Island Life Magazine Ltd February/March 2011 | Page 76

motoring Island Life - February/March 2011 Roy at the Colnabrock Factory with Alain Prost’s Car The Emerson Fittipaldi 1974 Car running at Goodwood Festival 2009 Roy and World Champion Mika Hakkinen at Barcelona in 1998 and it was one of those real magical moments after a season full of tension.” That success was followed by wild celebration parties, and it came as a massive blow to motor racing as a whole when Hunt died in 1993, aged just 45. However, much more success was to follow for McLaren and Roy with the Nikki Lauder comeback, and the amiable but not-quite-champion John Watson. Roy has a fond memory of how Jody Scheckter, an F1 driver had to be picked up at the airport when he flew in - because he was not old enough to drive a hire car! Roy left McLaren in 1984 to move back to the Island, but six years after a variety of jobs here, he was invited back into the stable, based sometimes at home, but also working with the test cars at Woking. When he returned to McLaren in 1991 he expected to be there only a few years, but after several more positions within the company he is now looking forward to yet another F1 season. As one of the drivers of the massive race trucks, and will be at all the summer’s European races. He was recently in Berlin for the launch of the new McLaren car, to be driven again this season by former world champions Button and Hamilton. Now preparations have begun in earnest to see if the pair can wrestle the drivers’ and constructors’ title back from their main rivals. “They are a very good mix,” said Roy. “Jensen is the thinker and Lewis the racer.” 76 This season’s F1 campaign is going to be tough to predict, says Roy, with the withdrawal of Bridgestone tyres and the return of Pirelli for the first time in many years on all cars. But of course, Ferrari and Pirelli are both Italian companies, he points out with a smile! Roy has travelled the world and picks Watkons Glen in the US, the old track through woodland and forests in Austria, and Paul Ricard near Marseille as being among his favourite venues. There was also the Las Vegas Grand Prix, set up in the Caesars Palace Casino car park – not the prettiest of circuits. Two races stand out – the James Hunt title-clincher in ‘76, and Lauda and Watson finishing in the top two places at Long Beach, California in the early 1990s, having started 22nd and 23rd on the grid. It was Roy’s first one-two finish with McLaren in a Grand Prix. He briefly drove an F1 car in the early days, taking it up and down the pit lane or paddock to warm up the tyres and brakes for the drivers. These days that is all done statically, one of numerous changes he has seen over the years. “Things really have moved on. Maybe the biggest change is the fact that when I first started at McLaren, F1 racing was a sport. Now it is big business, with a lot of money involved. It used to be much more like a close-knit family,” Roy reflected. Visit our new website - www.visitislandlife.com