Here’s another from the archive, this time a Malcolm Cracknell profile of a (then) young man that would feature heavily on the pages of DSC over the following decade – This piece previews Piers’ ELMS programme with PK Sport but there were races at Sebring, Petit Le Mans and Le Mans too plus plenty of action in the British GT Championship wit h race winning form aboard Phil Hindley’s Tech9 Cup class Porsche before Piers hung up his helmet and moved his winning ways over to team management with Trackspeed, Scuderia Vittoria and others.
We reprint this profile though in the full and certain knowledge that Piers will flinch with embarrassment when he sees it, and that his countless racing buddies will not be backwards in coming forwards in the coming days on Facebook!
More seriously though there are plenty of clues here to just why the ‘Winner from Pinner’ is the all-round good guy that his mates know. Reposted with a hug Piers!
The name Jamie Masarati has been a familiar one in domestic UK racing for longer than most people can remember, but ‘Dad’ has (almost) accepted that his son Piers is reason enough for him to go to the circuits now. Piers’ career has reached the point where before long, he could be at least as well known as that famous surname of his.
Jamie explains the origin of the name and how the family came to live in the UK.
“It’s a different spelling – a instead of e – from the car manufacturer, but we think that could have been a mistake by the immigration people when my great grandfather Guido came to England after the first world war. Our background is Sicilian, but Guido lived in Bromley and worked in various London hotels, and we’ve never been back to Sicily to explore our roots. Too busy! We don’t think he left Sicily because of the Mafia, but we’re a bit reluctant to go back and check. Jamie was born in Edgware Hospital in north London, and my home has always been in the Pinner area of London.
“We called him Piers after Piers Courage, and he’s been following me round race tracks for as long as he can remember. Now it looks as though it’s my turn.”
An unusual surname then Piers, does that work for you or against you?
“I don’t think it has hindered me. At least it sticks in people’s minds. Masarati driving a Porsche, I don’t think it’s done me any harm.”
Why aren’t you a single seater driver? There are all these F3 guys thrashing round Silverstone today all trying to become the next Button or Montoya. No desire to join them?
“No, none at all. I’m a GT driver, and I suppose that’s all down to Dad. He started the whole thing with Porsches, but his career got going before he drove a Porsche – in drag racing. He was one of the founders of the NSRA hot rod association and did a lot of drag racing, but 14 years ago he acquired his first Porsche and in a roundabout way, here we are today.”
‘Today’ involved Jamie watching the PowerTour action at Silverstone, but that’s through choice, he has other targets for 2001, and the links with the past and back to the present day are unusual.
“Dad used to go club racing, often against the likes of Mike Pickup and Mike Jordan. We’ve put together the plan for the ELMS with Mike Pickup’s team, and of course Mike Jordan is racing here today in the Lister.”
Jordan won the feature race at Silverstone, the opening round of the Privilege GT Championship. But Jamie has helped put together more than a domestic programme for his son for this year.
“It’s time for me to step back, and give Piers a guiding hand. I’m the biggest critic of my own family. I’m the one who told my wife off for not going fast enough – when she’d just won! If you’re not good enough, go club racing, it’s as simple as that. But I know this one has got the ability. I’ve seen him race by race over the last few years, I’ve seen him in Porsche 924s and Porsche 911 GT3Rs.
“This is hard work for me too, and to put it bluntly, I wouldn’t go flogging a dead horse. We can’t do it if he can’t do it. But although it’s obviously the easiest thing in the world for a father to sing the praises of his son, I know that this one is fantastic. I know he can do it in the ELMS, anywhere.
“He’s tested the PK Sport GT3R twice. The first time was in the wet at Donington, and after only driving one of these cars once before, he went out, got comfortable, then started setting times straight away. At the second test, in the dry, he was right with it straight away, and his times tumbled very quickly. He was right with it, right on GT3R pace. If he had any doubts – because he’s not arrogant in any way – he killed them there and then.”
Something happened last autumn to change your outlook on life and racing, didn’t it, Piers?
“Yes, my best friend Tom Marsh was killed in a road accident last October. He was a special guy, someone that you want to have as your best friend forever. But without Tom, I thought long and hard about my future. I knew that I had to give racing my best shot – I’ve got to give it everything and see where it takes me. I’d love that to be Le Mans and racing at that level, so the chance to drive in the ELMS this week is everything that I want to do.
“I’ve always raced Porsches, and it’s natural for me to carry on this way for now. I don’t necessarily always want to be in a Porsche, but the Porsche connection through Dad – it’s what I’ve been brought up to do. I am a GT driver. I’d like to try a single seater to see what it’s like, but the cars don’t really appeal. I’ve got this passion for sports cars. F1 bores the hell out of me.”
So how did an ELMS programme come together? You raced in the Privilege series last year, why not carry on in that?
