Historic Racing News

In this edition of Historic Racing News Paul Jurd talks to Mario Andretti about his fantastic career all over the world. Mario talks frankly about his days with Lotus, his Indycar experiences and NASCAR. Jim Roller hears about the battle for leadership of the FIA from the man standing as president, Tim Mayer and John Brooks joins us and tells Paul Tarsey about his latest Le Mans book, which cover 2000 to 2009. Don Wales tells us about his grandfather, Sir Malcolm Campbell on the centenary of Campbell’s breaking of the 150mph Land Speed Record in his Blue Bird leviathan. At the other end of the scale, we chat about the upcoming Shere Hill Climb.

The July episode of Historic Racing news features a couple of programs we produced for Radio Le Mans for race week 2025. They were a huge success and we thought you might like to hear the best bits before we finally put Le Mans 2025 to bed. Derek Warwick talks to Paul Tarsey about his five participations at Le Mans, and we have tales from Mark Raffauf, long-time chum of Jim Roller, and boss of IMSA for many years, BP Motorsport supremo Les Thacker about getting arrested in the Le Mans paddock and Kevin Jeannette about the dubious, and not so dubious, goings on in 1979! Norbert Singer talks about some of the twists and turns which led to the ‘Dauer Porsche 962’ and journalist Graham Tyler re-lives some Le Mans thoughts. We also hear from Mark Tarsey just how basic the spectator experience was nearly half a century ago! This time Paul Jurd is your host.

On the June episode of Historic Racing News.... Surprise it is centered around Le Mans! Derek Bell tells Paul Tarsey about the time he drove the glorious Harrods-liveried McLaren at Le Mans with his son Justin and Jaguar winner Andy Wallace. The deal all happened very late and the then-53 year old had very little time to prepare for the gruelling 24 hour race. Continuing our Le Mans theme, Robin Donovan chats to Paul Jurd about his days in a variety of C2 machines before hitting the big time racing a Kremer Porsche 962/K8 to fourth place with Derek Bell and Jurgen Lassig. Mark Raffauf is in conversation with Jim Roller about the turbulent but hugely exciting, years of sportscar racing in the USA in the 1990s under his IMSA organisation. Our studio guest is Neil Smith who digs deep into the history of TWR and those wonderful Silk Cut Jaguars.

May means the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race and Monaco for the Historic Racing News crew of Paul Tarsey, Jim Roller and Paul Jurd. The guys breakdown some Indy history and why and how some of the sports most iconic traditions began! Paul Tarsey also talks to Guy Loveridge about 1950s Grand Prix Driver Peter Collins an English racing icon. Paul Jurd does a deep dive into the 1963 Indy 500 and the team remembers the late great Jochen Mass. Also in May you can find out which events the team has on their personal buck lists!

Eddie Jordan has been labelled as a ‘maverick’ and a ‘showman’ but behind all the brouhaha was a very astute businessman who loved his racing. We take a look at the ‘man behind the mask’ in our tribute to Eddie who died last week. We also look at EJ the racing driver and also what happened to the team after he sold it on. Goodwood Members Meeting takes place later in April and we highlight some of the things to look out for. It’s a slightly shorter show this time.

The first Historic Racing News episode of 2025 visits with Joe Hale President of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. He tells Jim Roller about their big sale of some vehicles from the Museum’s collection. The first car to go under the hammer will be the ex-Fangio and ex-Moss Mercedes W196 Streamliner with an expected sale of $50 Million! John Mayhead from Hagerty Price Guide gazes into his crystal ball about expected prices for 2025 and Joe Bradley shares his thoughts about the Daytona 24 Hours. Paul Jurd reviews the career of Giancarlo Baghetti who won his first-ever Grand Prix and PJ also asks a very intriguing question about why the comparative unknown got a factory Ferrari drive…..

The February edition of Historic Racing News features special guest, motorsport legend Brian Redman. He talks to Jim Roller and previews the 2025 edition of his ‘Targa 66’. Paul Jurd looks back to the first-ever Daytona 500, which was more dramatic than any Hollywood movie could have come up with and Paul Tarsey leads a somewhat off-the-wall discussion about the Ecclestone Collection. Peter Snowdon pays his own personal tribute to Aston Martin stalwart Robin Hamilton and, of course auction results and book reviews are featured as usual. The guys take a look forward to Retromobile and Race Retro, both of which take place in February.

Jim Roller has taken in some Florida sunshine as he visits Brian Redman’s Targa 66. He talks to Bill Auberlain, Scott George and Brad Kettler about this unique event and the cars they run there. Paul Tarsey and Paul Jurd discuss the success of Race Retro and Simon Owen from Scalextric talks to Joe Bradley about the new season’s cars from the world’s leading slot car manufacturer. This includes a very surpising car from their BTCC series! Pete Lyons is the doyen of motorsport journalists and has written many books and articles about racing, from CanAm to Formula One. Pete looks back on his early life in the sport and recounts an amazing tale of doing a few laps with Peter Revson in a then-current CanAm McLaren. The fact that he was in street clothes, with no seat belts… and not even a seat… only added to the experience!