Brian Herman Thomas Redman (born 9 March 1937 in Colne, Lancashire and educated at Rossall School, Fleetwood, Lancashire), is a retired British racing driver. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Brian Redman raced in Formula One between 1968 and 1974 with six different teams and was prolific in endurance and sports car racing, being a member of several factory teams including Chevron, Ford, Porsche, Ferrari and BMW. He contested twelve Le Mans 24 Hours races, taking two class wins and won the following Championships – 1974, 1975, 1976 US F5000 Champion (Carl Haas/Jim Hall Lola T330/332), 1981 IMSA Camel GT Champion (Lola T600 GTP) and the 1970 South African Springbok Champion (Chevron B16/Spyder). He also won the following International Races – Kyalami 9 Hours (twice), Brands Hatch 6 Hours (twice), Sebring 12 Hours (1975 and 78), Daytona 24 Hours (1970, 1976, 1980), the Targa Florio, Imola 500 Kms (twice), Nurburgring and Spa 500 Kms, Dijon, Norisring, Osterreichring and Vallelunga 1000 Kms, Spa 1000 Kms (4 times), Nurburgring 1000 Kms (twice) and Monza 1000 Kms (twice).
Born on the 9th of March, 1937, in Burnley, Lancashire, Brian Herman Thomas Redman started racing in 1959 with a supercharged Morris Minor Traveller 1000. Although he never aspired to race when he was younger, he said he “loved cars and I was driving like a maniac on the road. So I thought I had better get off the road and get on the track.” His first race was at Rufforth, where his “right leg was shaking so much that to hold the throttle open, I had to put my hand on my knee and force the throttle open.” He next drove at Ouston but felt a significant aerodynamic advantage could be gained by removing the windscreen and the back doors. After doing this he drove it to the circuit, where a steward told him it was permissible to race but he needed to put the doors back on. Brian’s response that he couldn’t, as they were back in Burnley, led to a stewards’ meeting and they allowed him to race; after blowing a head gasket he had to be towed home by a friend, in the rain. Following this came a Mini in 1959, in which he was second and third in class at Rufforth and Linton On Ouse plus second at Oulton Park in a race and a sprint. He mainly raced a Jaguar XK120 the following year, with his best result third at Oulton Park while switching to a Morgan +4 in 1963 he won the Chorley Speed Trials. Over the next two years, racing the Mini he had class wins at Castle Howard, Southport and Loton Park, two at Woodvale sprints, then second and third in class at Southport Speed Trials and Mallory Park. RAF Woodvale was instrumental in his moving from the club ranks, “as a friend, Gordon Brown, offered to let me drive his ex-works XK120 in a sprint there on Easter Monday, 1965. We managed to get FTD and Gordon said he would introduce me to Charles Bridges, the owner of Red Rose Motor, who had just bought the ex Graham Hill/John Coombes Lightweight E Type. He was as good as his word and four days later we were testing at Oulton Park and raced and won with it that weekend.” His career gained momentum when he was almost unbeatable racing their Jaguar E-type with wins at Goodwood, Croft, Ouston and Aintree, two at Rufforth and six at Oulton Park. Alongside the E-Type, outings in the Mini produced wins at Cadwell Park and Oulton Park, two class wins at Woodvale sprints and third at Ouston.
1966 started with victory at Croft with a Brabham BT8 and two second place finishes at Oulton Park in the E-Type. He campaigned Red Rose Motor’s Lola T70 in the British Sportscar Championship which saw two wins each at Oulton Park and Rufforth, fourth places at Silverstone and Brands Hatch then thirteenth in the Tourist Trophy. He also raced the team’s Alfa Romeo GTA 1600 in a round of the British Saloon Car Championship at Oulton Park plus finished second at Oulton Park with J.Bridge’s Brabham BT14. April that year saw his debut in the World Sportscar Championship in a Ford GT40, finishing ninth with Richard Bond in the Monza 1000km, then fourth with Peter Sutcliffe at the 1000km Spa and racing solo was third at Crystal Palace.
