Masters Stroke: How GP Masters became a reality

This year, new racing series seem a touch like the Number 7 bus: nothing for ages, then three arrive at the same time.

It could, of course, be argued, that GP2 is nothing other than F3000 updated, but a quick peek at cars and teams, and, more importantly, GP2's spectacle and format, shows the series introduced at Imola in April is a totally different animal. Then, regardless of reception given to A1 Grand Prix, it cannot be disputed that this (European) winter-centric series is a brand new formula.

Finally, following hot in the tyre tracks of A1 GP's inaugural race at Brands Hatch in September, comes Grand Prix Masters: a series over two years in the making and aiming to emulate the successes of masters tours in golf and tennis.

Formulated by former international windsurfer Scott Poulter, GP Masters debuts this weekend at South Africa's only FIA-licensed Grand Prix facility, Kyalami.

"The concept of GP Masters goes back to 2003, when I was living in Canada and experienced the popularity and enormous emotion evoked by masters golf and tennis matches," Poulter said in an exclusive interview in South Africa this week. "Tom Moser (until recently a British American Tobacco/BAR director) was my neighbour, and we chatted about the concept of promoting a single race for retired Grand Prix drivers.

"Then I discovered that Tom Rubython (publisher of BusinessF1 magazine) had investigated the viability of a full championship. But Tom was too busy running his magazine, so I took over his material, then funded additional research."

After a few cold calls to retired drivers - and here he singles out Christian Danner, Alan Jones and Johnny Herbert, with Emerson Fittipaldi's name regularly cropping up thereafter - Poulter discovered many retired drivers considered motor racing to be unfinished business and yearned for a return to the wheel.

"Invariably their departure from the Grand Prix scene was a bit abrupt and seldom on their own terms, so many had this welled up emotion within them, which came out the more we spoke about GP Masters. Most were interested, but had a few concerns, particularly when it came to committing to a full season championship."

He persuaded six 'high nett-worth' investors to back his dream, and went about fine-tuning the concept. Of course, scepticism abounded, and he came up against opposition - not least from Formula One commercial rights holder Bernie Ecclestone, seemingly intent on introducing a Porsche-based veterans' challenge as the F1 curtain- raiser during GP weekends - but Poulter's masterstroke was persuading the promoters of Sunday's charity-linked extravaganza to accept GP Masters as their headline event.

Both Nelson Mandela's Children's Fund and Unite Against Hunger are expected to benefit substantially from Kyalami's Altech-sponsored event on Sunday. Last year's meeting, for Minardi's F1x2 two-seaters plus support shows, attracted 60,000 spectators, and the promoters have put in place facilities for even greater numbers this weekend.

Poulter freely admits that acceptance of GP Masters by drivers was not universal, and while he declines to name 'dissenters', it is clear that some on his wish list will never grace GPM cockpits. He has, though, assembled an impressive entry list for Sunday's 45-minute race, which will be supported by various festivities and feature a return of Minardi's two-seaters.

Top of the GP Masters entry list is 1992 champion Nigel Mansell, whilst Alan Jones and Emerson Fittipaldi are already in South Africa. That adds up to four Formula One and three IndyCar championships, 58 GP wins plus two Indianapolis 500 victories for GPM's starter race, yet the temptation for over-hype has been admirably resisted.

Also confirmed are Grand Prix winners Riccardo Patrese, Rene Arnoux, Jacques Laffitte and Patrick Tambay, while Danner, Andrea de Cesaris (now a world class windsurfer) are all listed on the 15-strong entry. Jody Scheckter is rumoured to have requested a seat fitting on Thursday, while four-time champ Alain Prost is playing a waiting game. "He is heavily involved with the Andros Ice Racing Championship, but the interest is certainly there," says Poulter.

