Terry Kirby - Club Racer

So, you have heard of Stirling Moss, Jim Clark, Graham Hill and Mike Hawthorne. Racing legends, household names and much more. For all of these legends there are people who had the talent but for one reason or another never quite rose to the higher eschillions.

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Terry Kirby. Terry was an active racer between 1964 to 1968 racing Mini's and E-Type Jaguars around Goodwood and Castle Coombe amongst others, racing for Janspeed and then for Delltune. 

He is also a family member and one of the reasons I got into fast cars. Whenever he came to our house he either had a quick car or a fast motorbike.

Terry is looking to get in touch with anyone that worked at Janspeed between 1964 to 1966 at the Park Street premises in Salisbury. If you are one of these people or know someone that did, please get in touch with me via the blog, Facebook or Twitter. Terry is also on Facebook

Terry gave me this interview about this time in and life afterwards as well as some photos, documents and news paper cuttings.

How did you get involved in racing?

John Fenning (ex Janspeed and Lotus Formula 3 driver) was my neighbor and very often I would go with him and his family to various racing events in the UK and Europe and I was his mechanic. We built cars, go karts and motorbikes from bits at John Fenning's dad's coach-works in Stockbridge and had a great time. Pre WW2, John Fennings dad used to race motorbikes and has all sorts of parts laying around. When I was de-mobbed from National Service, John Fenning picked me up from Liverpool Street Station and took me up to the Lotus factory. We met Colin Chapman he allowed us to take the measurements of the Lotus 22 Formula Junior car and we built a copy of it. He did all the braising of the tubes and I did all of the cutting and scarfing of all of the tubes. We put it all together and John raced it. Another time we made a go Kart in the Coach works using a Manx Norton Engine. We made a course and took turns in lapping the kart. While I was taking one of my turns, John threw a bucket of water about two thirds of the way down a straight coming into a corner. I was speeding along and saw this water and there was not a lot I could do and I crashed the Kart though the leg of a bench.

How did you get the job with Janspeed?

I was working in the Garage one day and the phone rang. It was Jan Odor from Janspeed and they were looking for a Head Grinder for gas flow cylinder heads and asked if I would be interested. I was a Chippy at the time so i took the job. That was in 1964.

You are now working for Janspeed, how did your first race come about?

Jan asked me if I would like to be a Marshall at Castle Combe for a local car club that had a meeting there. Jan's partner, Tom Sayer was going to race the Mini that they had prepared. We arrived at Castle Combe very early so that they could test the car around the circuit. After Tom and Jan had a go, Jan offered me a go and I lapped the car about 4 seconds quicker than anyone else. When i got out, Jan offered me the drive and I took it and won the race.

Janspeed Mini's at Castle Combe

How was the Mini to race?

Being front wheel drive at the time it was different, you still threw it into corners without really using the breaks. The last Mini I drove had a 5 speed gearbox with a gate. Once you came off the line you did not use the clutch again, you tapped the gear stick and it went straight through and you kept the foot hard on the accelerator and it went up 150 RPM while it went through the neutral. It also had a limited slip diff. That made a hell of a difference. It was fabulous. 

Terry at Goodwood 3rd of April 1965

Terry in the leading Mini at Goodwood

What made you leave Janspeed and go to Delltune?

Jan's policy was never to keep a car longer than 6 months, I would be points ahead halfway through the season and Jan would sell the car to a customer and we would start again. This went on for the two years I was there and got fed up with not getting anywhere. I did not have the money to do it myself, I needed sponsors. That's when i left and went to Delltune. I was talking to Tony Shaw owner of Delltune and he offered me a drive in his E-Type Jaguar.

This was in 1966.

What was the E-Type like to race?

As a road car it was great it drove like a Morris 1000 you could steer it with one hand.  Racing it at 145mph I was holding on to the door to keep it shut. With the suspension lowered and in race trim it was quick and easy to drive. You used to get to the second lap and there would be no brakes. they faded so quickly.

Terry coming in from winning his race at Castle Combe

Terry leading John Chatham's Austin Healy at Castle Combe

Terry had just been overtaken by Ron Fry in his Ford GT40 at Castle Combe

What was the worst racing incident you had?

I wrote Tony Shaw's E-Type off at Castle Combe. I went to see Paul Ivy before the race. Paul used to buy spare tyres from teams and sell them to those that needed them. I bought some scrubbed Dunlop slick tyres from him. These were the first dry tyres that Dunlop had made. At Castle Coombe, it could rain one side of the track and be dry the other side. Tony came into the pits as we were running a new motor in that we had built and told me that it was spitting at the back end of the track. I did not think about it. I went through Quarry corner and screaming down the back straight and then the car began aquaplaning, it would not change direction or anything. I even tried the handbrake and that did not stop the car. Instead of going around the corner, it hit the bank and took off and landed upside down in the next field. A tractor driver saw the incident and thought it was a plane crash. I got out of the car because I thought it was going to catch fire.
I tried to run but fell flat on my face because my legs were damaged.
I heard the car coming around to look for me they stopped at the bank and shortly after carried on as they had not realized where I was. The tractor driver found me and then Tony found his way to us. The tractor driver said to Tony "I think you better get an ambulance". Tony looked at me, looked at the E-Type and said "nah, he's ok" 

Below are cuttings of  local newspapers reporting and showing the damaged E-Type

Did the crash end your time as a racing driver?

Yes as I  was broke. Delltune the Garage and the E-Type were Tony's. I was at Delltune doing the tuning of cars. Everything I made, Tony had half. That was the deal we had. I sold my 1100 Anglia to get some money for tyres, enrty fee's and spares and I was forever borrowing money from my parents. When the E-Type got written off I called it a day as I had spent a lot of my money on it and could not afford to carry on. I had also met my wife at this point so I walked away from it. That was in 1968.

How many races roughly did you compete in?

Around 40 with some good results and victories.

Below photoed is a trophy from Goodwood for second place.

Amazingly, the lighter still works.

Did you ever use your driving skills to get you out of trouble on public roads?

Yes, I was going along a road doing around 90mph and I saw a policeman in the distance so i began to slow down. By the time i got to him, I was going a little over 70mph. He caught up and waved me over. He pulled up to me and asked if I knew why I had been pulled over. I said yes. He took a quick look at the car and said "I clocked you doing 70mph I will knock 10 off of that which takes it down to 60mph" and he let me go. It turned out he was impressed with my braking skills.

Do you have any other stories that come to mind?

Yes, I was lucky enough to take the Lister Jaguar for a drive. I took it up to 150mph on the road between Andover and Middle Wallop. That was a quick car.

Below is a picture of the Lister Jaguar in action at the Goodwood Revival

Another that springs to mind is about 3 months ago I had a call from a chap at Weyhill who wanted me to look at a part he had made for a Jaguar, so I went up and had a look, everything looked good. As I was on my way out I said something about an XK8 he had outside. The chap said do you want a ride? So I said ok then expecting him to drive and he threw me the key and said have fun. I did.

Below are more photo's press cuttings and racing documents fro Terry's time as a driver. All photo's of the E-Type were taken at Castle Combe.

News paper clippings and racing documents