1967 saw him contest a number of races in a Chevron B5, winning the Anerley Trophy at Crystal Palace and he was third in a later race at the circuit with a Chevron B6. In two outings with a GT40 he and Peter Sutcliffe came home sixth in the 1000km Spa but his debut at Le Mans with Mike Salmon in JW Automotive’s car ended in retirement; while M.Salmon was driving, the car burst into flames with a full tank of fuel, and though he bravely got the car close to a marshal post before jumping out he was taken to hospital with severe burns. There was one outing in David Piper’s Ferrari 250LM in the 1000km Paris with Richard Attwood and they were sixth then at the end of the season he was approached by John Wyer to join Jackie Ickx in a Mirage M1 for the Kyalami 9 Hours. The pair took victory and Brian was signed up for 1968 plus also signed with Cooper to join their F1 team.
His F1 debut with Cooper came on the 1st January in South Africa though he retired after 4 laps due to an oil leak. Following this came his first races with JW Automotive’s GT40 alongside J.Ickx but though they ended in retirements in the 24 Hour Daytona and 12 Hour Sebring races (after starting first and second) they took victory in their next race at the 6 Hour Brands Hatch. This was followed the next week with victory for Brian in Sid Taylor’s Lola T70 at the 100 Mile Oulton Park event. He was also approached by Ferrari for their F2 team and following a test he drove the Dino 166 in April in the Eifelrennen at the Nurburgring. After a stone smashed his goggles and injured his eye, he made his way back to the pits and, with a spare pair of goggles, rejoined the race. Despite losing over two minutes in the pits, and rejoining in last position, he went on to finish fourth plus broke the lap record. He was offered a contract with Ferrari to contest F2 for them that year, then Formula 1 in 1969 but turned them down, telling team boss Mauro Forghieri that if he drove for them ‘he would be dead by the end of the year’. In further 1000km races in the GT40, he and David Hobbs were sixth at Nurburgring but though he and J.Ickx retired at Monza the pair took victory at Spa. In May he had contested the Spanish GP, where he took an impressive third place behind Graham Hill and Denny Hulme but then came Spa in June where he had a massive accident. After a wishbone failure the car vaulted the barriers and he suffered a serious break to his right forearm which required two steel pins and he was sidelined for the rest of the year. Describing the incident he said “I went over the Armco, and as I did so my right arm was trapped between the car and the barrier. As it turned out, I was very lucky not to lose it…When the car landed, it hit a Vauxhall Cresta that someone had thoughtfully parked there.” He missed Le Mans and returning to the track in October he contested six races in a Chevron B8 and in December took third place finishes at Rhodesia and Lourenco Marques plus fourth at Kyalami (with Tim Schenken) and Rhodesia.)
In 1969 he was a member of the Porsche factory team alongside Jo Siffert, although there was one outing with Vic Elford at the Daytona 24 Hours, but though they were fastest qualifiers they retired due to mechanical failure. Back with Siffert, further retirement followed at the Sebring 12 Hours but they went on to win five of the ten events with the 908/02 including 1000km races at Nurburgring, Monza and Spa Francorchamps plus the 6 Hours races at Watkins Glen and Brands Hatch. They retired at Le Mans due to gearbox problems but at the end of the season Porsche took the Championship for the first time. He also raced the car at the Targa Florio with Richard Attwood, describing how it had “unforgiving poles, stone walls, dogs, spectators and farm animals. Surfaces ranged from bad to worse. A missed turn might mean a horrific drop down the side of a mountain.” He retired the car while racing it solo at a Can Am round (due to a misfire) then was third at the 1000km Zeltweg alongside R.Attwood in David Piper’s 917. He continued to drive Sid Taylor’s Lola T70 and was second at Silverstone’s International and Martini Trophy 300 races, fourteenth at Mantorp Park and second at a Nordic Challenge round at Anderstorp. He also won the Embassy Trophy at Thruxton and non championship races at Norisring and the Swedish GP at Karlskoga (beating David Piper and Ronnie Peterson). In a one off outing with Equipe Matra Elf’s MS630 he and Pedro Rodriguez came home second at the 1000km Paris while a notable victory came in the non-championship 500km Nurburgring with Chevron’s B16.
