Elliott Forbes-Robinson in the Mendeola Transaxles Baja Designs FFR PDG GTM

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Some of you may not know who Elliot Forbes-Robinson is, but likely many of you do. To say that he is a legend in motorsports is a major understatement. To say that he is a nice guy would be an even bigger understatement.

Yes the team had the chance to have EFR behind the wheel of the GTM race car this weekend, and it really could not have gone better.

Even though EFR is going to be 70 next month, he put the coals to it and turned just about the fastest lap time ever for the particular track configuration with the GTM. He was within a couple tenths of a second...and he fealt like there was a ton more...and he did it on some pretty well used tires...and not our best brake setup!

Throughout the entire day of testing he was the consumate professional and there was NEVER even a hint of arrogance or being a primadona, or anything like that. He was simply a very experienced driver, that was already going very fast, attempting to make the car and team faster. He was an absolute blast to work with, and I must say that I am VERY honored to have had the opportunity, and I also very much look forward to being a co-driver with him in this years 2012 25 Hours of Thunderhill in the GTM! No matter what happens, this is going to be A TON OF FUN!!

The stories in the trailer were ALMOST as great as having him coach myself and the other driver that was in attendance with the GTM on how he thought we could improve not only our lap times, but our consistancy.

This really is the stuff that dreams are made of, and it has all been part of the journey of building and driving a Factory Five Racing GTM!

Big THANK YOU to Dave Smith and all those at Factory Five Racing that turn out a wonderful product!

[CHOTIS BILL]

I went to school and soloed with EFR back in the early 60’s and you are right he is one of the truly nice guys. I haven’t seen him in many years and if you have a chance would you say HI to him for me.

Thanks,

Bill Lomenick

[crash]

Will do Bill.

If you have any contact info you would like him to have for you, I would be happy to pass that along as well. You can PM me or whatever you feel comfortable with.

[crash]

Thought I might post up this press release item by David Ray in regards to this last weekends adventures with EFR. It will be published in a local Stockton newspaper as well as in a couple racing publications. It will also be able to be found shortly on the www.hookedondriving.com website under the "blog" area. Since it has not been released yet, here ya go...

Our “Evening with Elliott” (Forbes-Robinson)

The “Evening with Elliott” took place after a Hooked On Driving event at Thunderhill Raceway in Willows, CA on Sept. 22nd. I could go on for two pages about Elliott Forbes-Robinson’s career as a professional racer; 3 time Daytona Champion, Trans Am Champion, Baja 1000 Champion, Pikes Peak Hill Climb Champion, ALMS Champion. Enough already! Google him and you’ll find a treasure trove of fun stuff. But what I haven’t said yet is, he is a really, really good guy.
Being a part of the Prototype Development Race team (Home ), I’ve had a number of adventures, highs and lows over the last 4 years as we’ve taken on the longest endurance race in the world, the NASA 25 Hours of Thunderhill. Richard and Yvonne Migliori, Team owners, have doubled down this year with a complete rebuild of the warrior GTM #4, and are really giving a significant effort to performing well in the 2012 race. Enter Elliott. Through a friend of a friend in the networking of drivers, Elliott was discovered as “always up for a challenge” and agreed to come out and test the GTM and get to know the team. This took place at our HOD event this past Saturday, and everyone got along great. Elliott enjoyed the home-engineered GTM, and at the end of the day, committed to join the team for this year’s race. To say the least, the team is VERY excited by having a Motorsports Hall of Fame member driving with them. And as a bonus, EFR turns out to be a true gentleman, humble with his polished inputs on the car, and very happy being “one of the guys.” While there is a lot of work to be done, we can’t wait for the race! Note: For those lucky enough to be attending SEMA in Las Vegas, the GTM will be polished up and on display in the Baja Designs show booth this year.
We snagged Elliott after our day’s end BBQ and asked him to share some stories and ask some questions. The group that stayed was captivated by this legend of motorsports….here is some of the fun stuff I recall:
 On his amazing career and how he marketed himself: He really didn’t. Simply put, folks would ask him if he wanted to drive this car or that, and almost all the time he said “Yes!” (Editorial comment – it helped that he won races from the very beginning!)
 Favorite car: Nissan GTP ZX Turbo – Run in qualifying trim at 1200 horsepower. 220mph on the main straight at Riverside, won three championships. He added a story about the tires on this car – Bridgestones. There was one issue with the car – it was too fast and created too much downforce for the tire technology of the day. Occasionally, a tire would literally explode under load. This was always followed by a nasty crash. The Bridgestone engineers had not been prepared for a car that could do 220mph in a heartbeat, AND carried 4500lbs of downforce at speed. Yikes. Apparently EFR is a TRUE speed freak, and luckily survived a brutal crash at Riverside when said tire disintegrated.
 Least favorite race car: Pantera GTS
 Favorite race: While he admitted to many favorites, we made him pick one. The Baja 1000. He was chatting with his wife, who is a very informed supporter, and she admitted that “the Baja sounds like fun!” He took her up on the indicated interest, asked her to be navigator, and they teamed up for a class win.
 The power of persistence – EFR finished 5th 6 times at the Daytona 24 Hour race before he won it three times.
 EFR admitted that there are probably more low points than high points in any racing career. But the reason he kept going is that one high point can carry him a long way.
 Our favorite EFR quote: “Being fast should be easy. If you’re working, thrashing, tossing, clenching and sweating, you’re not going as fast as you can.” Yes, he made it sound easy, but HOD tries to pass on this simple but very hard to live by point – relax, get in a rhythm, don’t push the car, and the car will respond in a relaxed way to your relaxed input and the result will be speed (paraphrasing).
 He also commented on why he is technically so fast: “Many teams that I have driven for have drivers who brake later, and even carry a higher average speed at apex. But somehow, I’m about 1.5 seconds faster. My secret is getting to the throttle early and often.”
 Pikes Peak Hill Climb: Good news – no guard rails – Bad news – no guard rails!
 Lately, when he talks about his racing career to younger people, he’s been a bit taken back when he says that he raced for Paul Newman’s team, and they ask “Who’s that?” !
Lastly, I’ll make an observation from having met EFR, and reading the very well-done Car & Driver profile of him from a couple of years ago. He lives on a beautiful lake in North Carolina. And while he is still up for a fight on the race track, his home reflects a different man. The writer who visited his home noticed that he hardly had any race pictures or trophies out on display in this home. When asked why, Elliott simply replied, “I put the important stuff up – grandkids, kids and family…” Nuff said about our new, very special friend Elliott Forbes Robinson.

David Ray, www.hookedondriving.com

[Racebrewer]

I met EFR about 30 years ago at Lime Rock. He was a class act then and I'm sure that he's only gotten better.

John

[Mike N]

So glad to see that the hard work of the PDG team once again is getting a little boost, fantastic opportunity for the team to have EFR get some seat time and to be able to provide another perspective on car set up and tuning. Congratulations!

And on a separate note, I never realized that I had EFR as a neighbor