Although perhaps best known for his exploits in touring cars (narrowly missing out on 1969’s British Saloon Car Championship title) Chris Craft drove some 44 different makes and models in a wide variety of formulae across his 20 plus years on track. He started racing in his twenties with a Ford Anglia in national events and went on to become one of Britain’s leading sports and touring car racers. He won the 1973 European Sports Car Championship plus took a podium finish in 1976’s Le Mans 24 Hours, with his one GP outing coming in 1971 with a Brabham BT33 at Watkins Glen.
Born on 17th November 1939 in Porthleven, Cornwall, his father was a bank manager from Essex who went on to become a missionary in Africa. After leaving school Chris began working as a mail boy with the Ford Motor Company at Dagenham and soon moved to the competition department, with the rallying section. In his spare time he built up a Ford Anglia and contested his first race with it in 1961 at Mallory Park but unfortunately crashed and badly damaged it though built another one and began to be noticed on the national scene. He contested 1964’s British Saloon Car Championship, where his best results were fourth and seventh at Crystal Palace and Aintree but despite a strong drive at Brands Hatch he and Mike Young’s Superspeed Anglias were disqualied due to a technical infringement. He received an invitation from Team Lotus to share one of its Lotus Cortinas with David Hobbs in September’s Road America 500 and the pair finished fourteenth. In the following month he was also invited to drive an Anglia in October for Alan Mann Racing (alongside the team’s Lotus Cortinas fielded by Henry Taylor and John Whitmore) in the final round of the European Touring Car Championship in a bid to defeat the Fiat Abarths, but ran out of fuel on the last lap of the four hour race.
Chris joined the Superspeed team for 1965 as team mate to Mike Young but at the first race the two Anglias, which finished second and third to John Rhodes in the 1300 cc class, were disqualified for infringing regulations as to track width and inlet manifold design. Further finishes included third at Crystal Palace, sixth at the Silverstone International Trophy and fourth in the final round at Oulton Park’s Gold Cup while a highlight of the season came when sharing the DR Fabrications Jaguar E-type with Jackie Oliver in the 1000 Mile Brands Hatch and the pair finished third and won their class.
In 1966, he contested the Saloon Car Championship but also drove in some Formula 3 races. In his F3 outings in a Merlin Mk.9 he dns at Crystal Palace, dnq at Monza plus retired from two Brands Hatch races and was tenth with DR Racing Division’s Brabham BT18 at a Les Leston Trophy race at Brands Hatch. The saloon car regulations for 1966 allowed significant modifications to engines, transmissions, brakes and suspensions and it saw the Ford Falcon and Hillman Imp introduced to the series. He continued with the Superspeed Anglia and, battling a Galaxie, Falcon Sprint, Mustangs and Lotus Cortinas was sixth in the first two rounds, at the Archie Scott Brown Memorial Trophy at Snetterton (and recorded a new lap record) plus Goodwood. There were retirements at several rounds including Crystal Palace, when his car locked in first gear and later overheated and at Brands hatch where a locked differential caused him to spin. Then in September came victory at Oulton Park’s International Gold Cup meeting. Despite a mediocre start, by the second lap he had passed both his team mate Young and the leader and eventually the Anglias were running 1-2. By half distance, with Chris driving on top form, he opened up a 3.6 seconds lead and kept his position to the flag. There was a seventh place in the final round at Brands Hatch and the standings saw John Fitzpatrick win the championship in the 1300cc class, Mike Young finished second, to the Cooper S of John Rhodes, with Chris third.