The following year saw a hectic schedule racing a variety of cars and it started in South America with David Piper’s Porsche 917 though the pair retired in the 1000km Buenos Aires. Back at Daytona he was second alongside J.Siffert in a 917 but was also listed as being in the winning team alongside Pedro Rodriguez and Leo Kinnunen. Their car suffered a clutch failure late in the race but was able to be repaired, in a little under 45 minutes then Siffert rejoined in third place, some 50 laps down. Leo Kinnunen was called into the pits and Brian was instructed to take over, but to keep his speed down and, after following the directions, an hour later he pulled in and handed over to Rodriguez. After a rest he took over his usual car from Jo Siffert and drove hard to make up time but on the banking he gave the wall a glancing blow. The car had repair work done, and Siffert then took over for the final sprint to the finish, passing Mario Andretti/Arturo Merzario’s Ferrari for second with a few laps remaining. Although Porsche finished 1-2, and he had driven both cars, Brian refused to join Rodríguez and Kinnunen in the winner’s circle, stating “I was technically part of the winning team. But I certainly wasn’t going to show up in the winner’s circle having driven only a short time.” In further races in the JW Automotive 917 they were twelfth at the 1000km Monza and Spa rounds, won the 1000km Zeltweg and were second in the 6 hour Watkins Glen. After the Spa race, Jo Siffert suggested they go for drink with the mechanics, which turned into a long night. However, when he returned to the hotel in the early hours his wife had locked him out of the room and the commotion led to the manager being called; the end result saw Porsche banned from the hotel from then on.
Switching to a Porsche 908/03, in May he and Siffert were at the Targa Florio, ready for eleven laps of the 71.9 kilometre Piccolo Circuito delle Madonie in Sicily. Driving the light-blue and orange JWA car, Brian took the lead from Nino Vaccarella on lap seven and the end result would see them take victory ahead of teammates Kinnunen/Rodrguez. He was seventh racing a 917 solo in a Can Am round at Watkins Glen and returned to F1 at the South African GP, as a member of Rob Walker’s Racing Team, but his Lotus 49C was driven by Graham Hill. He then joined Frank Williams to drive his De Tomaso at Brands Hatch but didn’t start due to hub failure in qualifying and though he was in the car at Hockenheim he failed to qualify for the race. He won the European and Springbok Sports Car Championships for Chevron with victories at Paul Ricard and Spa, took second and third at Thruxton and Enna Pergusa, fourth in the Silverstone International and eleventh at Salzburgring. In two races with an Escuderia Montjuich-Team entered B16 he was second at Anderstorp and Hockenheim then he rounded off his season with Team Gunston’s B16 Spyder where he took fifth at the 9 Hour Kyalami (with John Hine) followed by four victories at 3 Hour races at Lourenco Marques, Roy Hesketh, Cape Town (with R.Attwood) and Bulawayo (with John Love). There was an outing in a Lola T70 at Monthlery which produced a second place result.
Regarding the 917, he said that although it evolved into a very good car, at first it was terrifying. On being asked by Porsche to test it he reasoned to himself that if they had 10 drivers in the team, then why did they want him to test? He told them “he had some very important business, but I’d see if I could put it off, and I’d call them back in an hour. I rang Siffert; ‘Seppi, have you tested out the 917 yet?’ ‘No, no, Brian. Not me. We let the others find out what breaks first..” On his first outing in a 917 at Daytona, during practice “I was trying to go around the banking without lifting, but it was too terrifying. But deep down, I knew you could probably do it. So I ducked into the pits and found Jacky (Ickx), who was famous for being brave. I asked him, ‘Could a 917 go all the way around here flat-out?’ He said, ‘Yes, Brian, of course.’ What I found out later was that after Jacky turned away from me, he added, ‘But you would fly to the moon.'”
During this period he decided to move away from racing after a number of friends and drivers had died and took a job at a car dealership in South Africa. But that only lasted four months as he felt unnerved by the political/social situation there and returned to England.
