Christmas is a time when we give and receive, not just the gifts, but the thoughts and prayers of our loved ones and friends.
Sometimes in motorsport there are those characters that you just click with. One of the first in my experience was Neil Cunningham, immediately open and friendly, immediately interesting, and interested in what we were trying to do with this new fangled thing called the internet – Typically Neil ‘got it’ and typically too he took time to chat every single time we met.
He took time too to chat to my super keen son, then a young teenager, and he always did thereafter, including arranging for a number of the British GT pack to carry birthday messages for his 16th. There was the surfing too – something he shared a passion for with fellow DSCer Paul Slinger, another paddock pal.
Since then there have been racing trials and tribulations in GT cars, Prototypes (with Embassy Racing) and latterly in historic GTs and Formula Fords, plus film work, stunt driving on the Bond film Quantum of Solace amongst a CV that any actor would be proud of.
Then earlier this year there was the dreadful news of Neil’s illness – He attacked the issue with typical gusto and good humour but its been a tough road. – So here, on the day we remember our friends, is a reminder from the archives in 2001 of who Neil Cunningham still is, despite the illness. The man, the character, and yes the racer – Merry Christmas Neil, and Merry Christmas too to all our readers.
GG
“I left school to become a pro surfer. I went to Hawaii and the waves were 30 feet high, so I became a racing driver.”
“I bought a Holden to go racing, but didn’t think what else I might need – to get it to the track, for example. I had to drive it to the circuit at 5am – and I’ve been broke ever since.”
So there you have it, another Aussie/Kiwi (he’s both) to make his mark at home, then find his way to the UK. We haven’t been able to get rid of him since!
“Alan Gow used to be my speech therapist. Now, if you knew about my background at home, you wouldn’t believe it.”
I was born in New Zealand, in South Auckland, a place called Papakura. The only other (well known) person to come out of there is Lisa Thackwell, Mike Thackwell’s sister. I’m not from a motor racing background: my family are all into horse racing. My cousin, Blyth Tate, is a World Champion Three Day Eventer. He’s into horses, I’m into horse power.
“I lived in Papakura until I was seven, then my parents split up and I moved with my mother to Australia. That’s really my home country – we lived on the Gold Coast.”
So how did the racing start?
“I badly wanted to be a racing driver – once I found out how high those waves are. I started in club racing and it just went from there. I’d done some Karting in New Zealand, then some Moto-Cross, but by the time I was 17 or 18, it was time for car racing.
“My first race? Well, I beat four Highway Patrol cars on a Friday night in my mum’s Celica. I was out in front of this big paddock in front of the circuit, doing big power slides with all my mates. Local residents were complaining about the lights flashing on the houses, and when the patrol cars came from two different directions, I knew the way to get out. We weren’t joy-riding, we were just playing around – with our cars. There was a big chase into town, but they didn’t catch me ’til two days later. The Police Sergeant found that I didn’t have a licence, but through a roundabout route I met Charlie O’Brien, and he talked me into buying one of his old race cars. That was in ’79.”
“That was the Holden Torana that I didn’t have a trailer for. But to explain where I got the money from…..I left school at 13 and got involved in air brush work, making T-shirts and so on. I made enough to buy an apartment on the Gold Coast. I sold that after two years to buy the Holden.”
“As well as no trailer, I had no tow car and no tool box – I’d sold everything to buy the racing car. Having driven it to the circuit, I qualified it with the spare tyre in the boot. That’s how naive I was.
“I won that first race. I did have a horsepower advantage though. But the engine blew up in the second race and and I’ve been broke ever since.
“But my mum realised I had some talent and she started helping me. I found some backing from local companies: and then my mum mortgaged her place to help me get a Holden Commodore to join the Touring Car scene in Australia.”
So did you compete against all the famous Australians of that period?
“Oh yes, I ran against Peter Brock, Dickie Johnson, those sort of guys. But we weren’t engineers. I actually qualified alongside Dickie Johnson at Lakeside one year. I got the qualifying lap absolutely perfect. I even got the jump on him at the start, I gave myself a hell of a fright. I was leading. But I missed second gear and got passed by about six cars. I was only 18.
“We didn’t have the money to keep on doing that though. I did some Formula Ford, and I ran strongly there. I got picked to drive in Jack Brabham’s FF2000 team, paired with Gary Brabham. We had Neil Trundle managing the operation. In the UK.”
“The team was called Neil Trundle Racing, and Jack Brabham used his services to operate the two cars. That was in ’83. And I got blown away in the wet. I was up against Mauricio Gugelmin, Maurizio Sandro Sala, people like that. I’d virtually only done dry races in Australia. I came here, and we did ten consecutive races in the wet.
“It was time to get serious. I did a lot of work on getting the lines right, getting my technique right in the rain. So now, I’m always thought of as quick in the wet. But as a racing driver, you’ve got to be quick in the dry and the wet.
Notice the wet hair in the second sequence of photos. Neil had just popped out for a drivers’ briefing – and it was raining.