At the start of 1967 he headed for Italy to drive a works BWA T324 in a number of early rounds of the F3 Championship and returning to the UK he contested two BSCC races though retired the Superspeed Anglia at Brands Hatch and Oulton Park. For 1968 he undertook a wide programme of touring and sports car races and also continued his single-seater aspirations with a Tecno TF68. He entered as many British F3 rounds as he could work in around his saloon car schedule but dnf and dns at two Oulton Park events and retired from the prestigious Monaco race due to an accident while second place in the Anerley Trophy at Crystal Palace behind Roy Pike and third at Silverstone in a classic slipstreaming race were his best results. Switching to the Broadspeed team alongside John Fitzpatrick, he raced their Ford Escort 1300GT but with his car not being ready until mid-season he enjoyed battling drivers of more potent machinery with his Anglia. In the first two rounds at Brands Hatch and Thruxton he was seventh and fifth (with a class win) then took a further class win with tenth at Silverstone. There were retirements at three rounds, then racing the Escort he was twelfth at Brands Hatch, tenth at Silverstone (second in class), plus had a class win with ninth at Oulton Park. He was seventh in the final round at Brands Hatch, though with the Escorts claiming a one-two-three finish, Chris beat Peer and Fitzpatrick to take class win. He also had a shared drive alongside Roger Clark at the Nurburgring 6 Hours and the pair were ninth, and took Division 2 victory, in the Broadspeed Escort. Sports cars saw him with Tech-Speed Racing’s Chevron B8 where he finished second overall and first in class in the Birthday Cup at Croft behind Frank Gardner’s Lola T70 Mk3 plus was fifth (and also won his class) at Oulton Park. In two Lola T70 outings he was third at Aspern and several days later won a Preis von Tirol event at Innsbruck plus raced Sid Taylor’s prototype F5000 Lola T140 at Phoenix Park where he broke the lap record and at the end of the year received the Grovewood Award in recognition of his achievements.
The following year saw him finish runner up with the Broadspeed Escort 1300 TC in Class B. Despite a poor start to the season, missing the first race and retiring at the second, his finishes included second at Crystal Palace and Mallory Park, third and fifth at Silverstone, fourth at Thruxton, sixth at Brands Hatch, seventh at Oulton Park and eighth at Snetterton, with all being class victories. He took second in class results with fifth and seventh at Croft and Brands Hatch and finished the season second to Alec Poole’s Mini-Cooper S. Outside the BSCC, there were shared BMW 2002 drives at the Spa 24 Hours and an ETCC round at Brands Hatch but he retired from both. In sports cars, Tech-Speed had switched from the Chevrons and were running a single Lola T70 Mk 3 and he was fourth in his first race in March at Silverstone and eighth the following month in a shared drive with Eric Liddell at the 6 Hour Brands Hatch. There were several retirements, though he won the Martini Trophy at Silverstone and the Wills Trophy at Croft. In July he began a partnership with Alain de Cadenet, taking a win with his Porsche 908 at the Vila Real 6 Hours alongside David Piper. There was more success to come with the Porsche, finishing second in a solo drive at Mantorp Park then in further drives with Piper they were second in the Barcelona 12 Hours and third the following week in the Paris 1000kms at Montlhery.
1970 began in Argentina, with two races in Buenos Aires though he and Richard Attwood did not finish with David Piper’s Lola T70 Mk 3B in the Buenos 1000kms and he was eleventh in a solo drive the following weekend in a 200 Mile race. Back in Europe he contested sports car races with Ecurie Evergreen though retired in the first races with the McLaren M8C at Thruxton (with Trevor Taylor), Silverstone, the Vila Real 500km (though took pole and fastest lap) and an Interseries event at Croft (again taking pole and fastest lap). Then in August came victory at the GP Swerige (from pole and recording the fastest lap) and tenth the following week at Wunstorf and in two following races with a Lola T210 he won at Brands Hatch and was twenty third at the Nurburgring 500km. Back in the M8C he retired from the Imola 500km though in his final two races he took second place finishes with it at Nurburgring and with the Lola at an Interseries race at Thruxton. He also continued with Broadspeed in saloons and was the main candidate for victory in his class. In the first races with the Escort he took class wins with second at Brands Hatch, fourth at Snetterton and was eleventh at Brands Hatch. In a shared drive with Jackie Stewart they were twenty sixth at the Tourist Trophy plus Chris took further class wins with third at Crystal Palace and fourth at Silverstone and Croft. He was second in class with fourth place at Silverstone and fifth at Oulton Park, where he started from near the back after a practice engine seizure and gearbox issues. In the two final rounds at Brands Hatch he was fifth (and second in class) though did not race in the final event and was fifth overall in the championship standings. Broadspeed had planned to enter F5000 but though he was on the entry list with a Leda LT20 he did not attend Brands Hatch, Silverstone and Anderstorp, did not start at Silverstone’s International Trophy and in a single outing with a McLaren M10A he was twelfth at Monza. This was not the end of Chris’s involvement with single-seaters though as he would make his F1 debut the following year.
