Tim Parnell (25 June 1932 – 5 April 2017) was a British racing driver from England. / from old version Reginald Harold Haslam “Tim” Parnell from Wiki/
He participated in four Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 18 July 1959, and qualified for two of them. He scored no championship points. His only finish was tenth place in the 1961 Italian Grand Prix at Monza.
Parnell managed the BRM Formula One team from 1970–74, and was the son of Reg Parnell, another racing driver and team principal. After his father’s death in 1964, he took on the running of Reg Parnell Racing and on occasion managed his own team with entries for Mike Spence and Pedro Rodriguez.
Parnell died on 5 April 2017 at the age of 84. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
During 1963, Reg Parnell Racing had been running in Formula 1 but after Reg’s shock death, the responsibility for maintaining the team’s name and reputation fell on his son, 31 year old Tim. Reg had been a leading British racing driver and during the War assembled a selection of racing cars, which were stored in a barn, and Tim told how he and his friends would play in them until his father would turn up and furiously chase them away. He accompanied his father to races around the UK and Europe but only started racing when he was into his twenties, first with a Frazer-Nash Le Mans Replica and then a bob-tail sports car, achieving a second place with it at Mallory Park.
Switching to a Cooper T45 Climax he won a USAF trophy at Snetterton plus had a podium at Silverstone though was fortunate to escape uninjured when his car cleared an earth bank and finished in the infield in a crash at Crystal Palace. Continuing with the Cooper, despite failing to qualify for the British GP he won at Brands Hatch plus took four wins at Mallory Park and won twice at Silverstone. There was also a third place, against strong opposition, at an F2 race at Whitchurch airfield.
He concentrated on a Formula Junior programme for 1960, and, starting with a Cooper, took a second place at Mallory Park. Then came a switch to a Lotus 18 and he took a class win at the Aintree Trophy, was third at Roskilde, second in the Coupe de Vitesse at Reims (being edged out on the last lap) plus took four podiums at Mallory Park.
On one of his first races abroad, for a Clermont-Ferrand F2 race, although the circuit was picturesque, winding through the hills, it was also dangerous. Bruce Halford lost a wheel in practice, which went over the edge and down the mountain and asked Tim to help him find it.
Tim never realised there was a sheer drop at that part and “went bloody carefully there after that.” And he said they never found the
wheel!
Racing around Europe, the drivers would often stay in the same hotel, enjoying ‘high jinks’ and playing practical jokes on each other. At a race at Reims, he battled wheel to wheel with Mike McKee and though beaten to the line by 0.2sec he took the Junior lap record. After the prize-giving the drivers went to Brigitte’s Bar though eventually the gendarmes were called and he was placed into the police van. But when they drove off the rear bumper fell off as somebody had wired it to a tree and when it drove off again, one of the wheels fell off due to someone undoing the wheelnuts. They ended up in jail but one of the mechanics, Stan Elsworth, got a group together and they went to the police station and demanded they were let out. The police quickly hustled Tim out of the back door of the police station then invited the mechanics in to show Tim was not in jail!
1961 saw Tim’s Grand Prix debut, though he retired his Lotus 18 at Aintree due to a clutch problem, while in his second Grand Prix later in the year he was tenth at Monza. He took two Libre wins and a podium at Mallory Park and, competing in non-Championship F1 races, although he retired from Oulton Park’s Gold Cup he was third in the Lewis Evans Trophy at Brands Hatch, sixth in the Vienna Grand Prix at Aspern, fifth at Karlskoga in Sweden, eighth in Napoli, tenth in the Danish GP at Roskilde plus had seventh place finishes at Zeltweg, in the Lombank Trophy at Sneterton and in Brands Hatch’s Silver City Trophy.
In 1962 he finished seventh in the Naples GP and ninth at the Aintree 200 but his season was marred by a heavy crash at Brands Hatch.
After buying a Lotus 18/21 from Rob Walker he raced in Europe, and he, Gerry Ashmore and André Pilette transported the cars in an old converted bus and were known as the Three Musketeers.
He continued with his Lotus 18/21 the following season plus had several races with a Lotus 24-BRM but this was later taken over by John Campbell-Jones and Masten Gregory. Tim was back in it for the Solitude GP and finally rounded off his F1 career in a non-championship Austrian GP at Zeltweg.
In 1964, after his father Reg’s shock death, Tim retired from racing and took over running the team. Reg Parnell Racing’s drivers were Chris Amon, Richard Attwood, Innes Ireland and Mike Hailwood and their best result was fifth in the 1964 Dutch Grand Prix for C.Amon.
Peter Revson also raced Tim’s Lotus 24 from the previous year. Tim was asked by BRM to manage its Tasman campaign with Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart, Richard Attwood, Piers Courage and Chris Irwin as drivers, which led to Parnell Racing becoming a F1 BRM junior team, running P126s for Piers Courage and Chris Amon. In New Zealand, apart from Warwick Farm where Jim Clark won, J.Stewart won four races, G.Hill two and R.Attwood one.
