Page 16 - On the Prowl: The Definitive History of the Walkinshaw Jaguar Sports Car Team

ON THE PROWL
1988: TWR Takes on America
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They had even located a reliable local body shop that could be
used for all the paint, run by Mike Abraham. In addition to overseeing
the paintwork, the experienced Abraham would go on to frequently
moonlight as a part-time race mechanic with TWR.
Closing the deal on the new race shop was in itself a drama. Speaking
to RACER magazine’s Marshall Pruett, Dowe described the situation:
“I needed a $10,000 deposit to secure the building for the next day,
otherwise it was going to someone else, so I found a lawyer in downtown
Chicago that had a branch in London, and I went down and saw one of
the head directors and convinced him to loan me $10,000 and that TWR
would take $10,000 into their branch in London the next day!”
“We had to do a bit of a juggling act,” said Reed of the preparations for
the first race. “We were building a factory, building the cars and building
the team all at the same time. So I think one can say with hindsight that
it was less-than-ideal conditions, but we got it done. It wasn’t pretty, but
we got it done.”
The demands on everyone were immense, not least on Dowe.
“They were eighteen-hour days,” he told the Jaguar Enthusiasts’
Club. “The worst bit was that I was still living north of Chicago and driving
down to the shop and moving things along. There were an awful lot of
times where I curled up in the back seat of my car with a blanket and just
slept there until the next morning.”
With a building secured, it needed to be filled by people. Three
Kidlington employees were brought over, mechanics Winston Bush and
John “Billy” Simmonds and fabricator Frank Rafferty.
Roger said to me in my interview,
I need you to go there and establish
the flavor of the team.’ Those were
his exact words. And he says, ‘and
you know what I mean by that.
I don’t want some American circus
act.’ But what Roger didn’t realize
is, racing in America is the way it is,
because that’s the way it has to be.
You don’t go to live in Japan and try
to recreate Birmingham.
–Winston Bush
††
‡‡
VTWR Inc. had some “interesting” support vehicles. Mechanic Phil
Denney recalled that the truck and low trailer were once crashed by Ian
Reed who hadn’t taken into account the space required to pull a trailer
when going around a corner. The old van was borrowed by Denney for
his wedding in Wisconsin and froze solid for three days in the cruel
winter conditions, requiring a tent and space heater to come back to life.
Meanwhile, the trailer had come from the UK and was much narrower than
US units and was universally derided by the other teams in the paddock.
(Michael Abraham)
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©2024 David Bull Publishing
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©2024 David Bull Publishing
©2024 David Bull Publishing
©2024 David Bull Publishing
©2024 David Bull Publishing
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