1971 saw a busy schedule as he also entered his first Le Mans 24 Hours plus raced sports cars for Chevron and Ecurie Evergreen’s McLarens. His first race in early January saw ninth place with an M8C alongside Trevor Taylor at the Buenos Aires 1000km. His remaining Ecurie Evergreen drives came in an M8E and he was second in the Coppa di Shell Interseries race at Imola, twelfth in an Interseries round at Zolder and July saw a victory from pole at Norisring (though Pedro Rodriguez tragically lost his life during this race). After winning the first race at Oulton Park with Chevron’s B19, ahead of John Miles, he returned to the podium the following month with third at Silverstone. He was twelfth at Hockenheim and in September was second, to Vic Elford, at the Nurburgring 500km and twenty second at Zandvoort. His final Chevron drive came late in the year with Mike Hailwood at the Kyalami 9 Hours, teamed in a Team Gunston B19, though they did not finish. The year saw his Le Mans debut and there was an impressive fourth place finish sharing David Piper’s Ferrari 512M with David Weir, behind two Porsche 917Ks and NART’s Ferrari 512 LM. Keith Greene told how “Alain was friends with this millionaire American playboy called David Weir. He desperately wanted to race at Le Mans but he was a real high liver: parties, birds, the lot. I told Alain that there was no way I was going to Le Mans with a 220mph car with a playboy as one of its drivers. But Weir was very determined so I sent all of us, Chris and me included, to Dave Prowse’s gym (Prowse was the Green Cross Code Man and later Darth Vader) in the East End. To his credit, Weir was great, stopped all the partying and got very fit. As usual, we went to Le Mans with the car towed behind the Transit, with just Keith Baldwin, one other mechanic and a gopher. What we did have, though, was a Ferrari with an absolutely stonking engine. Ferrari gave us a dyno sheet that showed it gave 640bhp-a top figure at the time.” Chris stated that Weir “drove well-nice and steady, with smooth gearshifts and plenty of respect for the car. The 512 was fantastic” and said that, “including my wins and championships, my fondest memory is lap after lap dicing with Jo Siffert’s 917 in the night.” De Cadenet was also competing with Ecurie Belge’s 512 but was unable to take the Mulsanne Kink without lifting his foot off the throttle; “Chris said he was taking it flat but I just couldn’t do it. He suggested that I plonk my left foot over my right to stop myself lifting. All that happened is that both feet came up! Chris eventually suggested that I just follow him through the Kink. On my own the engine was pulling 8200rpm, but in his slipstream it was hitting 8400rpm. After that, going flat through they’re on my own didn’t seem such a big deal.” Despite the 512 destroying its clutch early on Sunday morning, Baldwin fixed it in under an hour, despite the rear of the the car being red-hot and said “we managed to separate the motor and gearbox, then hit the clutch with a club hammer to free it. The works Ferrari had the same problem; it took them 64 minutes to fix theirs.” The car also suffered a crack in the windscreen that became longer and longer each time it took the crest at White House though he stated “Chris was phenomenally brave but even he was getting worried by the prospect of it caving in at 220mph.” During the year De Cadenet decided to enter F1 and did a deal with Ron Tauranac for a Brabham BT33. In late August the team entered Oulton Park’s Gold Cup and in a mixed field of F1 and F5000 cars Chris qualified twelfth. Unfortunately, “it came with the wrong wheels on it-so we could never get it to feel right! I must admit that I wasn’t very happy with it. It was terribly light and I couldn’t get any feel in the steering. Later on we found out it should have had 20in wheels and it had 22in wheels, and the geometry was wrong.” He went on to finish fifth both in the second heat and also on aggregate and was third in the F1 class. They travelled the following month to race in the final two World Championship events of the season at Mosport and Watkins Glen. Money was so tight Chris and Keith Greene travelled via a Page & Moy tour to get to North America and in return, Chris would regale the company’s guests with tales of his career in racing. The BT33 travelled across in the hold of a ferry, sitting on an open trailer attached to the back of an old Transit van and though mechanic Keith Baldwin flew to the race, de Cadenet had originally intended putting him and another mechanic on the ferry with the car. He failed to qualify at Mosport but a soaking wet warm-up session saw Henri Pescarolo and Howden Ganley crash heavily enough to rule them both out of the race. Chris and fellow non-qualifier Skip Barber were invited to join the grid but after an overnight engine change in preparation for the following race, the Brabham didn’t run cleanly, and his place went to Pete Lovely. “We came round to start the race and the engine went all funny. It transpired that it had broken a cam, so we didn’t start. I can remember having a good few drinks afterwards and riding a scrambles bike back to the hotel. The boys said, ‘How did you get past where the road was washed away?’ I didn’t even notice!” He recalled how “Alain would do anything to save a bit of money. He drove the Transit miles and miles on this huge loop around New York so that he could avoid paying a $1 toll on a bridge.” At Watkins Glen, Chris and Keith Greene were late for practice after the Page & Moy bus got caught in traffic and De Cadenet recalled he was standing by the car “watching other drivers going out, and wondering where on earth Chris and Keith were. Jackie Stewart came up and said, ‘Where’s your man? You’d better go out in it yourself.’ I was considering doing exactly that when Chris came sprinting across the paddock and jumped in the car. I don’t even think he put his overalls on.” The Evergreen car was officially entered by Motor Racing Developments as a third works entry alongside Graham Hill and Tim Schenken, where he qualified twenty seventh in the twenty nine car field. “I finally got used to how bad it was at Watkins Glen and then you just adapt. I think it cut out and I spun it on the first lap. It stalled and we got it going. I came in for a new battery and went out again..I was behind Denny Hulme and I had Ronnie Peterson behind me. I stayed there for about 20 laps and thought I’d cracked this! And I did literally crack it because the chassis then cracked in half. It started tyre chunking and that broke the horseshoe on the back of the chassis. I came in and Tauranac gave me a huge telling off. I said to him, ‘I’m from sportscars-you don’t get out of them until they hit the ground!’ He said, ‘You don’t do that in F1.’ He and I didn’t get on that well at the time…”
During this time Chris became involved with Ford’s Supervan project, which first appeared in 1971 at Brands Hatch and he can be seen in a small part of the original Ford promotional video for Supervan 1, which can be found on YouTube. A GT40 chassis and its mid-engined 400bhp Ford V8 gave a standard pressed-steel Mark 1 Transit bodyshell a claimed top speed of around 150 mph. The vehicle had been built by Terry Drury Racing and featured Ford’s racing livery of white with horizontal triple blue stripes. The wheel arches were flared to almost cover the wider wheels, but they were still noticeably exposed and different to those of a standard Transit. Aerodynamics of the high-mounted bodyshell were crude though, and although the van was usually demonstrated with drag starts, body lift limited its top speed on a track.
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CHRIS CRAFT. Part 2
Early races in 1972 came in World Championship for Makes rounds with Jo Bonnier’s Lola T280 but he retired at the Daytona 6 hours and Brands Hatch 1000kms though was seventh at the Buenos Aires 1000kms (with Larousse and Wisell). He retired Canon Racing’s Chevron B21 at the Nurburgring 1000km with John Burton while Interseries races with David Piper’s Porsche 917 saw third place finishes at Keimola and Hockenheim and sixth at Nurburgring. There were ETCC outings with a Ford Mustang alongside Martin Brian at the 6 Hour Paul Ricard and with Kent Racing’s Ford Capri 2600 RS with Jean-Claude Franck though they retired in both events. He would contest the 24 Hours race 14 years in succession and, sharing a car for the first time in 1972 with De Cadenet, they were running fourth though finished twelfth after Chris crashed during a shower in the closing hours. There would be a number of Le Mans outings with the Gordon Murray-designed Duckhams car but de Cadenet stated that “although the car looked like a Duckhams can on wheels, they only coughed up £500. But the whole car only cost about £5000. Gordon used a fair few bits from the Brabham BT33.” The team arrived with just a set of wets, a set of slicks and a set of spark plugs and Chris described how “The car was fantastic and we were going really well-until I aquaplaned off. The worst moment of my career. I felt I’d let everyone down.” However, de Cadenet said “Chris was a fantastic driver. He never gave up and wasn’t frightened of anything or anybody, in or out of the car. Jackie Stewart, who drove a Broadspeed Escort himself several times and watched Chris drive them, thought he could easily have done F1.” However, Chris later stated “I never really liked single-seaters..I did Formula Three and F5000, but I preferred saloons and sports cars.”