1971 started in South Africa with Richard Attwood and a victory in Richter Motors’ Chevron B16 Spyder at Goldfields. In March he was back in F1 when he contested the South African GP with Team Surtees and after qualifying seventeenth in the TS7 he had a good run to finish seventh. Back in Europe his first race came at the 1000km Brands Hatch with Vic Elford in the Martini Porsche 917 though they did not finish and he and Siffert retired their JW Automotive 908/03 at the Targa Florio. On the day before the race, Siffert crashed the car but though the mechanics worked all night to repair it he said “right from the start, the handling wasn’t normal..the steering wasn’t normal. And I got 22 miles around the 44 mile track, and the steering broke. And I hit a stone kilometer post right in the fuel tank, and it exploded. And I somehow got out and I was burning from head to foot…It was 45 minutes before any attention came. Finally they took me to the wrong hospital and nobody knew where I was. I was there for 12 hours, without being able to talk to anybody and without being able to see.” The team chartered a plane and flew him home, with him looking like the invisible man as he was covered in bandages from head to foot. A friend had brought Brian’s wife to meet the plane but on seeing him as he was led out of the plane the friend fainted. He was in a race again four weeks after leaving hospital but his helmet rubbed against the skin grafts on his face and the doctor told him to take more time off. Racing in F5000 for Sid Taylor he finished fifth in the series with the McLaren M18, taking second places at Mallory Park and Snetterton, third at Mallory Park and two victories at Brands Hatch. He also raced Sid Taylor’s BRM P167 and took two Interserie wins at Imola and Hockenheim plus fourth at a Can-Am race at Laguna Seca (behind Peter Revson, Jackie Stewart and Denny Hulme). The final outings came in Africa and he scored his first victory with Ferrari, sharing a 312PB with Clay Regazzoni at the 9 Hours Kyalami. This was followed by drives with Team Gunston’s Chevron B19 where he was second and fourth at Cape Town, alongside Mike Hailwood, Paddy Driver and Bennett.
Brian regularly competed in South Africa and told how, on one occasion when they were in Kyalami, the rooms in their hotel “all had a straw roof. We had already put the deck chairs in the pool when Clay Regazzoni decided he would liven things up for Mario Andretti, who had gone to bed. He lit a newspaper and threw it into the room, but it turned out he got the wrong room. This person had nothing to do with racing and he called the police. We had to smuggle Clay out of South Africa the next day!”
There was another full schedule in 1972 with various teams, including Ferrari, McLaren and BRM. In early races with a Ferrari 312 PB at Buenos Aires and Daytona, he and Clay Regazzoni were second and fourth and later drives saw the pair fifth at Brands Hatch plus there were victories in 1000km races at Spa and Zeltweg when teamed with Arturo Merzario and Jackie Ickx. Alongside his endurance races he continued racing F5000 cars for Sid Taylor, in the British and American Championship, with a Chevron B24 and McLaren M10B cars. He finished third in the US series behind Graham McRae and Sam Posey, taking fourth at Watkins Glen, second at Road Atlanta and Lime Rock and won the final round at Riverside. In the British races in the McLaren M10B he won at Brands Hatch and Mondello Park, was second at Brands Hatch and Silverstone and third at Snetterton. He won at Oulton Park and Brands Hatch with the Chevron B24 and came second in the championship, four points behind Gijs van Lennep’s 65 points. Returning to contest F1 with Yardley Team McLaren’s M19A, he was fifth at Monaco and Germany and ninth in France. In non championship races he was second and seventh in Brand Hatch’s Rothmans 50,000 (to Emerson Fittipaldi) and John Player Challenge Trophy (with a M19C) plus raced a Marlboro BRM P180 in October’s US GP though did not finish.
Although there were two drives the following year in a 917/10 in Can Am rounds at Laguna Seca and Riverside the season saw him mostly racing a Ferrari 312 PB alongside Jacky Ickx. Results included third, second and a win in the first three races at Vallelunga, Dijon and Monza and though they retired from the Targa Florio they followed this with a win at Nurburgring then third and second at Zeltweg and Watkins Glen. In F1 he raced a Shadow DN1 at the US GP though was disqualified after receiving assistance after a spin.
He contested further races in F1 in 1974 with UOP Shadow Racing’s DN3 where he was seventh and seventeenth in Spain and Belgium but retired at Monaco. There was an eighth place result with Team Ensign’s N174 at the non championship International Trophy at Silverstone. Racing Autodelta’s Alfa Romeo T33 he and Arturo Merzario were ninth at the 1000km Nurburgring while in two outings back in Can Am he retired a NART Ferrari 712M at Watkins Glen then took second with Penske’s Porsche 917/30 at Mid Ohio. His final race that year came back at Brands Hatch where he and Peter Gethin were fourth at the 1000km race with a Chevron B26.
