Personal tribute: Richard Lloyd 1945-2008

Whenever I catch a news report concerning a helicopter or private aircraft crash I somehow automatically fear that it just might involve someone in motor sport, simply because so many people in our business buzz around in their own machines.

I know I'm not the only person who on hearing of last Sunday's accident near Biggin Hill thought, 'I wonder if that's Bernie,' simply because the F1 boss is so closely associated with the airfield.

It wasn't Ecclestone of course, but sadly my fears did come true. This time the accident did involve people from our sport, and among them was someone I counted as one of the best friends I've made during my 23 or so years in this business.

I first met Richard Lloyd (and for that matter David Leslie) back in 1985, during my first season as a journalist. At that time he was running his Porsche team in the World Sportscar Championship, taking on the mighty works cars.

I was trying to find ways of getting to races around the continent as cheaply as possible, and had perfected my technique - get myself to Dover at the right time, and hitchhike in team motorhomes, and sometimes even a truck.

Richard was happy to help out this scruffy disorganised newcomer, and he even let me stay in the motorhome at the track on a couple of occasions when I hadn't quite managed to make alternative arrangements. His hospitable nature came into play more recently as well, for over the past decade or so I regularly stayed at his place near Silverstone during the British GP weekend.

It was more than just a handy B&B - Richard was an inspiring person to be around, his quietly spoken, low-key nature sometimes disguising his real sense of fun.

And you never knew who would turn up chez Lloyd. Richard and his wife Philippa had hundreds of loyal friends, and he seemed to know just about everyone in British motor sport, a legacy of some 40 years in the business, and his close association with the BRDC.

His other great passion was music, and at one of his barbecues you might meet Nick Mason, Level 42's Mike Lindup, Genesis/Police producer Hugh Padgham, or Alvin Stardust, along with the likes of James Weaver or the bosses of Audi and Bentley.

Sir Paul McCartney © Reuters

It said a lot that alongside the motor racing paraphernalia in his study at home he kept his rock music books, and the rare Billy Fury or Cliff Richard albums that he'd tracked down on the internet.

Indeed any conversation I had with Richard was likely to turn to music, very much a passion of my own. I was always mightily impressed by the fact that he had been in the business until motor racing took over his working life in 1970.

He was for a while a producer at Decca, at the time that the Rolling Stones and the Small Faces spearheaded the company's output, and he ran a business with Mike Leander, a well known producer and arranger. Later he worked with Cliff's management.

As a producer Richard worked in the studio with acts like the Graham Bond Organisation, a now legendary blues outfit that included Jack Bruce on bass and Ginger Baker on drums. Among the session musicians he hired for other projects were Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones, while he also produced early demos for The Scaffold, the comedy band that featured Paul McCartney's brother Mike.

Indeed the more famous McCartney featured in my favourite Richard musical anecdote.

In the spring of 1967 the Beatles were working flat out on Sargeant Pepper. Macca had a new song called She's Leaving Home, and wanted to get it down on tape. He wanted some strings on it, but George Martin was too busy with other artists to knock out his usual quickie arrangement. Undeterred, Paul got hold of Leander, who was known to be able to do that sort of job done efficiently and quickly.

Thus Richard found himself at Leander's house with McCartney as the nascent tune was put down on paper. Then there came a knock at the door, and someone looked out of the window and saw a policeman. This being a Beatle, and the dawn of the summer of love, 'substances' were present, and they were hurriedly flushed down the loo by an understandably paranoid McCartney.

The door was nervously opened - and PC Plod made his routine enquiry about a car that was parked down the road ...

So back in the day Richard hung around with a Beatle and future members of Cream and Led Zeppelin, guys that most of us regard as legends. And yet to him they were just regular people he had happened to come across, and he never talked up his famous connections.

Richard himself would have a far bigger impact on motor sport. He caught the bug when he attended the Motor Racing Stables school at Brands Hatch in 1966, and soon began sprinting his Triumph TR4A. He first made his name racing a Spitfire, but in 1970 he gave up both the music and driving (temporarily) to set up a groundbreaking PR and driver management business, working with the likes of Mike Hailwood and Peter Gethin.

Richard Lloyd drives his Chevrolet Camaro during the 2008 BTCC media day at Rockingham © LAT

In 1972 he returned to the tracks with a Chevy Camaro, having recognised that it would be just the tool for the British saloon championship.

Over the next few years he became indelibly associated with the hairy muscle car, winning countless championship rounds. A road accident forced him to miss the inaugural Tour of Britain race/rally event in '73, but the man he called in as his substitute - a certain James Hunt - won in his car.

After the Camaro was outlawed Richard had a brief fling with a mundane Opel Commodore, and then in 1977 he discovered the VW Golf GTi. Owner of one of the first road cars in the UK, he was the first to spot to spot its potential as a racer. Indeed over the next three years he won Class C of the British series three times, placing second overall in 1978.

He also founded GTi Engineering, the company that helped to establish the Golf as something of a cult road car.

In 1980 he switched to Audi, and always with a flair for marketing, tempted Stirling Moss out of retirement to become his team-mate. The associate with the VW/Porsche family continued when he moved into the World Sportscar arena, initially with a 924 GTR, and backing from Canon - a company he introduced to the sport.

