Lord Thomas Alexander Femor Hesketh, the portly, wealthy, eccentric, fun-loving owner of Eastor Nestor castle in Towcester, inherited a mega family fortune at the age of 21. He frequently visited the nearby Silverstone circuit. That was where he met a bunch of company of young people from London including Frank Williams, Piers Courage, Jonathan Williams and driver Antony “Bubbles” Horsley. With Horsley, they decided to create Hesketh Racing.
They ordered Geoff Rumble to make a new Dastle MK9 F3 chassis. They started in the F3 race at Thruxton in 1972 and they even raced in the Monaco F3 race. After an accident of Horsley in Chimay, Hesketh heard that a young driver, James Hunt, was fired from the March team by Max Mosley. Hunt just had another accident there in Monaco, destroying his car. So, the team decided to enter a second Dastle chassis for the F3 race in Silverstone. James Hunt had again an accident just after the start, but he and Lord Hesketh got along fine with a mutual interest in alcohol, cigarettes and girls. Formula 3 led to Formula 2 quickly and Lord Hesketh decided to by a March 712M with a Hart engine for the final races of the season (P 05 at Albi) and the Temporada event in Brazil.
For 1973, the first plan was to attack the F2 championship with a Surtees TS 10 (#05). The car was destroyed at Pau. Because the Lord found out that F2 would cost as much as F1, he decided to do the F1 championship instead. In the Race of Champions, the Hesketh team entered a Surtees TS9B (#006) with the Hesketh Finance colours for James Hunt ; they ended on the podium with a third place.
The next car he bought was the March 721G(#03), the 1972 Monaco Peterson car. The first race was the Monaco GP in June. The F1 world did not know how to deal with this glitter and glamour and the parties, but they did not realized that it was a serious racing team. The car was adapted to the regulations (731#03) and with a new Cosworth V8. On board came also the brilliant engineer Harvey Postlethwaite, Nigel Stroud, Dave Buller, Bob Waterman and Malcolm Bowden. The team used the premisses of BS Fabrications in London. The first race ended with engine troubles in ninth position. They skip the Sweden GP and went to do more testing. And in Paul Ricard, the first championship point was there. Fourth place and fastest lap in England and a podium finish at Zandvoort (P03), later followed by a second place in Watkins Glen, jus 1 second behind the Lotus of Peterson. During the season, the car was regularly updated to get a better aerodynamic flow. So in the end, team Hesketh scored fourteen points in the championship in only 7 races.
All these 1973 achievements resulted in the team being taken seriously, despite the outward glamour.
In September 1973, they announced the formation of the ‘Hesketh Motor Company’ and the production of an in-house race car. In the lord’s castle Easton Neston, a brand-new car, the Hesketh 308 was created with a bodywork created by Bob Curl. A narrow track and wide front apron with an adjustable blade on the underside was developed. The monocoque structure kept the March-shaped narrow at the front and wide towards the rollbar to keep the sides horizontal. In total, there were three chassis made.
Chassis 308-#01 was first used as a test car and 308-#02 made his debut in march in the 1974 Race of Champions. The car had a white livery, a British flag drawn on the side pods and the Racing Bear as a prominent logo. Hunt immediately qualified on pole-position! After the South Africa GP in its third race : The International Trophy. James Hunt won it ! In the next 5 Grand Prix, he only finished once (P03 in Sweden) due to poor reliability and poor handling; the car was badly damaged in France. Chassis 3 was used from the German GP, finishing third in Austria and chassis 2 with a new nose and full-width front blade aerofoil raced in Canada and the USA finishing fourth and third (lost fuel pressure in the closing laps, running P02)respectively.
In Austria, South-African driver Ian Scheckter partnered Hunt, but failed to qualify after an engine failure. (photo below #31)
This first year left Hesketh racing with the teddy bear symbol and without sponsoring on P06 in the championship and Hunt on P08 in the driver’s standing. Lord Hesketh stated: “the whole season costed us 30.000 pounds. Costs were 68.000 pounds and the return was 38.00o pounds price money.” The British Bear campaign was not there for money. He wanted to connect with the public, make them part of the whole F1 circus. “We sell Great-Britain.“
For 1975, Postlethwaite developed the 308B from the 308-#02 chassis. After a promising start in Argentina (P02 and the fastest lap) and Brazil (P06), the car showed poor reliability with 5 DNF after these races. In Zandvoort however, the team won the dry-wet race with good tyre choice, beating the Ferrari from Niki Lauda. This was followed by a second place podium finish in France. In the next home-race, Hunt finished fourth. After a DNF, he was again on the podium in Austria. And all new shallow monocoque with inboard suspension, lower frontal area with side mounted radiators and a lower airbox, the 308C version made its debut in the Italian GP ( the last 2 photos of the 6 below). Despite sme handling problems, with a P05 in Italy and a P04 in the USA, the Hesketh team moved up to P04 in the Constructors championship.
