Motorsport: Racing legend shares tales of the track

Formula One maestro Sir Jackie Stewart worked to improve track safety. Photo / Dean Purcell

Arguably one of the best motor racing drivers to grace a track, and a three-time world champion, was in town this week.

Such was his reputation that GQ Sport magazine last year claimed Sir Jackie Stewart to be the "the greatest racing driver who ever lived".

His driving style has often been described as smooth, precise, persistent, consistent and deceptively quick.

Sir Jackie was in New Zealand to launch his book, Collage, Jackie Stewart's Grand Prix Album, put together by his wife, Lady Helen.

"It's more of a scrapbook of all the stuff Helen collected over the years," said Sir Jackie. "I never cared about all the cuttings, clippings, tickets, passes but Helen did.

"There's Fangio's autograph along with Bruce McLaren's and Denny Hulme's. Graham Hill and Jim Clark are in there as well. It's a collection of all the stuff that went on at a Grand Prix."

The drivers in Sir Jackie's time behind the wheel had an aura, where they were part-comic book heroes overcoming the near impossible and the sort of men a mother would never want her daughter to marry.

They were lucky just to survive a season, let alone a career in motor racing.

In an accident in 1966 during the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, Sir Jackie became trapped in his upside-down car with fuel dripping all over him. A small spark could have turned man and machine into a fireball.

The inability to get out of the car and lack of tools for the marshals to get him out prompted Sir Jackie to campaign for better safety options and track improvements.

He has been hugely instrumental in getting track safety standards to where they are today and Bruce McLaren's death may have been the catalyst.

"From 1968 to 1973, the statistics told me each time I raced I had a one out of three chance of living and a two out of three chance of dying," said Sir Jackie. "It was ridiculous how many funerals and memorial services we were attending. I have no idea how a modern driver would react to those circumstances. Back then, safety was looked upon as negative and nobody wanted to change anything because it cost money to change things.

"We closed the Nurburgring at a GPDA meeting the day of Bruce McLaren's memorial service. As president I said we shouldn't race at the Nurburgring because it's too dangerous. The decision was on a knife edge until Jack Brabham spoke up agreeing with me and in the end we didn't race. That was the start of getting the sport and track owners to look at all manner of safety issues."

Since his retirement in 1973 from Formula One, Sir Jackie has been at times a race commentator, F1 team owner, a consultant for Ford and the Royal Bank of Scotland, guest speaker and part of film documentaries.

One film in particular still makes him laugh. He was asked, with Kiwi author and columnist Eoin Young, to make a film. "Michael Schumacher isn't the only one to come back and drive Formula One cars. Five years after I retired I went back and did a film where I drove all the F1 cars, except the Ferrari. Everyone let me drive their cars except the old man [Enzo Ferarri] at Ferarri.

"He went on to tell me Enzo said, 'If the Ferrari wasn't good enough for him to drive in 1965 when he was a racing driver it's clearly not now' and that was the end of it."

JACKIE STEWART

Years racing: 1965-1973
Teams: BRM, Tyrrell
Races: 100
Championships: 3 (1969, 1971, 1973)
Wins: 27
Podiums: 43