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Desiré Wilson


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#51 GMiranda

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Posted 24 April 2023 - 19:33

Here's another bio of Desire Wilson.
Desire Randall was born on 26 November 1953 at Brakpan (near Johannesburg) in South Africa. She married Alan Wilson and she was mainly known as Desire Wilson. She began to race in his native land, taking part in Formula Vee races and winning the South African Formula Ford championship. She came in Europa and took part in the Bénélux Formula Ford 2000 championship. She also won Formula Ford 200 races in England.

She started to race in F1 in 1978, not in Grand Prix but in the British Aurora AFX Championship. She drove an aged Ensign N175 MN04 Cosworth and in his first race at Oulton Park (24 June) she retired. Geoff Lees failed to qualify the same car in the British GP three weeks later. Desire Wilson finished the next races she took part: she was 6th at Mallory Park, 4th at Brands Hatch, third (and first podium) at Thruxton and 6th at Snetterton.

In 1979 the Aurora Championship became more international. The first round was at Zolder in Belgium and the championship came three time in the Continent, also at Zandvoort for the seventh round and Nogaro (France) for the tenth round. Desire Wilson was entered by the Melchester Racing and drove the Tyrrel 008/3 (ex Patrick Depailler in 1978). At the opening race, Wilson knew the circuit and was one of the fastest during the practice. For the race it rained and the Tyrrel had the best tunings. Desire took the lead but spun. She finally finished third and scored 5 point (4 + 1 for the fastest lap). Desire Wilson finished again third at Oulton Park and ninth in the race of champions at Brands Hatch (but third of the Aurora contenders). The rest of the season was not so brilliant and she was classified 7th in the championship, scoring 8 times.

1980 stayed as one of his best season. She took part again in the Aurora championship, driving the Wolf WR4 Cosworth. On April 7 she became the first - and to date, the only - woman to win a F1 race, the second round of the Aurora championship at Brands Hatch. She led from start to finish. Later that year she won with Alain de Cadenet the Monza 1000km and Silverstone 6 Hour World Endurance Championship events (de Cadenet-Cosworth).

She got an entry for the British GP at Brands Hatch with a Williams FW07 run by John Macdonald's RAM team. In unofficial testing, with the full field present, she was an excellent 12th faster. It was the first time she'd drive a sliding skirt ground effect car. Then it came the official qualifying two weeks later. She noticed immediately that she didn't fit the car properly. In fact she didn't drive the same car. It was a different chassis number. When shed got out on the track, it was a million miles away from the car she'd driven before. She was two seconds slower that she'd been then and didn't qualify. After Wilson knew the truth. The car she'd driven in the test was the Williams FW07 that Emilio de Villota used for a few GP that year. For the British GP she'd been given Eliseo Salazar's Aurora car which had been set up to run without the skirts which were banned in that series. The team just fitted the skirts and delivered it to the track. No wonder it didn't work.

In February 1981 the war FISA-FOCA was at its height. The South African race was held under the FOCA banner and "regulations": wings but no turbo (Ferrari, Renault and Alfa Romeo were not present). It was a dress rehearsal for the Cosworth-engined teams. Four drivers were making their GP debuts, including Désiré Wilson in the second Tyrrel 010. She qualified 16th in 1'15"56, just 0.59" adrift of experienced team-mate Eddie Cheever. This despite not having sat in the car before practice, not having sat in any race for 5 months. In the race, our novice stalled at the start and had to be push-started into action, with the rest of the field long-gone. The number 4 Tyrrel set off with a purpose and as rain began to fall, Wilson felt all was not lost. Not only did the car subsequently catch the end of train, it the began to pick other off. Fellow debutantes Siegfried Stohr and Eliseo Salazar were the first to fall. Cheever, his own team-mate, was the next. Then the rain stopped and Wilson, now on the wrong tyres, slid back down the order, briefly emerging on top in a tussle with a tyre troubled Nigel Mansell before getting on the power a little too hard and early and smiting the wall into retirement after 51 laps (the gearbox was damaged).

