29 replies to this topic

[BiancaRedgrave]

I am researching my late father Jon Redgrave who sadly I did not get the chance to meet but I know he was a mechanic with March Engineering in the early 70's. Any information will be greatly received.

Bianca x

[Cirrus]

The Marchives site has a lot of historical information http://www.marchives.com

I've had a quick look and unfortunately can't see any mention of your dad in the personnel section. It might be worth contacting the site as they have a lot of archive material.

[2F-001]

Hello Bianca,

I believe you mentioned elsewhere that you had found the GPMCT (Grand Prix Mechanics Charitable Trust) - or, at least, their website.

Have you seen the book "Tales from the Toolbox"? It's a "collection of behind-the-scenes tales from Grand Prix mechanics". It has some entertaining and touching accounts of life, travels and trials of the mechanics and the era your father worked in is quite well represented there, although I don't see any specific reference to your dad in the index.

The book, sold in aid of the GPDCT is written compiled/written by Michael Oliver ( a well-respected writer, and researcher) who posts routinely on this forum.
Michael did interview some former March guys, such as Ray Wardell who, I think worked several roles with them including management ones. If you could get in touch Michael, he may possibly be able to help you contact people such as him who may perhaps recall him and have some anecdotes of memories to share.
A rather convoluted route, but may be interest.

Another popular book, perhaps of general interest, is "Fours guys and a telephone" (which may have retitled on reprint) by Mike Lawrence - it's a warts-and-all account of March from before it began; it stands up quite well as an entertaining read for a non-anorak audience too, to give you a flavour of its tone.

Anyhow, I do hope you manage to piece together information about your father one way or another.

Edited by 2F-001, 09 June 2011 - 09:26.

[Alfie]

Bianca,

If I am correct, then I worked with your father later in his career when he worked for Alan Docking at Silverstone, building the wind tunnel model for the Mazda Le Mans cars.

If I have the correct Jon Redgrave, then let me know and I will share with you a few stories of a lovely man. If you would rather pm me then by all means do so.

Alan

Edited by Alfie, 09 June 2011 - 18:32.

[BiancaRedgrave]

Dear Alan,

I am overwhelmed to hear from you. I wish I knew these forums existed earlier - truly wonderful.

I know very little about my father as he was completely estranged from his family, both in terms of his parents & his brothers as well as his children, from I believe approximately 1980 onwards.

I do know is he suffered a chronic breakdown & he was found living rough at Silverstone then taken in by a care home. It's very sad but I am learning that it's not an easy life being an F1 mechanic.

I'd like very much to talk some more if you have time.. do you have an email address?

Many thanks,
Bianca x

Bianca,

If I am correct, then I worked with your father later in his career when he worked for Alan Docking at Silverstone, building the wind tunnel model for the Mazda Le Mans cars.

If I have the correct Jon Redgrave, then let me know and I will share with you a few stories of a lovely man. If you would rather pm me then by all means do so.

Alan

[BiancaRedgrave]

Dear Tony,

I am thrilled to hear from you & this information is invaluable.

I know very little about my father & very little about F1 so this will help me get closer to him & what sounds like a very interesting career.

I have ordered the book Tales from a Toolbox already & it will be a fascinating read then I'll look into the Four Guys & a Telephone.

Truly brilliant.. thank you very much.

Warm regards,

Bianca x

Hello Bianca,

I believe you mentioned elsewhere that you had found the GPMCT (Grand Prix Mechanics Charitable Trust) - or, at least, their website.

Have you seen the book "Tales from the Toolbox"? It's a "collection of behind-the-scenes tales from Grand Prix mechanics". It has some entertaining and touching accounts of life, travels and trials of the mechanics and the era your father worked in is quite well represented there, although I don't see any specific reference to your dad in the index.

The book, sold in aid of the GPDCT is written compiled/written by Michael Oliver ( a well-respected writer, and researcher) who posts routinely on this forum.
Michael did interview some former March guys, such as Ray Wardell who, I think worked several roles with them including management ones. If you could get in touch Michael, he may possibly be able to help you contact people such as him who may perhaps recall him and have some anecdotes of memories to share.
A rather convoluted route, but may be interest.