“But the team had financial problems, I went back to Australia, then I came back here in ’84 and did European FF2000. It was big in those days. I was running second in the championship, ran out of money and finished fifth.
“I then had two years out of racing: I just couldn’t get a drive. I was always there, hanging about, waiting for a chance. I had a good season back in Formula Ford with Andy Dawson, and that led to several Formula Ford Festivals. I led most of the Festivals that I’ve done, finished in the top five regularly. In ’92 I should have won it, but the gear lever broke when I was chasing Jan Magnussen….we finished 1-2, but that’s the way it’s always been. Run out of money, something breaks, a puncture…..”
What have you done since ’92?
” ’93 was more FFord with the Duckhams van Diemen team, then in ’95 I had a crack at German Touring Cars with the DHL BMW. DHL had a Vauxhall Lotus team in ’94 and they came over for the GP support race. I drove through from last on the grid to 14th, then in ’95 they went into German Touring Cars, and that’s how I got the drive at Donington in the M3. I finished 15th in that race, and also did a bit of Eurocar racing.”
Here comes the NASCAR Neil Cunningham……
“I’ve always loved NASCAR. I’m a V8 freak, I just love big American machines. V6 Eurocars led to V8 Eurocars, and then on to the ARCA series, at Charlotte Motor Speedway, driving a car for Bobby Gerhart. I qualified 34th, finished 22nd. That’s a real eye opener. It’s physically demanding, the heat, the traffic – you’re averaging 175 mph. I got a real bug out off that. The first race I’ve ever done where I’ve finished up completely shagged”
” I returned two months later for the May 600 race and qualified 25th out of 78 cars – straight away. 10 laps practice, that’s all I had. And it was one flying lap to set your time. Really pleased with that. I ran as high as twelfth, looking good for a top six, but an electrical failure dropped us down to 22nd. A real experience.
[box size=”large” border=”full”]”The First Race I’ve Ever Done Where I’ve Finished Up Completely Shagged”[/box]
“I did Daytona too, but during the whole week there, the fastest time I set was on my fourth lap – 184 mph, stuck with the restrictor plates. But seeing Daytona going past at 200 mph was fun. But it was simply flat out, no throttle control like Charlotte.”
Was that the direction you wanted your career to go then? NASCAR?
“I’d have loved to have been a NASCAR driver. But I came back to the UK to win the Mantis Challenge with Brookspeed, then came the drive with HKM and the Viper. We led nine out of ten races last year, but then silly things kept on putting us out. This year is different though.
“I met Kilian (Konig) when I was driving with Brookspeed, and then he and Curtis (Hayles) decided to go their own way. Elisabeth Rose asked me to drive one race, and from there it developed into the whole year. Without Liz’s support, my career would have been in a lot of trouble again. I have a lot to be thankful to her for.”
And Karen too, apparently.
“When I came over here, no one told me about what you needed – money, an education and so on. I just decided to be a racing driver. That’s how I live my life – the same way as I go racing. As fast as I can through one corner, then head for the next one and do the same. I had passport problems, then I met Karen, so I didn’t have a passport problem any more. We’ve got a little girl, who I see all the time. I used to say that I only got married as I didn’t have a place to stay, but that was a joke – which has become folklore. And although we’re not married any more, it was through Karen that I got involved with Vipers. She knew Peter Matthews and Alan Docking and they had a Viper.
“Racing is my life. I don’t worry about the rest of it. I’ve stayed in some unusual places, wearing my overalls to keep warm at night. I went to see a guy called Mike Mason about a tyre deal, he asked me to stay the night…..and I finally left his home two and a half years later.
“Once or twice I’ve nearly got to the point of going back to Australia, but then I’ve met someone, a new deal has come about and I’m off racing again. Anyway, the waves are too dangerous.”
Your thoughts on the ALMS?
“Don Panoz is a real character, a real achiever. You can see it the way he is at the tracks.”
Heroes, Neil?
“Yeah, I’ve got a few. Jim Richards is one. I met him when I was five years old, a great all rounder. Mario is another one. He’s done everything. I like drivers with spirit. I always wanted to meet Bruce McLaren. Alan Jones was our hero from the past back home. Steve Soper; he’s a superbly versatile driver.
“David was the quiet one of the Brabhams. He never looked like being a racing driver – until he sat in a Kart. It all comes so naturally to him. Geoff had to work at it, Gary was very raw. But David is a natural. Do you know, Gary is in the chocolate business back home. He makes chocolates in the shape of cars, with an image of the car somehow etched onto the chocolate. He’s doing very well. He’s got a contract for the Olympics.”
The modelling, what was all that about?
“Well, that was through meeting Alex Higgins’ niece. She knew Louis Copeland, they seemed to think I’d make a good model…but I’d rather be racing.
“You know, when I was walking back from the drivers’ briefing, I remembered my first race. My mum got me a job driving a van, taking kitchen units to building sites. A BMW pulled up next to me at the lights, we ended up racing, I got to the site first – and out stepped the MD of the kitchen company. I got the sack, and I didn’t get paid because the kitchen units were all damaged. That was the start of it all, really. And I haven’t finished yet.”
MCC
