PHIL KEEN: A CHAMPIONSHIP OR FIVE MORE YEARS RACING? I’D CHOOSE THE RACING
For this week’s Motorsport News readers’ Q&A we are in the presence of GT racing royalty. Phil Keen in his Lamborghini Huracan is a fixture in the British GT championship as well as further afield. He’s also a historic racer and became a YouTube sensation by taking his Lister Jaguar Knobbly through the field to win at the 2018 Goodwood Revival after starting from the pits.
And in Keen’s home British GT contest, while he’s somehow so far missed out on the overall title, he’s been the driving standard bearer for years. He’s won more races overall than anyone in the category, and in 2020 – although notorious Silver Cup vs Pro-Am vagaries often impeded him – he underlined his continued status as the fastest thing out there by taking seven fastest laps from the nine races.
But, as we find out from your enquiries, there’s a lot more to Keen even so. Many of his answers might surprise you. We find out variously about his love of motorcycle racing, of driving a Honda Civic road car and of his fascination for tractors… But let’s start with what he’s best known for.
Question: It’s your last race – do you choose the Huracan, the Lister Knobbly or something else? And where to race it? David Harbey Photography
Via Twitter
Phil Keen: “I’ve never been to Bathurst, so I’d like to drive around Bathurst in a Lola T70 3B. It’s a sportscar from I think the seventies [late 1960s, actually]. It’s just the connection with the car, it’s got a massive V8, lightweight, it’s a manual gearbox, noABS, it’s on a radial tyre. It’s a proper car to drive and to drive round somewhere like Bathurst would be an eyeopener, especially if it’s my last-ever race!
“It’s good to go somewhere I’ve never been before and I’ve always watched it [Bathurst] on TV and I really enjoy the circuits that have no run-off, that are all concrete walls and no room for error.
“I’m all up for safety, don’t get me wrong, but they’ve ruined a lot of circuits these days by making big run-off areas and it means it’s very easy to find the limit.
“Obviously I don’t want to see people get hurt, but at the same time I like circuits that you have to build up to and respect. You go to Silverstone these days and you can drive off the circuit at every corner, there’s no real challenge or there’s no real penalty if you run wide anymore. If you look, Goodwood’s never changed and a lot of the circuits inAmerica haven’t, RoadAtlanta, places like that, they’re proper old-school circuits that haven’t been tampered with.”
MN: Do you feel circuits like that separate the good and not so good drivers a bit better?
“Yeah and