Another popular book, perhaps of general interest, is "Fours guys and a telephone" (which may have retitled on reprint) by Mike Lawrence - it's a warts-and-all account of March from before it began; it stands up quite well as an entertaining read for a non-anorak audience too, to give you a flavour of its tone.

Anyhow, I do hope you manage to piece together information about your father one way or another.

[BiancaRedgrave]

Dear Alan,

Thank you so much.. it's fantastic to have such helpful information.

I know very little about my father or F1 so it's great to get closer to his life & the world he worked in.

Thank you again.

Warm regards,
Bianca x

The Marchives site has a lot of historical information http://www.marchives.com

I've had a quick look and unfortunately can't see any mention of your dad in the personnel section. It might be worth contacting the site as they have a lot of archive material.

[bartchops]

I am researching my late father Jon Redgrave who sadly I did not get the chance to meet but I know he was a mechanic with March Engineering in the early 70's. Any information will be greatly received.

Bianca x

Well now, I wonder if this could be the Jon Redgrave I worked with at Holbay Racing Engines in and around 1963?He came from Lewisham/Bromley area of London,spoke with a very broad Cockney accent and many years later I saw a picture of him in a book about March Engineering.He would have been about 25 yrs old at the time.Let me know if it sounds right.Bartchops.

[BiancaRedgrave]

Hi Bartchops,

That's definitely sounds right. He grew up in Beckenham which is on the edge of South London close to Lewisham.

Did you work with him for long?

Thank you very much for sharing this information with me.

Warm regards,
Bianca x

Well now, I wonder if this could be the Jon Redgrave I worked with at Holbay Racing Engines in and around 1963?He came from Lewisham/Bromley area of London,spoke with a very broad Cockney accent and many years later I saw a picture of him in a book about March Engineering.He would have been about 25 yrs old at the time.Let me know if it sounds right.Bartchops.

[2F-001]

There appears to have been a thread, here on TNF, entitled "The unsung heroes with greasy hands and no sleep", which was last contributed to on 24th Nov 2004.

A synopsis (or, more correctly, a snippet) of this showing up via 'Google' suggests that it contains some listing of March personnel, with Jon Redgrave mentioned variously as Chief Mechanic and Chief Mechanic F2. I can't actually open the thread itself, either by the link or via finding by the TNF Search function - so I don't know exactly what is in there, or what years it refers to.

Can anyone else access this thread? Is it simply so old that it's archived and has to be accessed in another way, or am I just doing it wrong?

(Bianca: "F2" or Formula 2 was very prestigious back then - and March dominated it - so Chief Mech on the F2 team would suggest that Jon was well-regarded; and it's entirely plausible that he worked on the Grand Prix team too.)

An interesting search, Bianca, and I guess from your comments that information about your father's later life might be something you shed a few tears over, but I hope you find things of interest and comfort to you as well. I'm sure that many of us would be pleased if you felt able to share anything you discover - but I'd understand completely if you preferred not to. Good luck!

- - - - - - - - -
Stuart/Twinny -- if you see this thread, I wonder if it might now benefit from a more specific title? I'd guess there are enough clues here (March/Holbay/Silverstone connection) that others may recall Jon. Just a thought. (I see that Bianca also posted using her father's name as a title, but this is the thread that's been picked up on. Any ideas about the 2004 thread I mentioned above?)

Edited by 2F-001, 10 June 2011 - 07:42.

[Towil]

You might also try contacting Jonathan Greaves via his excellent website below, which details his time as an F2 mechanic, including a spell at March

F2 MECHANIC


Todd

Edited by Towil, 10 June 2011 - 07:56.

[E1pix]

This is one of the most heartwarming exchanges I've ever seen on the web.

Bianca, I hope these connections bring you much peace and positive reflection.