Ken Tyrrel when he entered Desire Wilson was not paid off. He was looking for sponsors. For the next races the wealthy Argentinean Ricardo Zunino was on the seat of the second Tyrrel. Later in the season Ken would prefer a young Italian called Michele Alboreto.

Wilson then moved to the United States of America, where she also drove Indy cars for a while. In May 1982, Desire was the second woman (after Janet Guthrie) to enter the Indy 500 and the second to pass the rookie test. She made one unsuccessful attempt to qualify, but set a then-record for a woman driver at Indy at 191.042 mph on the third lap of his qualifying run. She pulled off with one of her six engine failures that month.

In 1983 she entered Indy again but didn't complete a rookie refresher test. The same year she competed in 8 Indy-style races with a March-Ford. A 10th-place finish in the Cleveland 500K on a steamy hot August 3, 1983, in her debut turned out to be her best.

In 1984 she passed rookie refresher but didn't make a qualification attempt. She drove a Porsche in the Sportscars World Championship.

In 1986 she made three other Indycar races (March-Ford) and her final Indy race was October 12, 1986 at Laguna Seca. The Indy statistics showed that she won $102,765 during her career.

She continued racing in many forms of motor racing including outings at Le Mans and Daytona. In 1997 she drove the Pace car at Homestead which prompted the formation of the female PPG Pace Car Team. Recently, she has worked with her husband Allen Wilson running a motorsports consulting business.

This is my answer in a previous 8W-game, the special non-championship.

Ealier in 1980 Bernie Ecclestone called her and told her she would put her on the second Brabham for the South African G.P., but there would be no chance to test it before. However, he never called again and Ken Tyrrell called some weeks later, telling her he was interested on her for the race and that Bernie wouldn't call again. She said it was a dream coming true, because driving for Ken, who had discovered so many talents, was an honour. Ken wanted her to drive the second car but he had no money, the team was running almost sponsorless. However, when Kevin Cogan - her teammate and replacement in 1980 Aurora AFX - appeared with some money, she was sidelined. The same when Ricardo Zunino funded the South American rounds. Arriving to Europe, Alboreto managed to bring Italian money to the team and the rest is history.



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#52 sabrejet

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Posted 24 April 2023 - 19:56

Rarely mentioned is Desiré Wilson’s place in the #40 Spice SE90C at the 1991 Le Mans 24 Hours, partnered with Lyn St. James and Cathy Muller.

 

The occasion must rate a mention since it marked the first time that a three-woman team competed at Le Mans; Tomiko Yoshikawa had also been slated to drive the car but was unable to drive – as I recall, because of licence issues, with Muller replacing her. A prized possession is my '91 LM programme, autographed by all four drivers.

 

The race was also notable for seeing two #40 cars, with the first chassis being replaced following a practice crash. The “number two” #40 was displayed at FoS a few years ago.



#53 GMiranda

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Posted 24 April 2023 - 20:03

Rarely mentioned is Desiré Wilson’s place in the #40 Spice SE90C at the 1991 Le Mans 24 Hours, partnered with Lyn St. James and Cathy Muller.

 

The occasion must rate a mention since it marked the first time that a three-woman team competed at Le Mans; Tomiko Yoshikawa had also been slated to drive the car but was unable to drive – as I recall, because of licence issues, with Muller replacing her. A prized possession is my '91 LM programme, autographed by all four drivers.

 

The race was also notable for seeing two #40 cars, with the first chassis being replaced following a practice crash. The “number two” #40 was displayed at FoS a few years ago.

Yes, the team was Japanese, and it was an all-female effort idea from Yoshikawa, if I'm not mistaken. She couldn't get the license because she had no experience, so they asked Cathy Muller. The car had a lot of troubles, and Desiré said in an interview that it was David Prewitt who mostly helped them because the Japanese squad had no experience with the Spice.



#54 marksixman

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Posted 26 April 2023 - 13:47

Rarely mentioned is Desiré Wilson’s place in the #40 Spice SE90C at the 1991 Le Mans 24 Hours, partnered with Lyn St. James and Cathy Muller.