There were further Lola drives the following year when Martin Birrane’s Crowne Racing, with Keith Greene as team manager, ran him in the European 2-litre Sports Car championship. He qualified fifth with the T292 at the opening race at Paul Ricard but did not finish though then won the following rounds at Misano and Imola. There were a number of retirements but he had second place finishes at the Trophee d’Auvergne at Clermont Ferrand and the 400km Barcelona from pole. In the eight races, only he and Guy Edwards won more than one race and Chris emerged as champion with 70 points ahead of John Burton, and Guy Edwards third. In 1974, the car was due to be fitted with a Tecno P82 flat-8 engine but the project ran late and Birrane sold the car. He also raced a Crowne Racing Porsche 911 Carrera alongside Martin Birrane at the 1000km Monza though they did not finish and on his return to Le Mans with de Cadenet in the Duckhams LM they retired after 81 laps. Unfortunately, despite the success enjoyed in sports cars, he did not fare as well in his single-seater racing. He missed a number of races and his first outing came at the sixth round in May, where he was eleventh with the Team VDS McLaren M22 at Oulton Park. His remaining races came with the team’s Chevron B24 and finishes included seventh at Mallory Park and Brands Hatch, eighth, ninth and tenth at Oulton Park, Brands Hatch and Snetterton, twelfth at Mondello Park and his best result was fifth at Zandvoort. Chris finished seventeenth in the final standings whilst his team mate Teddy Pilette won the Championship.
He switched to Abarth for 1974’s 2-litre season but in the seven race series, which was dominated by the Alpines, he retired in two rounds and his only finishes were twelfth at Misano and fourth at Enna Pergusa but he left the team before the end of the season. He contested F5000 with Crowne Racing’s Chevron B24, finishing ninth in the standings, with results along the way including fifth and seventh at Brands Hatch, seventh and eighth at Oulton Park and Mallory Park, twelfth at Brands Hatch, fourteenth at Monza and his best results were two third place podiums at Zolder and Mondello Park plus fourth Zandvoort and Thruxton. After two Le Mans drives in the Duckhams car, he and Alain de Cadenet returned to la Sarthe though Chris and co-driver John Nicholson retired after an accident after 168 laps.
Le Mans in 1975 saw fourteenth (and fastest lap) with de Cadenet’s Lola T380 though he did not qualify in one outing with a Cheetah Automobiles G501 at the Dijon 800kms. In saloon cars with Wisharts Garage’s Capri he was fifth at Oulton Park, seventh at Brands Hatch and eleventh at Thruxton. Then, his fifth 24 Hour attempt in 1976 resulted in a podium when, after a hard charge in the De Cadenet Lola T380, they came home third behind the Porsche 936 of Ickx/Lennep and Lafosse/Migaults’s Mirage M8. He was fourteenth with a Triumph Dolomite Sprint in the Tourist Trophy at Silverstone and competed in saloon cars with a Tricentrol Ford Capri. The series started well with second in the first races at Brands Hatch then victory at Silverstone but he was disqualified after the race as his car had run without an air filter. He was third at Thruxton (with a Hammonds Sauce car) after a doorhandle to doorhandle battle with Gordon Spice’s Capri on the last lap. Back in a Tricentrol car, on a return to Thruxton he was third and took fourth place results at Brands Hatch and Snetterton. At Mallory Park, just 1.8s covered the fastest ten cars on the grid and Chris was in the mix against Capris, Dolomite Sprints, an Opel Commodore, a Vauxhall Magnum and a Mazda RX-3. Eventually, on the eleventh lap he took second place and tried everything to wrestle the lead from Walkinshaw, with Spice in turn harrying him, but they crossed the line in this order.