[Tim Murray]

Any ideas about the 2004 thread I mentioned above?)

Tony, everything posted before early 2008 has been temporarily removed while they try to sort the forums' technical problems, as explained in this post in the Website Feedback forum:

Due to ongoing stability problems - for which we apologise - we have temporarily removed the first three million posts from the forum's database.

Some long running threads will begin in early Feb 2008, while any older threads that remain accessible will have no content.

This is a temporary measure to see if the root cause of these problems is the size of the posts table. All these posts will be restored when the result of running the forum in this way becomes clear.

Thanks for your understanding.

With luck they'll all be back soon - it's frustrating not being able to access the early stuff.

[2F-001]

Ah - thanks Tim, I hadn't seen that!

[Charles E Taylor]

Biancia


You might find tha a email to Peter Briggs Here will help you a lot.

Peter was the March F2 team manager in the early 1970's and is still involved in motorsport today.



I hope this helps you, I know that Jon was with the March F2 in the early 1970s and later in the 1970's with the F1 team.


Racing was a lot of fun then.




Charlie

[john winfield]

Bianca,
Here's the link to the Google snapshot of the forum thread referred to by Tony Pashley. As he says, Formula 2 was an important racing category and, for your Dad to be Chief Mechanic to the 1973 March F2 team was really something. That year the March-BMW cars were almost unbeatable and frenchman Jean-Pierre Jarier won the European Championship.

http://webcache.goog...r...dgrave&cd=5

Good luck with everything,
John

[2F-001]

Oh, well done John. How did you find that?
There are some big names there.

Those lists are a little confusing - they seem to suggest they are team personnel for the previous season (eg 1972's names in 1973's annual?) -
if so, 1972 (as Bianca seems to have been given as a starting point) suggests that Jon would probably have tended the cars of Ronnie Peterson and/or Niki Lauda too (which I saw race at Mallory - and Jarier's Euro win the following year).

Let's hope, though, that those who might have more personal memories are able to provide Bianca with something above and beyond the stats of what looks to be a notable career.

[BiancaRedgrave]

Hi Tony,

This is very helpful advice. I wish I'd know about forums like this years ago as Jon's absence was a mystery in our family & I only wish his mother & father had not died wondering if he was safe. They loved him very much & were very proud of him - his father often spoke about Jon's talent & his amazing attention to detail stating that each of his tools would be perfectly clean & carefully put in it's rightful place.

I will make a fresh post using the heading you suggested & once I have more information I will try to write a piece about Jon detailing his life & career.

Although he suffered a breakdown I can happily say that due to the amazing kindness of strangers he was cared for & he was very happy as he made friends with a couple who treated him like a member of the family for 17 years. They loved him dearly & they said he was a very kind & honest man.

Thank you for your kindness & interesting information.

Bianca x

There appears to have been a thread, here on TNF, entitled "The unsung heroes with greasy hands and no sleep", which was last contributed to on 24th Nov 2004.

A synopsis (or, more correctly, a snippet) of this showing up via 'Google' suggests that it contains some listing of March personnel, with Jon Redgrave mentioned variously as Chief Mechanic and Chief Mechanic F2. I can't actually open the thread itself, either by the link or via finding by the TNF Search function - so I don't know exactly what is in there, or what years it refers to.

Can anyone else access this thread? Is it simply so old that it's archived and has to be accessed in another way, or am I just doing it wrong?

(Bianca: "F2" or Formula 2 was very prestigious back then - and March dominated it - so Chief Mech on the F2 team would suggest that Jon was well-regarded; and it's entirely plausible that he worked on the Grand Prix team too.)

An interesting search, Bianca, and I guess from your comments that information about your father's later life might be something you shed a few tears over, but I hope you find things of interest and comfort to you as well. I'm sure that many of us would be pleased if you felt able to share anything you discover - but I'd understand completely if you preferred not to. Good luck!