In 1966 Parnell Racing ran Mike Spence in a Lotus-BRM although the car was painted in a number of different colours for John Frankenheimer, who was producing the ‘Grand Prix’ movie during the year. Tim would arrive with the cars for each GP a few days early so they could be filmed and Mike Spence had a tape recorder in the car to get the right engine sounds and gear-changes for each circuit. He had a great relationship with J.Frankenheimer and actor James Garner, stating he “was wonderful. Not a bad driver, either. We’d put him in one of our cars and off he’d go.” At Monza, the organisers wanted to place Giancarlo Baghetti in one of his Lotuses. It was painted white and blue for that race as it was meant to be James Garner’s in the film but during practice he was summonsed to see Enzo Ferrari. After introducing himself, Enzo Ferrari said to him ‘I remember il grande Parnell, when he drove Vandervell’s Ferrari, and when he won in New
Zealand for us. Take our spare 246 for Baghetti. We will provide the mechanics but it will be entered by Reg Parnell Racing.’ The movie crew were not happy as they had lost their white and blue car but they repainted Mike Spence’s car overnight to suit the script.
The team raced a BRM P128 for 1968, with Piers Courage and Chris Irwin, though Chris’s racing career ended after sustaining severe head injuries in a crash at the Nurburgring. In 1969 Tim became full-time team manager at BRM and later the team was run by Louis Stanley, who Tim stated was a real character and tremendously capable in getting sponsorship.
1970 saw Pedro Rodriguez and Jack Oliver in the Yardley-sponsored Pl53s and he said of them that J.Oliver “was quick and Pedro was tremendous, one of the best. He honestly thought he was going to win every race in which he entered. He loved the wet too. When it rained he would just giggle with glee.” Sadly, Pedro was killed in a sports car race at Norisring and then Jo Siffert at Brands Hatch and Tim felt the team never recovered from those two tragedies.
However, there was a memorable 1972 Monaco victory by Jean-Pierre Beltoise, in the pouring rain. Tim said the result was all the more impressive due to the weakness he had in one arm, the result of an accident earlier in his career. There was a further victory for Jean and the team in a John Player Victory Race at Brands Hatch, plus fellow BRM drivers Vern Schuppan and Peter Gethin brought their cars home in fourth and fifth place. After finishing second in the Silverstone International Trophy, JP.Beltoise told him ‘Tim, if I had two good arms I would have won today.’
The team retained their Marlboro sponsorship into 1973 and a young Austrian driver came into the team, with little sponsorship, but impressed with his strong commitment and determination. He said that Niki Lauda “was unbelievable when it came to testing. He would arrive at a Silverstone test before us, do 200 laps and then just stop for a toasted pate sandwich at lunchtime and do another 200 laps in the afternoon. Most drivers like to get out of the cockpit between stints, perhaps to stretch their legs, but not Lauda. He stayed strapped in the cockpit as often as not. I’ve never seen such a commitment. He was absolutely desperate to make it and it came as no surprise to me at all when he did. When he left us he went off to Ferrari where he could test at Fiorano all day and all night if he wanted to. If ever there was an example of the old adage ‘practice makes perfect’, then it was Niki Lauda.”
Other BRM drivers included Clay Regazzoni, Helmut Marko and Peter Gethin, and were recalled with pleasure by Tim but at the end of 1974 he moved away from running the team His last race as team manager was at Watkins Glen, which saw an impressive performance there by Chris Amon, and Tim then returned to the farm and garage business. Following this, he was Manager of Oulton Park and Mallory Park for a time, plus was General Manager of Donington Park. In 1995 he became a director of the BRDC and from 2003 to 2010 he became Vice-President. Tim passed away in 2017 and his funeral was held at St. Helen’s Church, Ashby de la Zouch, Leicestershire.
The regard and affection felt for Tim was shown in numerous tributes, with Derek Bell stating he was “such a wonderful character, unique personality and such a strong supporter of our sport in so many ways. I shall never forget his presence and sense of humour.” Teddy Pilette told of when his father Andre, Reg Parnell and Gerry Ashmore formed The Three Musketeers racing team in F2 and his father used Reg’s farm as a base when he was racing in England. He told of an exploit following a German GP when he joined Tim, his mechanics and drivers for dinner; “the hotel had beautiful glass plates and at the end of dinner Tim stood up and smashed his plate against the wall and we all followed. The next morning Tim had to pay the damage but I think his sponsor paid for all the damage.” He had great respect for Tim, as he helped him retain his faith to keep on racing and was always happy to share so many great moments with him at club meetings.
Mike Wilds described him as a “lovely man who always made me laugh each time we met..It was a privilege to have known Tim.”
Gerry Ashmore had known him since they were ten and spent some time playing together. Their fathers had been friends and business partners and he and Tim grew up around racing cars; “Tim was such a gentleman in every way and his racing history is well known but he did more than drive being Team Manager for BRM.”
Bob Bondurant said “he was such a kind man to me and my European racing days. I shall never forget his talent of being a driver and a good person” while Tony Brooks described him as “a unique, bluff, affable character who epitomised the camaraderie and well being of the. Fifties, a chat invariably involving a chuckle, his experience at the wheel and as a team manager providing invaluable experience which he utilised in his retirement.”
Tim humourously told how Formula 1 has entered everyone’s homes, telling how “I used to go into my local in Derby on a Monday evening and they’d say, ‘Where were you last weekend, Tim? Belgium, eh? How did you go on?’ Now I go into the same pub and they’re all bloody experts, telling me about KERS and Drag Reduction Systems, arguing about what happened on lap 37.”
