Gordon Spice

The Rondeau M379 with which Gordon Spice finished third in the 1980 Le Mans 24-hour race

Gordon Spice (born April 18, 1940 in London ) is a former British automobile racing driver , racing car designer and racing team owner.

Motorsport career as a driver

When Gordon Spice founded Spice Engineering in 1985 and competed in international sports car races with his own designs, the Briton could look back on a career of more than twenty years as a racing driver. Spice drove touring and sports car races and was also active in monoposto racing through Formula 5000 . He raced until 1989.

Success in sports cars

Spice began racing professionally in the mid-1960s. In 1964 he wanted to make his international debut as a driver in the 1000 km race on the Nürburgring on the Nordschleife of the Nürburgring . He was reported as a partner of Chris Lawrence , who owned a Morgan Plus 4 . However, the team did not appear for practice and the race, so the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1964 was actually his debut. Lawrence was his partner again, this time reporting a Deep Sanderson 301 . In the race, a cylinder overheated after just 13 laps and the car had to be parked. He achieved his first notable success in the 6-hour race in Jarama in 1969 . The race was not part of any championship and ended with the victory of Jochen Rindt and Àlex Soler-Roig in a Porche 908/02 . Spice finished third with partner José Juncadella in a Ford GT40 .

In the 1970s, Spice founded his own racing team and used the Ford Capri in touring car races. He was particularly active in the British Touring Car Championship . In 1975 he celebrated seven race wins in class C and reached third place in the final classification of the championship; a placement that is also in the 1980 results. 1978 he won with teammate Teddy Pilette the Spa 24 Hours .

At Le Mans, he crossed the finish line in third place overall after driving 24 hours; both times as a driver in Jean Rondeau's team . In 1980 he and the two Belgian Martin brothers Philippe and Jean-Michel were nine laps behind their victorious teammates Jean Rondeau and Jean-Pierre Jaussaud and seven laps behind second-placed Jacky Ickx and Reinhold Joest in their Porsche 908/80 Turbo . In 1981 , Spice and François Migault were 19 laps behind the winners Jacky Ickx and Derek Bell, far greater than in the previous year. Again, however, two Rondeau came under the top three; Jacky Haran , Jean-Louis Schlesser and Philippe Streiff finished the race one place ahead of Spice.

Race car designer at Spice Engineering

In 1985, Gordon Spice joined the chain of drivers who gave their racing car designs their own name. His brother Derek had already played a leading role in the touring car team and became team boss at Spice Engineering from 1986. In 1984 and 1985 Spice handled the races of Tiga Race Cars and in 1985 won the overall classification of the C2 class of the sports car world championship.

Spice drove with his friend and cockpit partner Ray Bellm , who was a partner and sponsor of the team, until 1989 sports car races with his own designs, then he ended his driving career and concentrated entirely on the management of Spice Engineering. When the team ran into financial difficulties in 1991 and was taken over by an investor, he withdrew completely. 1995 Spice tried the entry into the Formula 1 world championship ; however, the project did not materialize.

Formula 5000

He contested his first Formula 5000 race in 1970 at Oulton Park . The racing event was the second round of the Formula 5000 championship in 1970 . Spice drove a Kitchiner K3A of a 4.7-liter Ford - V8 engine had. He finished sixth, three laps behind Mike Walker in a McLaren M10 B. After a retirement at Brands Hatch , he finished ninth in the third race of the season in Zolder ; again, the gap to the winner was great. This time, Peter Gethin, who also drove a McLaren M10, was missing eight laps .

Spice struggled with the heavy and unwieldy racing car in the first half of the year and achieved his best result to date with fourth place at the Monza race in July . After a fifth place at the Salzburgring , Spice withdrew from the unsuccessful Kitchiner project.

In 1971 he was completely unsuccessful. Only at the last race of the season at Brands Hatch did Spice see the checkered flag; he finished the championship run in seventh. In 1972 , at the beginning of the year, he was involved in a few races with the Kitchmac M10 - which was basically an adapted McLaren M10 in a V8 Chevrolet engine - and finished fourth in Mallory Park in March 1972 .