Entry requirements are simple: drivers need to be minimum 45 years of age on January 1st 2006; have a documented Grand Prix career; and will be able to pass medical tests formulated by Dr Steve Olvey, formerly IndyCar's medical delegate and now chief medical officer for GPM. Olvey has made HANS devices mandatory and has a simple medical philosophy: if in doubt, the driver is out.

"We came up with these minimum standards after a lot of consultation with various parties, including the drivers," explained Poulter, who describes himself as a 'motor racing entrepreneur'. "Some drivers may be excluded for now, but that levels the playing field, which is what we are trying to do." He points to the case of Grand Prix winner and present sportscar racer 41-year-old Herbert, who won't be eligible until 2009 despite being instrumental in formulating the regulations.

To prove that no chances are being taken, the series has recruited Nick Harris, former human engineering consultant to Jaguar Racing and Red Bull Racing. Harris trained the likes of Eddie Irvine and Mark Webber and has drawn up raft of nutritional and training schedules for the drivers, or 'athletes' as he refers to them.

'I'm really looking forward to working closely with these guys, all legends in their times, and to see how they cope with the heat, humidity and altitude of a typical Highveld summer at a circuit 2000 metres above sea level," says Harris. He is particularly looking forward to watching the progress made by drivers as they get into their routines.

"Formula One it was pretty easy: I had a few drivers at a time, and they were driving at the height of their careers, whereas here I have something like fifteen drivers, all who made it and are returning for more. It will be fascinating."

Poulter has assembled an illustrious GPM supporting cast. In addition to Olvey and Harris, Poulter has persuaded Murray Walker to be the 'voice' of GPM, whilst Le Mans legend Derek Bell - also eligible as a GPM driver through nine Grand Prix starts with Ferrari, McLaren Surtees and Techno - will be seated beside Walker in the commentary booth. TV production company WIGE - regularly praised for the quality of their coverage of Grands Prix in Germany - will broadcast live and delayed transmissions to 43 networks with commentary in three languages (English, German and French).

A logistics crew of 25 has seen to all support services, with shakedowns of all built chassis entrusted to British national racer Bob Berridge, while 85 full- and part-time technicians, plus contracted engineering staff, will tend the cars at Kyalami.

The cars are based upon the tub of a late nineties Reynard IndyCar design after consultation with, among others, Fittipaldi, who flatly rejected the original concept of using retired Formula Nippon chassis - which deliver 650 horsepower and have a power/weight ratio of 1 bhp per kilogramme.

Electronics are fundamentally banned, with the only concession to relative modernity being paddle shifts of the type pioneered by Mansell and Ferrari in 1989, while tyres are supplied by Avon. Also making a return to Grand Prix racing is the Italian drinks company Martini, which committed to circuit signage as part of a 'toe-dip' exercise.

"They have a responsibility towards drink-driving, so Martini won't appear on the cars. But, again, the fact that their famous stripes will be around drivers from that golden age is part of the emotional experience we are offering fans."

A five-race series is planned for 2006, with events scheduled for Monza, Silverstone, and an October return to Kyalami. Poulter won't comment on the remaining venues ("we are in negotiation, and have confidentiality clauses"), but Qatar's Losail facility and an Iberian circuit are rumoured to be on his race schedule.

A masters' championship made up of five races may, on the face of it, appear threadbare, but Poulter is adamant that any more events, particularly during the inaugural season, would tax the concept logistically. Then there are concerns about availability of drivers.

"Many have built up successful businesses since retiring, or act as ambassadors of some type, and to ask that they commit to more than five or six weekends per year could see them turning us down totally," he says. "We'd rather have them for five races than not at all."

Poulter launched GPM during Durban's motor show in April. At the time, Rene Arnoux drove the converted Formula Nippon, Zytek-engined prototype, and, bluntly, the watching crowd was not enthralled. Poulter reckons he took "a knock on the nose of about a million quid" in swapping to the substantially meatier Nicholson-McLaren powered IndyCar base, which, too, enforced a change of tyre supplier through compatibility issues.