There was a switch of marques for the next two seasons to BMW where he took victory with the 3.0 CSL at the 12 Hour Sebring alongside Allan Moffat, Sam Posey and Hans Joachim Stuck. He and Sam Posey were second at Riverside and further outings in November saw second place finishes racing solo in the 250 Mile Daytona plus second when teamed with Derek Bell in Willie Kauhsen’s car at Kyalami. A highlight in 1976 came in February when he returned to Daytona and resolved unfinished business by taking victory there with a 3.0 CSL alongside Peter Gregg and John Fitzpatrick though it was a lean year and there were retirements at Mugello and Le Mans in a 3.5 CSL.
During this period, in F5000 he had switched his focus to America from 1973, driving a Lola T330 for Jim Hall and Carl Haas. Contesting the L&M F5000 Championship, he took 5 wins from the 9 races, with victory at Riverside, Road America, Road Atlanta, Pocono and Seattle plus second at Mid-Ohio and Watkins Glen. He eventually finished second to Jody Scheckter but the following year brought the first of his three consecutive Championship titles.
Contesting the SCCA/USAC series with a Lola T332 he took the title ahead of Mario Andretti and David Hobbs and in the seven races he won at Mid Ohio, Ontario and Monterey plus was second at Watkins Glen, Road America and Riverside. Continuing with Hall/Haas’ Lola T332 in 1975 he beat Mario Andretti and Al Unser to the title, taking four wins at Pocono, Watkins Glen, Mid Ohio and Long Beach, second place results at Mosport and Road Atlanta plus third at Laguna Seca and Riverside (in a Lola T400). The final year saw wins at Pocono, Mid Ohio and Road America and a third at Riverside to achieve his third straight championship, beating drivers including Al Unser, Jackie Oliver, Alan Jones, Danny Ongais and Vern Schuppan. Paying respect to the team, he credited his success in four years of the series “to Jim Hall and his Chaparral crew..We had tremendous reliability-one engine failure and one suspension failure in four years.” During the four-year span from 1973 through 1976, he finished first or second in 52 of 60 races.
Recalling 1976’s F5000 racing he said the championship was a four way battle between himself, Alan Jones, Al Unser and Jackie Oliver and they were the first four finishers in the final race at Riverside (Unser, Oliver, Brian third then Jones). He was supposed to be “taking it easy, to be sure of finishing and protecting my championship, but I can tell you that I wasn’t taking it all that easy! Al and Jackie were flying and Alan was pressing me all the way. It was quite a season, with Alan Jones coming into the series and enjoying instant success with Teddy Yip’s cars. Then, after so much frustration, Don Nichols’ team finally got the Shadow and its Dodge engine all sorted out and Jackie Oliver won at Elkhart Lake. He had to be considered a major threat from then on, along with Al Unser. Danny Ongais kept surprising us too.”
He had agreed to continue with Jim Hall and Carl Haas in 1977’s series, possibly with a further modified version of the T-332, sponsored by First National City Travelers Checks. Unfortunately, in June he suffered a horrific accident testing a Lola T332 at St.Jovite which put him out of racing for a considerable period though he was fortunate not to have been killed or paralysed. The car flipped end-over-end and he described how the car “went 40 feet in the air, turned over and came down. And that broke my neck, C1, smashed my shoulder, split my breastbone, broke my ribs, the roll bar broke and my head went down on the road. My helmet was worn away at each side. But as it rolled off the track onto the surrounding land, it landed on its wheels, which was a good job. Because my heart had stopped and the track doctor was a heart specialist-he got that going again. And then on the way to hospital, the ambulance blew a tire.” While in hospital, with weights hanging on either side to stabilise his neck injury, the first person he saw when he opened his eyes was Jim Hall. On asking how he felt,Brian replied “I think I might have to miss the next race.” Two weeks after the accident, the doctors removed the halo that immobilised his broken neck, “a space age-looking device attached by self-tapping screws to each side of my head, and braced against my shoulders. Finally, with just a collar I could move my neck, if only slightly. In my confused state, this now meant I was fully mobile. I woke at 1.00 am, worked my way down the bed, climbed over the bottom rail, pushed the table out of the way, and dropped my legs onto the floor. Triumphantly, I stumbled into the nurses’ room having no idea why I thought this might be prudent. The medical staff went totally berserk and decided I was self-destructive. To prevent further break-outs, they strapped me to the bed with knotted cloths around my legs and waist as if I were a disruptive mental patient. Once again, I had rendered myself helpless until, lesson learned, I became the model patient and the restraints were loosened. After more than a month in a narcotic-induced reverie, I was released from the hospital and flew home to England by myself..I was oblivious to the fact that there were almost eight months of rehabilitation ahead of me and no visible means of income. In my mentally decoupled way, I really didn’t care.” During this time he said he “couldn’t think clearly, had a hard time paying attention to conversations, and exhibited no interest in anything, including getting well…Slowly my physical health began to return, as did the feeling I had lost between my chest and toes.”