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1964	Lawrence Tune Engineering	Deep Sanderson 301	Chris Lawrence		failure	Cylinder overheated
1978	Charles Ivey Racing	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	Larry Perkins	John Rulon-Miller	Rank 14
1979	Dome Co. Ltd.	Dome Zero RL	Chris Craft	Tony Trimmer	failure	fuel pump
1980	Belga Jean Rondeau	Rondeau M379	Philippe Martin	Jean-Michel Martin	Rank 3
1981	Otis Jean Rondeau	Rondeau M379	François Migault		Rank 3
1982	Automobiles Rondeau	Rondeau M382	François Migault	Xavier Lapeyre	failure	Engine failure
1984	Spice Tiga Racing	Tiga GC84	Ray Bellm	Neil Crang	failure	Engine failure
1985	Spice engineering	Spice-Tiga GC85	Ray Bellm	Mark Galvin	Rank 14
1986	Spice engineering	Spice SE86C	Ray Bellm	Jean-Michel Martin	Rank 19
1987	Spice engineering	Spice SE86C	Fermín Vélez	Philippe de Henning	Rank 6 and class win
1988	Spice engineering	Spice SE88C	Ray Bellm	Pierre de Thoisy	Rank 13 and class win
1989	Spice engineering	Spice SE89C	Ray Bellm	Lyn St. James	failure	Engine failure

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	19th	20th
1964	Deep Sanderson	Deep Sanderson 301	DAY	SEB	TAR	MON	SPA	CON	ONLY	ROS	LEM	REI	FRE	CCE	RTT	SIM	ONLY	MON	TDF	BRI	BRI	PAR
											DNF
1969	Escuderia Montjuich Nick Gold	Ford GT40 Porsche 906	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	WAT	ZEL
					DNF				DNF
1977	Gordon Spice	Ford Capri	DAY	MUG	DIJ	MON	SIL	ONLY	VAL	BY	WAT	EST	LEC	MOS	IMO	SAL	BRH	HOK	VAL
							15th	23
1978	Ivey Racing	Porsche 911	DAY	SEB	MUG	VALLEY	DIJ	SIL	ONLY	LEM	MIS	DAY	WAT	VAL	ROD
										14th
1979	Dome Spice Racing	Dome Zero RL Ford Capri	DAY	SEB	MUG	VALLEY	DIJ	RIV	SIL	ONLY	LEM	BY	DAY	WAT	SPA	BRH	ROA	VAL	ELS
									11		DNF				5
1980	Jean Rondeau Belga team	Rondeau M379 Ford Capri	DAY	BRH	SEB	MUG	MON	RIV	SIL	ONLY	LEM	DAY	WAT	SPA	MOS	ROA	VAL	DIJ
											3			9
1981	Jean Rondeau Belga team	Rondeau M379 Ford Capri	DAY	SEB	MUG	MON	RIV	SIL	ONLY	LEM	BY	DAY	WAT	SPA	MOS	ROA	BRH
										3				8th
1982	Jean Rondeau	Rondeau M382	MON	SIL	ONLY	LEM	SPA	MUG	FUJ	BRH
				5		DNF	5
1984	Spice Tiga Racing	Tiga GC84	MON	SIL	LEM	ONLY	BRH	MOS	SPA	IMO	FUJ	KYA	SAN
				DNF	DNF	13			9	10			10
1985	Spice engineering	Spice-Tiga GC85	MUG	MON	SIL	LEM	HOK	MOS	SPA	BRH	FUJ	SEL
			7th	7th	11	14th	9	5	9	DNF
1986	Spice engineering	Spice SE86C	MON	SIL	LEM	NOW	BRH	JER	ONLY	SPA	FUJ
			14th	14th	19th		11	5	7th	14th	20th
1987	Spice engineering	Spice SE86C Spice SE87C	JAR	JER	MON	SIL	LEM	NOW	BRH	ONLY	SPA	FUJ
			9	4th	7th	7th	6th	6th	8th	DNF	10	8th
1988	Spice engineering	Spice SE88C	JER	JAR	MON	SIL	LEM	BRÜ	BRH	ONLY	SPA	FUJ	SAN
			7th	7th	8th	8th	13	7th	4th	DNF	6th	DNF	5

Web links

Commons : Gordon Spice  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Gordon Spice at Racing Sports Cars

Individual evidence

1. ↑ 6-hour race of Jarama 1969
2. ↑ Gordon Spice in a Ford Capri 1979 ( Memento from April 10, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
3. ↑ 24-hour race of Spa-Francorchamps 1978 ( Memento of July 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ Tests in Formula 1
5. ^ Formula 5000 race in Qulton Park 1970
6. ^ Formula 5000 race in Zoller 1970
7. ^ Formula 5000 race in Monza 1970
8. ^ Formula 5000 race at the Salzburgring 1970
9. ^ Formula 5000 races at Brands Hatch 1971
10. ^ Formula 5000 race in Mallory Park 1972