"Delta Motorsport, run by Simon Dowson, did a fantastic job in redesigning the base car totally, then building the cars and readying everything at extremely short notice, despite, I must say, my every attempt at interfering."

The change of chassis is, though, indicative of Poulter's determination to get GP Masters right from the start through the simple process of listening and learning while avoiding the over-hype trap.

The true test of the concept, though, will come at 2:00pm on Sunday, as Murray Walker screams: "GP Masters is Go, Go, Goooo!"

Nigel Mansell: coming out of non-retirement

Ask Nigel Mansell the definition of 'Quit', and he looks at you quizzically. The word simply does not exist in his vocabulary. Once, when a sponsor left him stranded, he financed the continuation of his fledgling career by selling the tiny Birmingham flat he and newly-wed wife Rosanne had scraped so long to acquire. In the build-up to his 187 Grand Prix-start, 31-win career, the moustache'd 1992 Formula One World Champion broke his back in an F3 race, yet returned to the grid a scant fortnight later.

Called to a Formula One test in the interim, a shoot-out between Young Guns arranged by Lotus, he 'forgot' to disclose the injury, gritted his teeth and duly impressed. Promptly signed as tester for the then-World Champions, a few months later he was promoted to regular racer alongside 1978 title holder Mario Andretti. Still the painful periods continued: during his maiden Grand Prix, a fuel tank split 15 laps from the end, gushing him in the highest octane of the time. Mansell endured enormous pain, finished the race, then spent the night in an icy bath cooling open wounds.

Championship eventually won after no less than 12 years in Formula One, he ventured across the Atlantic. Following a fiery, high-speed, back-bashing crash during acclimatisation runs at Phoenix's daunting Firebird oval raceway, he took the IndyCar series by storm for two years. In the process, 'Our Nige', as the Brits affectionately labeled their folk hero, became the first driver to consecutively win different open-wheeler championships, then proved he'd lost zero fire by returning to F1 as stand-in with erstwhile team Williams - winning third time out.

Officially Mansell never retired; it was merely 'a matter of awaiting the right opportunity' - his stock answer to inevitable questions. Then, in September, to howls of delight amongst Formula One fans the world over, he announced the right opportunity had, indeed, come knocking. Dubbed Grand Prix Masters, with the series' inaugural race scheduled for Kyalami, GPM is modeled along the lines of tennis and golf's very successful 'seniors' tours.

"Yes," confirmed scratch golfer Mansell when called at the Devon estate to which he has devoted much of his time since last racing in 1995, "Scott [Poulter] caught me at the right moment with the right concept. I think it's great: identical 650 horsepower cars without modern gizmos, capable of 200 mile per hour (320 km/h), and drivers like 'Emmo' (1972/4 champion, and Indy 500 winner Emerson Fittipaldi), Jody (Scheckter), my former teammate Riccardo Patrese, Alan Jones and Rene Arnoux. Then we have Patrick Tambay and Derek Warwick, so it is pretty star-studded.

"Having the first race at Kyalami makes it doubly special for me. I won the last Grand Prix on the old track, and the first one on the new circuit. Plus, I set Kyalami's first-ever 150mph lap, so to me it's a very special circuit. And I love the country and people, I only have fond memories of my visits."

Mansell, who recently underwent operations on his knees and surgery to have titanium pins inserted in a shoulder, believes the first race will attract 14 cars, with two added per race until a full complement of 20 entries is reached.

What, though, really sparked Mansell's comeback? "I did a saloon car (DTM) race in Germany in August, one in which former drivers raced for charity - I'm patron of UK Youth, Britain's largest charity, which calls on 40,000 volunteers - and I enjoyed racing against Jody and Alain (Prost) and the rest tremendously, and GPM is yet another opportunity of putting something back into the sport. It's a touchy-feely series in which fans can get close to the drivers, which is impossible in modern Formula One. I think it's great!"

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