 

 

Yes, the team was Japanese, and it was an all-female effort idea from Yoshikawa, if I'm not mistaken. She couldn't get the license because she had no experience, so they asked Cathy Muller. The car had a lot of troubles, and Desiré said in an interview that it was David Prewitt who mostly helped them because the Japanese squad had no experience with the Spice.

 

The whole "Pink Spice" Le Mans episode is covered in detail in Desiré's book 'Driven by Desire', and it is an absolutely hilarious tale, and somewhat worrying in that the organisers were (and still are) paranoid that drivers had to be suitably qualified, but clearly gave no thought to the team and mechanics, who in this case should not have been in the garage, let alone working on a car ! Dave Prewitt was indeed a saviour for the team, supply both a replacement car, and technical help. Credit should also go to Cathy Muller, who, being French, negotiated the team through numerous potential brick walls with the ACO.

 

I was working on Preston Henn's Porsche 935K3 which Des drove at  the Brands Hatch 6 Hours in 1981. She was very impressive for her first time in a big, heavy, sports car, and the first time in a turbocharged car. She was faster in practice than her much more experienced (in that type of car) co-driver Edgar Doren, and faster than most of the other 935s. Sadly the race did not go well as the car suffered damage from the debris of another car's accident, and spent a long time in the pits. Her best race lap was a second quicker than next quickest Porsche, the 935 of Bobby Rahal. 

 

Many years later I met her at a Goodwood Revival, where she was driving, of all things, a Ford Anglia belonging to my good friend Nigel Hulme. I wasn't working on the car that year, but was hanging around it a bit, and she came up to me a one point and said "didn't you work for that cowboy Henn at Brands way back". So, damn good driver, with a damn good memory !


Edited by marksixman, 26 April 2023 - 13:48.


#55 john aston

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Posted 27 April 2023 - 05:46

Ah Preston Henn... we encountered him and his very loud entourage in the Cavallino restaurant , opposite  the Ferrari factory. It was easy to overhear the conversations (actually impossible to ignore it ) - if memory serves he was there to collect his FXX. And my God , those guys could eat  - after Bistecka Fiorentinas they ordered more ,to  go. Later googling of Mr Henn revealed a ...colourful...past .      



#56 Mallory Dan

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Posted 27 April 2023 - 08:00

Yes John, T-Bird Swap Shop...I wonder what all that was about, sounds a little like a "Turkish Barber" which our high streets are full of nowadays.



#57 Nemo1965

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Posted 27 April 2023 - 08:02

Regarding the attempt at Brands Hatch: I've read in two different accounts (out of the top of my head: Heinz Prüller, yearbook 1980 or 1981, Autocourse Yearbook 1980) Jacques Laffite openly mused he had effed up Wilson's qualifying run. With words similar to 'To put her in her place.' Mind you, I've read and heard from male F1-drivers themselves the same happpened to them, just the big boys showing them 'their place'. The incident did not have to have been purely misogynistic.*

 

By the way: the story about Frank Williams giving Wilson a half-prepared excuse of a car... it is so seldom mentioned this was Frank Williams modus operandi until he hit it big: prepare a knock-me-down as new or at most second-handed and spit-polished it to sell. His protests against enabling F1-teams to buy parts from bigger teams therefore always irked me, it was supremely hypocritical.

 

 

* Huub Rothengatter once told me Keke Rosberg once banged straight into his back in one of his first raceweekends, just because Huub had been in Keke's way during qualifying. And Rothengatter also told me this was par for the course: before there were camera's on every corner, rookies were bullied into being subservient to the drivers of the big teams.


Edited by Nemo1965, 27 April 2023 - 08:04.


#58 Tim Murray

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Posted 27 April 2023 - 08:24

By the way: the story about Frank Williams giving Wilson a half-prepared excuse of a car... it is so seldom mentioned this was Frank Williams modus operandi until he hit it big: prepare a knock-me-down as new or at most second-handed and spit-polished it to sell. His protests against enabling F1-teams to buy parts from bigger teams therefore always irked me, it was supremely hypocritical.


This had nothing to do with Frank Williams. Wilson was driving for the RAM team in one of their privately-owned FW07s.