There was a return to the BSCC the following year, this time with a Hammonds Sauce backed Capri and while Spice won the class with four victories, Chris finished runner up with three wins. Silverstone’s opening round saw a spirited battle with Spice’s Capri for most of the race, and he seemed to be gaining the upper hand, but with only ten miles to go, his car jammed in gear and he had to retire. At Brands Hatch his clutch exploded on the warming-up lap and he was fourth and sixth at Silverstone and Thruxton. Although he was third at Oulton Park, he had been leading though had to battle against an ignition switch which kept causing the car to cut out but still recorded a new class record. There was a victory at Thruxton where, from the moment he took the lead on the first lap he controlled the race from the front while further rounds saw second at Silverstone and Donington and third at Thruxton. He started second to Tony Dron at the final race at Brands Hatch but Dron had a poor start and dropped at one stage to fourth in the hectic opening laps. Chris later lost the lead to Spice, who went to cross the line two seconds ahead of Chris. In shared drives with the Capri he was nineteenth at the Silverstone 6 hours (with de Cadenet) and twenty third at the Nurburgring 1000kms with Spice though retired from the Tourist Trophy alongside Pete Lovett and Brian Muir. He and de Cadenet were on the podium again with a Lola at Le Mans, finishing fifth overall and third in class, plus he was fourth in a solo Lola T296 drive at the Estoril 2.5 Hours.
Driving Gordon Spice’s Autocar backed Capris in 1978, the year saw some close battles with his team mate. At Oulton Park he had an engine blow in practice and started eighth but after working his way through the field, with five laps remaining he had taken fourth place and was third at the flag. Spice made the best start at Silverstone though after three laps team mate Chris managed to sneak inside Brodie and he was soon tailing him. Towards the end he pressured him hard, but there was no way past and he came home second. Then came a victory at Donington, where, despite Dron making a superb start from the second row, he edged his way to the front and he held this lead at the end of the opening lap from Dron, Spice and Walkinshaw. The two Capris began to pull away from the rest and began a race long duel though Chris was first to the flag. There were fourth place results at Mallory Park and Donington plus fourth and fifth at Brands Hatch. At Thruxton, Spice took an immediate lead from Rouse, Graham and Chris, who had qualified second fastest. At the halfway stage it seemed nobody would threaten him but his team mate had passed Rouse and Graham and was gaining. By three quarters distance he was only a few yards behind and, approaching the chicane for the final time dived for the inside line. Chris briefly took the lead though slid wide and Spice went back in front, then almost overdid himself coming onto the start/finish straight and took the flag second, less than a length from Chris. During the year shared drives saw retirements with the Capri from an ETCC round at Brands Hatch (with Spice) and the Spa 24 Hours (with Alain Corbisier) while Le Mans with de Cadenet’s Lola LM saw a fifteenth place finish.
Over the next few years, he concentrated on endurance racing, principally with Capris and in 1979 finished fourth in the Spa 24 Hours with Jeff Allam and fifth in the Tourist Trophy with Spice and Pete Clark. He played a major role in the development of the Dome Zero RL sports-prototype, which first raced at 1979’s Silverstone 6 Hours, and though it was third-fastest in practice, tyre problems meant he and Spice finished twelfth. The 16 foot 4inch long Zero RL (Racing Le Mans) was notable for its extremely narrow front track, giving a very small frontal aspect and drag co-efficient. The bubble canopy was designed to maximise aerodynamic effect but in practice the drivers tended to be roasted due to the large amount of glass surrounding them. Also, the aerodynamic ‘slot’ proved large enough to set up uncomfortable turbulence in the cabin, so the canopy was chopped. It said that the steering also proved to be rather vague at high speeds, which obviously unsettled the drivers while travelling down the Mulsanne Straight. Keith Greene was team manager and the driver line-up included Chris and Gordon Spice plus Tony Trimmer and Bob Evans in the second car. The cars, one running with 450hp while the other had 415hp, qualified fifteenth and eighteenth but the race would prove disappointing. After only seven minutes Chris stopped at Arnage with the coil having fallen off and a fire started in the engine bay, which required a pit-stop for repairs. Following this the car was plagued with fuel-feed problems which saw him having to do roadside repairs at Mulsanne but the car was eventually retired at seven pm. After a good start, the Trimmer/Evans car was in fifth place at the end of the first hour but the engine suffered fuel injection and ignition problems. This led to it pitting four times in one hour, before finally retiring after three hours eight minutes with a blown head-gasket. The Zero RL returned to Le Mans with new versions of the car in 1980 and 1981, with him and Bob Evans as the drivers but the RL-80 and RL-81 retired from both races.
