Still Crazy after all these (Racing) Years!

Difficult to fathom!

Forty height years of Motorsports. Although, I was already around Sports cars 9 years earlier, fascinated by their beauty… a dismantled engine under repair… an Italian fabricator forming a fender from a flat sheet of aluminum. I had my own mentor, patient with a kid. He was a French Basque and had been a master mechanic at the Bugatti factory. What a start in the racing world before knowing it!

I was 16 and the sparks in my eyes gave confidence to the chief mechanic, allowing me to port a Triumph TR2 cylinder head before a national rally. I was nicknamed “Alain-le-malin” (Alain-the-clever) as I was already searching to perfect anything I could have my hands on. I loved carburetors then… just like NASCAR even today!

Let’s see… Formula Junior 1000cc. Formula 1 without wing and skinny tires. Formula 3 1000cc, Triumph TR2, TR3, Abarth 600 Rally, Formula Vee, Formula Ford, Abarth 850 coupe, Alfa Romeo Giulia. Formula 2 with tubular chassis in 25cd4s and Formula 2 with aluminum tubs (drainage not included!). Lotus Elan GT. Porsche 904-6 Racing tested at 2:00 am in the streets of Brussels. Porsche 911 Carrera driven to Le Mans and back to Brussels after winning the GT category ahead of 14 similar cars including the factory... Did it a second time, although using an open trailer. Volvo 122, Porsche 914-6, Mini Cooper S with rubber or liquid suspension, Super Vee, Ford 2000, Formula 3 2000cc. Hill Climb Formula 3 chassis with Formula 2 engines. Group C. 5 times Le Mans with 2 category victories and more glories. A long list of Touring cars of all kinds and sizes including Front Wheel drives oversteering like an Escort Rally. Nissan GTP as project, team manager and race engineer. Restoration of vintage Shadow Can-Am and Formula 1. Years of CART Indy Cars, qualified 6 drivers at the 500’s and counting 2 fastest rookies of the year. Won a championship in the CART version of Indy Lights called “the real one”. Race engineer and aerodynamicist (chief, mind you!) in Formula 1, Ayrton Senna era. A few GT1 with unexpected results. IMSA WSC redesigned and championship winning and at Le Mans, qualified second a 12 year old Group C transformed in WSC at 1 tenth of the pole and on 4 laps only, as the same engine had to be used for the race. IRL with 1 win and other podiums on 7 races. Restoration of glorious vintage Sports cars. Designed and built a Sports 2000 with composite chassis. Champ Car with surprising results. Various Formula Atlantic with dominating results. Formula BMW. I know, I must forget a few…

While working in Open Wheel racing, people were talking about my experience in Sports car as an oddity. While working in Prototype, people were perceiving me as a hyper Formula car kind of guy. Lucien Bianchi and Vic Elford were my ultimate type of “pilots” capable of competing on top in F2, F1, Sports Prototype, World Rally and International Rally Raid, sometime during the same season. The real breed…No ballerina shoes here!

Mechanic, engine assembler from 2 to 8 cylinders (I miss the 12's). Fabricator, machinist, composite technician, shock engineer, track engineer, design engineer, research engineer and aerodynamicist (I did create new features including wings, still in use today, even in F1… or banned by the rules…). Team manager, project manager, chief engineer, general manager… Almost forgot: driver, technical auto journalist, reporter, PR, truck driver… Who knows what else!

I have been drinking and eating racing… and dust. Sliding on oil, gas, methanol. Drenched in brake-cleaner and boiling water. I have been surrounded by deafening noise. Stoically showered by rain, inadvertently baked by the sun and sizzled by overheated engines and brakes. I have worked 24-7 (don't think I'll do it again!). In freezing cold temperatures and burning 106 degree F. For great and fantastic team owners... dreadful ones as well and every kinds in between. Dealing with lack of money, lack of honesty, lack of understanding how it works. Learned a lot from everyone and still do today. Gained friends for life… many friends for life, thanks to all of them. I have made teams and drivers looking good, very good and better, always improving a car and human capacity.

I am searching for a job…… A place to expend on our human adventure and achieve the best possible results as I always do.

Beside engineering and designing aero, I am a brilliant team leader capable of creating, moving and transforming any program to reach the top, small or big, any championship, any Continent.

Tell a friend; You will be proud of me.                                                           

See you soon on a race track… Better be on my side!


PS: Thanks to all the Facebook Friends having read this post. I appreciate your time and interest. Leave me a comment or a message, I will treasure them all.