- - - - - - - - -
Stuart/Twinny -- if you see this thread, I wonder if it might now benefit from a more specific title? I'd guess there are enough clues here (March/Holbay/Silverstone connection) that others may recall Jon. Just a thought. (I see that Bianca also posted using her father's name as a title, but this is the thread that's been picked up on. Any ideas about the 2004 thread I mentioned above?)

[BiancaRedgrave]

Thank you Todd, I am overwhelmed & very happy to receive all this great information, thank you very very much. Bianca x

You might also try contacting Jonathan Greaves via his excellent website below, which details his time as an F2 mechanic, including a spell at March

F2 MECHANIC


Todd

[BiancaRedgrave]

Thank you John,

Very, very interesting.

So it looks like by 1974 John was no longer on the March team?

I wonder where he went next. I am in touch with someone who worked with him at Alan Docking at Silverstone but I don't yet know what the dates were.

It's great to have a trial & I am very grateful for your time & help.

Thank you x

Bianca,
Here's the link to the Google snapshot of the forum thread referred to by Tony Pashley. As he says, Formula 2 was an important racing category and, for your Dad to be Chief Mechanic to the 1973 March F2 team was really something. That year the March-BMW cars were almost unbeatable and frenchman Jean-Pierre Jarier won the European Championship.

http://webcache.goog...r...dgrave&cd=5

Good luck with everything,
John

[BiancaRedgrave]

Thanks Charlie, I am so happy to gather so much valuable information & insights, I am overwhelmed. Bianca x

Biancia


You might find tha a email to Peter Briggs Here will help you a lot.

Peter was the March F2 team manager in the early 1970's and is still involved in motorsport today.



I hope this helps you, I know that Jon was with the March F2 in the early 1970s and later in the 1970's with the F1 team.


Racing was a lot of fun then.




Charlie

[eurocardoc]

Welcome Bianca. I worked with Jon at Surtees in 1976. He had a solid reputation as a mechanic but mostly I remember his very dry humour!

As was the case back in the day, many guys were given nicknames of some kind, Jon was good at appropriating suitable names for many. I recall the Spanish GP in 76, as we were taking the cars through tech inspection, oops, scrutineering!, been over here too long. Anyway the old man, Big John was with us and several in the crowd were calling out, "Hey John, hey John" wanting an autograph. Your father sent one of our lower level help over to get the photo, upon receiving it, your father promptly signed it, gave it back with a "There, Jon's signed your bloody picture!!"

At the Swedish GP later that season, we always took a very fast dirt road detour back to the hotel, playing 'Rally Driver'. One evening, rounding a curve at the maximum speed possible in the Volvo rent a car we encountered a huge animal standing in the road. having managed to pull up within smelling distance of this huge animal, our Kiwi mechanic, ncknamed"Kiwi" by Jon, exclaimed "Look at the size of that Moose". At this point, Jon, sitting in the passenger seat by me slowly turned around, "That my dear Kiwi, is NOT a moose. THAT, is a flipping ELK!"

Hope this helps, he was a fun and talented person. I had heard that he hit upon troubles later, but I can smile about my times with him.

Best, Brian Stewart

[JacnGille]

Bianca, I hope these connections bring you much peace and positive reflection.

+1

[monoposto]

Bianca,

Jon was a mechanic with Frank Williams (Racing Cars) Ltd in the 1968-1969 Argentinian Temporada series for F2 cars with Piers Courage in a Brabham BT23C. Additionally, Williams ran four other Brabham for local drivers which included the then unknown Carlos Reutemann ...

In 1977 he was back again at Williams, in the newly formed team Williams Grand Prix Engineering Ltd running Patrick Neve in a F1 March.

[2F-001]

Bianca - I didn't mean to suggest that you needed to start a new thread (unless you particularly want to - this seems to be doing ok!); the "Stuart" I was addressing in my previous post is the 'host' or 'admin' for this part of the forum and has the ability to revise the title of a thread if necessary.

You'll see from the other posts that your dad worked amongst a galaxy of names - some of which mean things to us here, and some who were or have become very famous indeed. We're aware that some of the names and so on may be less familiar to you - so don't be afraid to ask about them if anything particularly interests or puzzles you.

