring 500 Kilometres
• Norisring Vallelunga 1,000 Kilometres