After a long recovery he returned in spectacular style, in March 1978 winning the Sebring 12 hours with Dick Barbour’s Porsche 935 alongside Charles Mendez and Bob Garretson. In June that year he raced the car with John Paul and Dick Barbour at Le Mans and reached the finish line for the first time, finishing fifth overall and winners in class and later was eighth at Watkins Glen with Janet Guthrie and Hurley Haywood. In various other drives he was twelfth with Carl Haas’ Lola T333 at a Can Am event at Laguna Seca, though had retirements in a VW Scirocco at the 24 Hour Spa alongside J.Ickx. He also gave the AMG Mercedes 450 SLC its debut in Silverstone’s Tourist Trophy with Clemens Schickentanz and Hans Heyer.
Apart from a one off outing in Cicale Champion Racing’s Can Am Ralt RT1, which led to a victory at Mid Ohio alongside Bobby Rahal, his races in 1979 mostly came in a Porsche 935. His best results were second at Sebring alongside Charles Mendez and Paul Miller, sixth at Riverside with Rolf Stommelen and Dick Barbour, third at Nurburgring with Henri Pescarolo, eighth at Watkins Glen with Bill Whittington and Johnny Rutherford and he finished his season with third at a 250 Mile Daytona Finale in November with C.Mendez. As with the previous season, 1980’s racing was mainly in the 935, apart from one outing in a Lola T333, which produced a victory for him and David Hobbs at Mid Ohio. Highlights through the season included third at Silverstone with John Paul in a JLP Racing car, fifth at Road America with a Racing Associates car alongside Bob Akin and Paul Miller while drives in a Dick Barbour car with John Fitzpatrick brought victory and third at Mosport and Watkins Glen then fifth (and IMSA class winners) at Le Mans (joined by D.Barbour).
His successes continued in 1981 when he became the IMSA GT champion, scoring six wins with a Porsche 935 and Lola T600. Starting his season with the 935 he achieved his second triumph at the Daytona 24 Hours, sharing with Bob Garretson and Bobby Rahal and took third at Riverside alongside Rahal. The year then saw the start of a successful period with the T600 and in 11 races, mostly in a Cooke Woods entered car, he took five victories at Laguna Seca, Lime Rock, Mid-Ohio, Portland and Road Atlanta and five second place finishes at Sears Point, Daytona, Mosport (with Eppie Wietzes), Road America (with Sam Posey) and Pocono with Ralph Kent-Cooke. He missed that year’s Le Mans and returned in 1982 with Cooke Racing’s Lola T610 prototype though he, R.Kent-Cooke and Jim Adams retired after 28 laps.
1984 saw the start of two seasons with a Group 44 Jaguar XJR-5 in the IMSA Championship with his best results in the first year a victory in the second race at Miami with Doc Bundy. He and Pat Bedard had third place finishes at Road Atlanta and Charlotte and further podiums came with second in a solo drive at Sears Point and second and third at the 3 Hour Daytona Finale and Watkins Glen. The second year of a full schedule with Hurley Haywood in Group 44’s XJR-5 produced a win at Road Atlanta (averaging a race record 108.893 mph), second at Charlotte, Lime Rock and the 3 Hour Daytona Finale, third at Laguna Seca and 500 km Watkins Glen then fourth places at Portland and a 3 Hour Watkins Glen. He continued with Haywood and the Jaguar in 1986 though this season Group 44 ran an XJR-7 and in one outing with a Silk Cut car there was a retirement at Le Mans (joined by Hans Heyer). Racing the XJR-7 in IMSA their best results were fourth at Miami, third at West Palm Beach, Sears Point and Columbus then fifth at Mid Ohio and Watkins Glen.