I assume there must be photographs out there of scenes from pits and paddocks which have Jon in them - although finding and identifying them may be tricky.

Edited by 2F-001, 11 June 2011 - 06:18.

[BiancaRedgrave]

Thank you very much. Two days ago I had very little information & now I have a trail from 1963 to 1988. Truly amazing. I really am very grateful for everyones generosity. Bianca x

Bianca,

Jon was a mechanic with Frank Williams (Racing Cars) Ltd in the 1968-1969 Argentinian Temporada series for F2 cars with Piers Courage in a Brabham BT23C. Additionally, Williams ran four other Brabham for local drivers which included the then unknown Carlos Reutemann ...

In 1977 he was back again at Williams, in the newly formed team Williams Grand Prix Engineering Ltd running Patrick Neve in a F1 March.

[BiancaRedgrave]

Dear Brian,

It's so cool to hear your memories & stories. I can't say enough how heartwarming it feels to have such a great & interesting responses to my post.

I am non the wiser about why he distanced himself from his family or what lead to his breakdown. I suspect that he threw himself head first into his career & did not pay enough attention to keeping up with this his family, then later in life maybe his career wasn't as rewarding & he felt like he couldn't go back to his family after such a long time apart.

Anyway what counts the most is I am now building a very interesting & positive image of Jon.

Thank you very much.

Bianca x

Welcome Bianca. I worked with Jon at Surtees in 1976. He had a solid reputation as a mechanic but mostly I remember his very dry humour!

As was the case back in the day, many guys were given nicknames of some kind, Jon was good at appropriating suitable names for many. I recall the Spanish GP in 76, as we were taking the cars through tech inspection, oops, scrutineering!, been over here too long. Anyway the old man, Big John was with us and several in the crowd were calling out, "Hey John, hey John" wanting an autograph. Your father sent one of our lower level help over to get the photo, upon receiving it, your father promptly signed it, gave it back with a "There, Jon's signed your bloody picture!!"

At the Swedish GP later that season, we always took a very fast dirt road detour back to the hotel, playing 'Rally Driver'. One evening, rounding a curve at the maximum speed possible in the Volvo rent a car we encountered a huge animal standing in the road. having managed to pull up within smelling distance of this huge animal, our Kiwi mechanic, ncknamed"Kiwi" by Jon, exclaimed "Look at the size of that Moose". At this point, Jon, sitting in the passenger seat by me slowly turned around, "That my dear Kiwi, is NOT a moose. THAT, is a flipping ELK!"

Hope this helps, he was a fun and talented person. I had heard that he hit upon troubles later, but I can smile about my times with him.

Best, Brian Stewart

[fausto]

Bianca, there's a group dedicated to March on Facebook, some TNFers are there, but you'd probably find some contacts, it's @ http://www.facebook....gid=39229948411 good luck!

[eurocardoc]

hello again Bianca, or maybe, Bonjour?

Saw the Facebook page and have to tell you that you have some of Jon's features, especially the lower face/mouth. Certainly see the family connection.

I cannot remember hearing Jon lose his temper and raise his voice, he always maintained a soft spoken poise, his replies were normally made in a witty but pointed way. Unlike myself!!

He did have an introverted type of character but was certainly in the thick of what was then in pre-PC era accepted as "boys will be boys" behaviour. We worked and played hard in those days, good mechanics were jack of all trades type, welders/fabricators/engine/transmissions et al. Much a circus type of lifestyle as any and hard on relationships. Of those I knew from that era in the 60s/70s many are now gone, the backroom guys like Jon often forgotten as we did not share the limelight of the brave drivers of that era. Thanks for starting this search, I wish you well.

Brian

[BiancaRedgrave]

/Users/Bianca/Desktop/Picture 6.png

I am researching my late father Jon Redgrave who sadly I did not get the chance to meet but I know he was a mechanic with March Engineering in the early 70's. Any information will be greatly received.

Bianca x