In 1980 he was seventh at the Silverstone 6 Hours with an EMKA Productions Ferrari 512 BB alongside Steve O’Rourke and Vic Norman and the following year he and Derek Bell took third place with an EMKA BMW M1 (an ex-Niki Lauda BMW M1) at the Brands Hatch 1000kms. Racing Dome’s RC-82 in 1982 he, Raul Boesel and Eliseo Salazar retired at the Silverstone 6 Hours and he and Salazar did not finish at Le Mans, retiring on lap eighty five. In the following year his 24 Hours race ended in retirement after seventy five laps with the RC82 (alongside Salazar and Nick Mason) though racing a Lola T298 in a Brands Hatch Thundersports race he and Mason finished seventh.
His final race came at Le Mans in 1984 when he shared Charles Ivy Racing’s Porsche 956 with de Cadenet and Allen Grice, though it ended in retirement out on the circuit on Sunday morning due to engine failure, with Chris at the wheel. In 1984, Ford’s Supervan 2 was constructed with its bodyshell a fibreglass replica of the Mark 2 Transit, although slightly lowered and fitted with a front airdam, large side air inlets and a high-mounted rear spoiler. The chassis was a Ford C100 Group C car, powered by a Cosworth DFL engine and built by Auto Racing Technology. Supervan 2’s debut was at Donington Park for the first British truck racing GP while it was timed at 174 mph during tests at Silverstone. Chris also drove Supervan 2 during the year at Brands Hatch.
He then decided to end his professional racing career. He had been active in property development during his racing career and after retiring also stayed involved in motorsport and the automotive industry. He started the Light Car Company with F1 designer Gordon Murray to create the Rocket, an ultra-lightweight car that combined motorcycle technology and proven single-seater design, with a unique tandem seat space framed chassis. The pair decided to embark on the Rocket project in the summer of 1989 and it was said that the decision was taken at Murray’s chateau in France one night after consumption of a considerable amount of alcohol and the first designs were sketched out at the kitchen table at night. Chris stated “for years I’d wanted to do a road car with him but he was always too busy. We eventually-finally-did the Rocket… Gordon wanted to do a single-seater but I’m no fan of those so we compromised on the tandem layout.” Coming in at under 400kg it was said that when it first launched it was the fastest accelerating production car in the world, with its power-to-weight ratio far exceeding even the most powerful supercars of the time. A launch event was held at London’s Design Museum in June 1991, which led to huge interest in the car, not least from enthusiasts like George Harrison and Rowan Atkinson. Promotional photographs included the company’s facility at Stanford in the Vale, Oxfordshire, plus one of Nigel Mansell driving one of the cars with Michael Aspel on the British TV series, ‘This Is Your Life’. The test chassis was driven hard by journalists and received praise, with Jeremy Clarkson stating “Sell your Elan, sell your bottom, peddle drugs, become a pimp, hold up an airliner but, for God’s sake, get yourself a Rocket!”. Unfortunately for the company, slow small-scale production over the years was not helped by a recession which hit in mid-1993. With only around 18 cars delivered and the order book drying up by that point, the prospects of the business became rather shaky. Production was moved to Harlow in Essex and later to Stanford in West Oxfordshire, with a mere handful of cars built in the mid-1990s. Despite an unsuccessful attempt to create a one-make Rocket race series in 1995/96, further investment was found to keep the production of the car going until 1998. By the early 2000s, changes in vehicle legislation meant that it was increasingly difficult to produce the cars to original specification. The last batch of Rockets (using a number of original chassis which had lain unused since the late 1990s) were produced in Chigwell between 2006-2011, with a number of necessary modifications and substitutions to bring the componentry into the modern age. After producing around 40 Rockets, red tape and more stringent SVA regulations eventually saw the end and it slipped quietly into motoring history.
A regular visitor to historic racing meetings, Chris was also involved with restoring the old Stow Maries aerodrome in Maldon, Essex. He passed away on the 20th February 2021, after a period of ill health and sadly, only 17 days later, his lifelong friend Keith Greene also passed away.
