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Kerry Adams: career memories

I first raced at Silverstone in Formula 1 in 1970 for Frank Williams in the De Tomaso along with Piers Courage. It was all pretty new and exciting stuff to me at the time. Looking back, the circuit had old fencing and grass, no gravel. First time out on the circuit was exciting, I was racing against heroes of mine, people I had read about and whose names I was very aware of but had not met at that point. To be out on track with them was very special.

I left my native New Zealand to work in Australia for a company which ran cars for Chris Amon and Derek Bell in the Tasmin series. Other drivers in the series included Graham Hill and Piers Courage. I then came across to Europe and went to live in Modena. I saw Frank Williams' truck pull into the town, he was busy putting a team together with De Tomaso so I approached him. He asked me to do a couple of Can-Am races. De Tomaso had bought a McLaren M6 and wanted to race, but that never materialised but he then asked me to do a couple of Formula 1 races.

We soldiered on until Piers death at Zandvoort. My next year racing was with Pescarolo. I was fortunate to race in a number of series including Formula 1, Formula 2, Can-Am and historic Can-Am.

I eventually set up my own company to manufacture parts for historic race cars and I now run a historic race team. I'm at Silverstone Classic with three cars raced by Count Rossi. It's wonderful to come back to the circuit and see the luxurious pit facilities, quite a change from my first time here!

I came to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix this year, my brother-in-law had a motor home and I stayed in a tent. Thankfully the weather was good and it was a great event and the racing was fabulous.

Kerry Adams

Kerry was interviewed at the Silverstone Classic Historic Race Festival

Memory added on August 11, 2013

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