In 1987, he was back in a Porsche cockpit, driving a 962 for Primus Motorsport in the IMSA GTP Championship, with third at Sebring and fifth at Road Atlanta with Chris Kneifel and Forbes Robinson the best results. In the following year he, Bob Wollek and Mauro Baldi came home second in the 24 Hour Daytona in a Uniroyal Goodrich car and contesting Le Mans as part of the Takefuji Schuppan Racing Team, together with Eje Elgh and Jean-Pierre Jarier, they finished tenth.
His full, final, year of professional racing came in 1989 and in another change of marques he raced for Aston Martin though started the year at Daytona in a Mazda RX-7, finishing ninth. After providing engines for other teams during the decade, Aston Martin had decided to enter an official works team car for the World Sports Prototype Championship. The 01 chassis was damaged beyond repair after an accident in testing at Donington Park and the team missed the opening round, then Brian debuted a newly built AMR1/02 chassis at Dijon, with David Leslie. Two cars were sent to Le Mans, the AMR1/02 and a newly built AMR1/03, with Brian racing alongside Costas Los and Michael Roe. Both cars suffered suspensions failures during qualifying and the team worked all night on them. However, although the cars managed to start the race, theirs developed problems which led to them being told to nurse their car to the finish; they continued steadily and as other cars began retiring they came home eleventh (and ninth in class). Realising they would finish no higher than eleventh, he recounted how there was a group of British spectators at Arnage who “held up a hand-painted sign which said: Give us some oppo. On the next lap I did a nice slide for their benefit and I nearly spun it. Next time round the sign said, Now fastest lap. And on the final lap it said: Tea and crumpets with the Queen!” This would be Brian’s last participation at Le Mans. The team missed the Jarama round to focus on developing the car and on the AMR1/04’S debut at Brands Hatch he and D.Leslie qualified fourteenth and went on to achieve an encouraging fourth place finish. Contesting the ADAC Trophy at the Nurburgring they came home eighth while at Spa he and Dickens finished seventh. The final race came at Mexico City, where he and D.Leslie qualified fifteenth, then during the race they managed to get into the top ten and eventually finished seventh.
There were limited outings after this, on occasion with a Mazda RX-7 plus a Porsche 964 Turbo and 993 Carrera. In 1997 he became involved with John Bright in a Redman Bright Engineering team, which contested the International F3000 Championship. They eventually moved into sports car racing with Pilbeam and, after entering select races, Peter Owen and Mark Smithson took victory in their SR2 category at Kyalami in 1999’s season finale. Going into the 2000 season, P.Owen and M.Smithson shared a car and a second was campaigned in some races by Werner Lupberger, with Brian himself coming out of retirement to share Owen and Smithson’s MP84 at the 250 Mile Daytona. Aided by two victories for Owen and Smithson at Monza and Donington Park the team won the SR2 Championship. Redman Bright moved up to the SR1 class in 2001 with a Reynard-Judd, achieving a best finish of fourth at Monza after a late pit stop for emergency repairs while leading. Unfortunately the team folded before the end of the year.
He became a regular entrant in Historic events and races, such as the Monterey Motorsports Reunion and Goodwood Festival of Speed and in 1991, he began organising Targa Sixty Six events for historic cars. In 2013 he was honoured by the Road Racing Drivers Club in Long Beach, California, which was the fifth consecutive annual banquet honouring the legends of the sport; previous recipients included Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones, Jim Hall and Roger Penske. A crowd of 350 people from all forms of motorsports, from NHRA to INDYCAR and sports car racing, turned out to honour him. RRDC president Bobby Rahal told how, as a teenager attending Sebring and Watkins Glen, he watched him drive against the best drivers in the world, and “He was clearly one of them..I had nothing but the greatest admiration for him as a driver and as a human being. As a race-car driver I look at what he’s done and I think, man, I wish I could have done just half of that. He’s a super guy and is such a humble person. He never sought the spotlight and yet he achieved successes that most of the best race-car drivers in the world never did.”
Brian is a member of the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, the Sebring Hall of Fame, the Talladega Hall of Fame and the Long Beach Walk of Fame.
In 2019 he and his wife Marion went missing during Hurricane Dorian, with nobody having heard from them for several days; they were among many thousands trapped in the Bahamas by the extreme weather and were eventually rescued by helicopter and rescue plane. Of his racing, Brian declared “I started racing at a time when this sport was incredibly deadly. I thought to myself, Either this career will kill me or it’ll make me rich. Unfortunately, neither happened.”