The timing was perfect, and when the Group C era dawned and Porsche began selling its 956 as a customer car, Richard was one of the first in the queue.

From 1983 to 1990 GTi Engineering, or Richard Lloyd Racing as it would later be known, was one of the leading lights of the sportscar scene, challenged by only Joest and Kremer as Porsche's most competitive customer team.

Two memorable wins in the Brands 1000kms were the highlights, but there were many other good results, and in 1985 Richard himself partnered Jonathan Palmer and James Weaver to second at Le Mans.

Significantly, Richard was the first 956 team owner to push ahead with developing his own aerodynamic parts and even his own chassis, aided by ex-Lotus F1 designer Nigel Stroud. Even when money was tight, what mattered was making the car more competitive.

He also never stinted on hiring the right drivers, and in retrospect the list of guys who drove his cars reads like a who's who of the era. Palmer, Weaver and Tiff Needell were among the mainstays, while others to handle Richard's 956/962s included Jan Lammers, Bob Wollek, Mauro Baldi, Derek Bell, John Watson, David Hobbs, Thierry Boutsen, Bruno Giacomelli, Johnny Dumfries, Mike Thackwell and Keke Rosberg.

He was always keen to offer young guys a chance - Palmer was still an unknown quantity when he first tried Richard's 924 - while among those who owed their debut sportscar outings to Richard were Damon Hill, JJ Lehto, and WRC legend Henri Toivonen.

Derek Bell and Tiff Needell, Richard Lloyd Racing Porsche 962 GT1, 1989 World Sports Prototype Championship, Brands Hatch © LAT

The fun ended, as it did for a number of other teams, when the 3.5-litre F1 engines took over in 1991. It had in any case become increasingly hard to find a budget, and RLR as we knew it shut up shop. For a few years Richard concentrated on setting up a successful automotive trim business, supplying major manufacturers, and he was still running that at the time of his death.

Racing was of course where his heart was. There was a brief flirtation with a stillborn Japanese F1 project in 1993 - the man behind it turned out to be an 'optimist', shall we say - but Richard finally returned to the sport as a team boss in 1996, renewing his links with Audi to set up its BTCC operation. It was an instant success, and once again the Lloyd name was a byword for excellence on the national scene.

Sportscar racing remained his true passion however, and in 1999 he returned to Le Mans with Audi Sport UK and a pair of R8C Coupes, with old mates like Weaver, Stefan Johansson and Andy Wallace on the driving strength. It was not a great weekend, but it was a start, and the consequences were significant.

Richard was determined to get the Bentley name back at Le Mans after an absence of some seven decades. Amid utmost secrecy he had one of the Audis painted green, and VW Group head Ferdinand Piech was given a private viewing. A man closely linked with the Porsche 917, Piech saw the potential, and eventually the project was given the OK.

Richard thus put together the Bentley project that made such a splash at Le Mans in 2001, with the likes of Martin Brundle joining old RLR hands Weaver and Perry McCarthy on the driving strength of his Apex Motorsport team.

The second season was a sort of holding pattern as the parent company wanted to concentrate on Audi, but for the third in 2003, there was a full-on Bentley effort. Sadly by then German politics meant that Richard had to a large extent been swept aside, and he was not able to fully enjoy the ultimate success of the project he had set motion.

Over the last few years he had been searching for another project on which to focus, and after a few false starts, the Jaguar XKR GT3 effort appeared finally to be coming together. Although not providing finance, Jaguar was taking the project increasingly seriously, and supplying valuable technical help. Once again an inspired Richard had spotted an opportunity rather than followed a trend.

The trip to Nogaro was supposed to be the latest step on the path to success with the Jaguar, and typically Richard was hands-on, going down to France himself to ensure that everything worked out. The irony is that it was not his style to be moving around on a private jet - finances were always tight so he preferred to spend money in the right places - but apparently this trip came courtesy of a business associate.

Richard Lloyd and his Triumph Spitfire at the 2005 Goodwood Revival Meeting © LAT

He remained an enthusiast at heart. A few years ago he proudly restored the original Canon Porsche 956, while also preparing his old Spitfire - the car which started it all for him - for historic racing.

When a low-key revival of the Tour of Britain was announced, he quickly found a suitable Chevrolet Camaro in the States. Buying a 35-year-old American car off the internet was perhaps not his best move, and on arrival it turned out to be holes stitched together with metal.

Nevertheless he did eventually get a decent car together, and had it fully painted in the1973 James Hunt winning livery. In fact his last competitive outing was in the 2007 event, in which he finished eighth overall and second in class.

Richard was perhaps born out of his era, and would have been perfectly suited to being a team patron in the fifties. Almost by definition the sort of folk who operate racing teams have to be a little ruthless and sometimes upset people along the way, but Richard never did that. He was always a true gentleman, for whom good manners were always a prerequisite in all his dealings.

The shock with which his death has been received in British motor sport reflects both his position as one of the most successful team owners of the past few decades, but also the fact he had so many friends in the business, and one way or another, had touched so many lives.

That he was so universally liked and respected can perhaps be of some comfort at this sad time to Philippa and their grown-up daughters Sophie, Chloe and Amy.