#59 Michael Ferner

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Posted 27 April 2023 - 09:49

Apart from that, it sounds like accusing a used racing car dealer of used car dealer practices.



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#60 marksixman

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Posted 27 April 2023 - 11:48

Ah Preston Henn... we encountered him and his very loud entourage in the Cavallino restaurant , opposite  the Ferrari factory. It was easy to overhear the conversations (actually impossible to ignore it ) - if memory serves he was there to collect his FXX. And my God , those guys could eat  - after Bistecka Fiorentinas they ordered more ,to  go. Later googling of Mr Henn revealed a ...colourful...past .      

And I bet Preston had a Banana Buttermilk drink to go ! 

 

Apart from the odd cup of tea it was all I ever saw him drink.


Edited by marksixman, 27 April 2023 - 11:49.


#61 Nemo1965

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Posted 27 April 2023 - 13:40

This had nothing to do with Frank Williams. Wilson was driving for the RAM team in one of their privately-owned FW07s.


Ah, I stand corrected. John MacDonald. Oh dear. That explains a lot…

#62 kevins

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Posted 28 April 2023 - 06:49

Ah, I stand corrected. John MacDonald. Oh dear. That explains a lot…

Hi, sorry for going OT, my knowledge of things past is not on par with you guys so I just read the postings here. So, I honestly don't know the reputation of John MacDonald but to add a little balance I must tell you of my personal experience.

 

In the mid 80's I think I was trying to develop a data logger for use in racing (nothing came of it) and was at a meeting in Mondello in Ireland and spotted him in the awning of a team, it must have been a EFDA FF2000 round. I decided to see if I could get his advice, he could not have been more helpful and generous with his time, and encouraging with my project. I was impressed that an ex F1 guy would take the time to speak to a nobody like me.



#63 john aston

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Posted 28 April 2023 - 14:55

And I bet Preston had a Banana Buttermilk drink to go ! 

 

Apart from the odd cup of tea it was all I ever saw him drink.

  

 

I think he'd have been thrown out of Italy. let alone Maranello for asking  for such a horror. We drank local Lambrusco - can't remember what the Henn crew drank but I think we'd remember (if we hadn't died laughing first) if tough guy Preston  had asked for a Banana Buttermilk .... 



#64 marksixman

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Posted 28 April 2023 - 16:13

I think he'd have been thrown out of Italy. let alone Maranello for asking  for such a horror. We drank local Lambrusco - can't remember what the Henn crew drank but I think we'd remember (if we hadn't died laughing first) if tough guy Preston  had asked for a Banana Buttermilk .... 

I am quite sure you are right John, on all counts, in such a restaurant setting, and especially in Italy !

 

But at a circuit we had to make sure there was always a supply of chilled buttermilk !!  No accounting for taste.



#65 LittleChris

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Posted 28 April 2023 - 20:34

Racing Legend Denied a LaFerrari Aperta Drops Lawsuit, Says Acura NSX Is Better than LaFerrari Anyway (roadandtrack.com)

 

The word narcissist is apparently over used these days, so how about self obsessed t w a t    :D


Edited by LittleChris, 28 April 2023 - 20:35.


#66 marksixman

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Posted 29 April 2023 - 08:00

Racing Legend Denied a LaFerrari Aperta Drops Lawsuit, Says Acura NSX Is Better than LaFerrari Anyway (roadandtrack.com)

 

The word narcissist is apparently over used these days, so how about self obsessed t w a t    :D

There were several sides to Preston Henn, and whilst I hesitate to use the term 'successful businessman', he had made himself a lot of money over the years. But, broadly speaking (sorry Eric !) , I cannot bring myself to disagree with your summarization Chris !

 

However, this thread is titled "Desiré Wilson", and, although it was I who introduced Henn to the conversation (through one of her drives in one of his cars) perhaps we should get back on topic !  I am sure that if there is enough interest someone will start a "Preston Henn" thread, but perhaps we should all get lawyered up in advance !!



#67 Tim Murray

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Posted 29 April 2023 - 08:27

There’s an existing Preston Henn thread:

Preston Henn (merged)