Formula One
The 1980 Shadow - here being driven by Kennedy's team-mate Geoff Lees
You made it for Formula 1 but it was not in the most glamorous style?
I’d raced in the British Formula 1 Aurora series for Teddy Yip Snr. winning on my debut and producing several giant killing performances after that. I was a marked man as a guy on the way up. Derek had taken the more conventional route, going into F2. I also went to Australia and raced in the Formula 1/Formula 5000 series, winning there as well. I had a good CV and my team-mate when I got into F1 was my former F3 sparring partner, Stefan Johansson who went on to race for Ferrari and McLaren. At Shadow we didn’t have a good car.
I particularly remember in Brazil trying to qualify. The corner past the pits wasn’t the Senna chicane then, it was a 180 mph long corner and the key was to take it flat. But my steering locked up as the chassis used to flex. You’d have position both your hands on one side of the steering wheel to try and lever it round at 180 mph as the Armco barrier was approaching. It was insane. I remember coming into the pits sweating blood from my eyeballs from the effort of it all and I looked in the mirrors as Stefan came in behind me and I could see the fear in his eyes. The car used to move and you could hear it creak as you were committed to the corner and you didn't know if you could turn into the corner or not. We failed to qualify and after Teddy Yip bought into the team, we got a new car, the DN12 but we never got the chance to develop it. I still regard that time, with all the DNQs as a success in one way, it being a success that my legs are still attached to my arse. So that was 1980, my F1 run.
I remember coming into the pits sweating blood from my eyeballs from the effort of it all and I looked in the mirrors as Stefan came in behind me and I could see the fear in his eyes
After that I did Can-Am and Sports Cars. I did go to the States to take a serious look at doing Indy Car. I remember going to Phoenix watching the cars doing 21 second laps in those aluminium monocoques pop riveted together and your feet out ahead of the front axle. It dawned on me that this was something you had to be really careful about. I’d had several bad experiences in the Shadow. I recall a fabulous 170 mph corner in Argentina and basically, if the skirts (the aero parts that sucked the F1 cars onto the track) worked and stayed down you went round the corner, if they stayed up you’d crash. You’d get about 2 laps in qualifying before the skirts failed and the suspension broke and earlier on the Saturday morning I’d noticed they’d parked a load of old 50s style fire trucks on the outside of this corner and during qualifying I got into a slide at around 160 mph and I knew that if I didn’t take this corner flat out I would not be quick enough to qualify. As a young driver you just keep your foot in and hope against hope that it will work. It didn’t and I spun and I waited to hit those fire engines and die. The car stopped, I was still alive, so I poked my head back out of the car and saw they’d decided to move the trucks to the other side of the track! Otherwise it would have been David Kennedy RIP – Rest in Pieces.
My second huge accident was at Snetterton at Riches corner – a fourth gear turn at 150 mph and as I went to turn, the car didn’t. I missed the sleepers they used as barriers by inches and went off into a field of potatoes. I thought, ‘What a way for an Irishman to die, killed by potatoes.’ It was either famine or feast clearly. I was surfing across this field seemingly on my way to London, ploughing up potatoes and ruining the crop. The mechanics told me the suspension had come off once before. I told them that was unacceptable. Once again, l wanted to take control of the situation to ensure it never happened again, just as I did with Daly and the plane tickets and passports on the way to Australia.
I moved into driver management and some of my charges achieved substantial success: Ralf Firman, Richard Lyons, Damian Faulkner and Robert Wickens
The Sports Car days, driving for Mazda worked very well for me and I got three class wins and I finished fifth at Le Mans the year Mazda became the only Japanese manufacturer to win the famous race. That was the heyday of Sports Cars and it’s great to see they’re coming back with the popularity of WEC. Before that, I’d met Martin Birrane (former racer and businessman) and we raced in the British Thundersport series. I stayed in touch with Martin ever since and was instrumental in him buying Mondello Park circuit in Ireland and I am still a director there.
After that, I retired from racing, ran Grand Prix Racewear, the biggest European clothing and equipment supplier and I also ran racing car exhibitions in London and Tokyo. I moved into driver management and some of my charges achieved substantial success: Ralf Firman, Richard Lyons, Damian Faulkner and Robert Wickens. I enjoy giving people an opportunity to show their real talent. Maybe partly there’s a sense of unfinished business in terms of what I achieved as a driver.
Breakfast? It was lunchtime by now and the stories just kept coming. Maybe some other time…