“I raced with Mike’s team last year, and I wanted to stay with him. I know what he can do for his drivers. Even as recently as the Media Day in February, it looked as though we would run in Britain again, but the suggestion came up that we should do the ELMS. That would mean not having to find the budget to run 13 races. Five major races is more manageable. Robin Liddell is in the same position – we both need to establish ourselves, and the ELMS is the place to do that.
Robin and I could win the Privilege series, we know that. But Mike Pickup wanted to move into Europe and do Le Mans, Mike Youles set up the connection with Ricardo – really, everything has started to fall into place for all of us. I felt I’d done enough in the Privilege last year to prove that I can drive Porsches. I never had a chance to win races, but that was because of the limitations of the car. When you’re racing on a tight budget, you just drive as hard as you can with what you’ve got.”
What he and his father had was a car that has been racing in the BRDC series since the outset in 1994.
“Dad bought the ‘other half’ of his car (from Gavin Mortimer) and Mike Pickup rebuilt it to as close to GT2 spec. as we could afford. I was happy in one way because I was taking to the track in a proper Porsche, but I have to say it was a struggle because we weren’t winning. I only had the team’s other GT2 to measure myself against, and I knew how much quicker that car was than our old 911.
“The best race I had was at Snetterton, but with the car we had, it wasn’t racing against a GT2 – it was with Stephen Watson in the Cirtek GT3R. That all got quite heated, because he was almost a lap ahead of me – but he wasn’t any quicker. We had a problem with the diff., so he eventually got by me on traction, but I was better under brakes – it was very entertaining. Thruxton for the first race was fun too. I’d only done 10 laps in testing (in the dry) and the track was wet, so I was straight into wet racing.
“I had a good race partnering Adam (Simmons) at Donington (above left), but that was my only race last year in a GT3R. It was wet again, but I was more than happy to be as quick as Mike Jordan and faster than Geoff Lister. I was really up for that, although testing hadn’t gone well because the rear dampers weren’t working properly. I was still quick within 15 laps or so.
“Mike (Pickup) knows what I can do (we drove together in the final race last October, left), and I was recommended by him for the ‘young driver’ Porsche drive for 2001, and although I was on the short list and went for an interview, I wasn’t selected…..
“It’s no good looking back though, for me or Mike Pickup. We’re going our route in the ELMS. I quit my full time job late last year, and now I instruct at Brands Hatch and Silverstone. I’m working with a sports psychologist (Helen Lindsay-Nash) and we’ve got a publicist (Olivia Stefanino) approaching sponsors. The ELMS is going to be big, so that helps when you’re approaching potential backers.”
All a long way from Piers’ first efforts on the track.
“Dad moved into GTs in ’93, and we decided that once I’d passed my test in ’94, I’d do a track day and see how I got on. I was hooked of course. I got my racing licence in ’95 and began racing here at Silverstone, in the Pirelli Porsche Championship. I was using Mum’s converted road car! It was the worst car to be racing in, but at least I was learning the circuits. It was also great value, which was important.
“I moved up to a 924S the following year, and went from the back of the grid to the front. I had a couple of poles, some fastest laps and a couple of third places. This was more like it. I was fifth in the Championship, but I only did eight or nine races.”
Piers’ results in his next three seasons of racing showed a logical progression year after year: better cars and more outings saw him moving up the table. He was fourth in ’97 and third in ’98. He was a race winner by now, but he needed that chance at a full season.
“Dad’s racing took priority for a while, but for ’99, we put together a full programme in the Pirelli Porsche Cup, with a 968 Club Sport. Mike Pickup prepared the car for me for the first time, and he helped out enormously. He did us a very good deal because he felt I could win the Championship. Well, I had to win it, didn’t I?
“It was a great season of racing. Spa was one of the best races I’ve ever had, nose to tail with Robert Babikan, the pair of us 45 seconds clear of the rest. He never got past me though, although he did come close at the Bus Stop. He had the quicker car and won more races, but I had ten podiums. It all came down to using our Joker (when you played it, you scored double points). I hadn’t used mine all year, and there were only two races left. I thought the plan was to use it at the last race, but Dad and Mike had already decided to use it in the penultimate race at Oulton Park – they just didn’t tell me they had.
“They were obviously stressed about something all day, but I thought it was because the Championship was so close. It rained five minutes before the start, and oddly, I had never driven the 968 in the wet! That made them even more jittery on the pit wall. I was on scrubbed wets, Babikan was on new ones – and I kept him behind all the way. I covered the inside line at Lodge on the last lap, and won. When I got to the podium, they were all laughing like madmen. Good tactics I reckon, as all I had to do was finish second and get fastest lap or pole at the last race. I got the pole, followed Mike Salmon round all the way, and I was the Champion!
“That was a great end to my Porsche Cup career and time to move on. The rest you know.
“Dad’s given up a lot to help me, as have the rest of the family. I’m going to make it work for everyone now. Roll on Donington this weekend.
MCC