But money was tight for Lord Hesketh. Chassis 308-#01 was sold to former F3 driver and now team owner Harry Stiller in april. He let Alan Jones make his F1 debut in a non-championship race and then in Spain. In four rcaces, he managed only P11 in Sweden. Then he sold the car to wheeler-dealer Tony 'Monkey' Brown. He wanted Damien Magee to drive his new Hesketh. But he sold the car to Harld Ertl,a driver with Warsteiner-sponsoring. He raced in the three last European races, finishing eight in Germany and ninth at Monza.
Chassis 308-#03 was sold to Swedish promotor Smokey Asberg. He arranged a drive for Torsten Palm for Monaco (not-qualified) and Swedish GP (P10). Brett Lunger used this car for Austria, Italy and the USA GP. His best result was a P10 at Monza.
Hunt- Lunger at Monza
Om November 20th, the Lord announced his involvement would stop in the Hesketh team. The prize money alone was not longer good enough to balance the books. On November 17th a lot of the team was sold to Frank Williams, who had a deal with oil-handler Walter Wolf.
With James Hunt off to McLaren and with the permission ( but without the cash) of Lord Hesketh, Antony ‘Bubbles’ Horsley wanted to carry on with the team for the 1976 F1 season. He could keep the Hesketh-name, the workshop and the start prizemoney. Two cassis 308C were sold to Walter Wolf and were renamed Williams FW05; they also took Harvey Postlethwaite away. Engineer Nigel Stroud stayed on board. The Austrian driver Harald Ertl and his Heyco sponsor became Horsley's ally. He wanted to race now a full F1 season and acquired chassis 308D/3 ( actually a pimped 308 from 1975). First race was the South African GP with P15 as result. In the next 6 races , he was three times a non-qualifier and had three retirements. After that, he managed a seventh place at Brands Hatch and an eight place in Austria and in Fuji.
From the Belgian GP he was joined by Guy Edwards who brought sponsors Rizla and Penthouse on chassis 308D/2. ( greatest F1 paintwork ever!). Edwards did not qualify at Zolder and was not allowed to race in Monaco and Sweden. The results were poor with several non-qualifications. Both cars were badly damaged in the accident of Niki Lauda at the Nürburgring. Guy Edwards got rewarded with the Queens’s Gallantry Medal for his actions in saving the Austrian.
Ertl continued with his chassis for the next 3 races.
A new chassis (04) was prepared for Edwards and was used by Rolf Stommelen for the Dutch GP. Edwards was again at the wheel in Canada (P20). Alex Ribeiro replaced him in the USA GP and finished P12 on his debut. (last photo below)
The team scored no points for the championship this year.
Most important, Bubbles was able to keep the sponsors for the 1977 championship. And with that money, he hired a young designer: Frank Dernie. This new engineer designed, together with Nigel Strout, a much lighter, arrow shaped 308E with more adjustable in board suspensions in combination with the conventional Hewland gearbox and Cosworth engine. There came also a new driver on board: Rupert Keegan. His father owned the air freight company British Air Ferries and for 250.000 pounds, the rear wing of the 308 got the BAF colours. The side pods now showed the Penthouse girl holding a Rizla cigarette paper. Rupert had some ‘Hunt’ in him and money did not appeared any problem. Lord Hesketh was present at the team presentation, but Horsley ran the show.
The team did not enter the first 2 races, but decided for a more extensive testing program and a debut in the Race of Champions. Keegan finished on P08 in that race.
The season started for real in the Spanish GP in Jarama. Here, Harald Ertl (308E/02) noticed the difficult driveability of the car and the lack of speed on the straight. His race ended with a leak in the water cooling. Keegan (808E/01) enjoyed his debut, but in the race he ended in the guard rails in lap 23. In the next races it would be Ertl and Dernie who tried to make the car more predictable. Monaco: NQ Ertl, DNF Keegan.
Horsley had only eyes for more money so from the Belgian GP onwards, a third car was entered for the wealthy Hector Rebaque (308E/03). At Zolder, Ertl finished P9. Keegan finished P13 in Sweden and P10 in France; Rebaque was amongst the non-qualifiers.
Before the British GP, Ertl and Rebaque decided to leave the team. Keegan on the other hand started on P13 in Silverstone, but was pushed out of the track by Merzario in Lap1. After another retirement in Germany, he finished the race seventh in Austria. Hector Rebaque was again present for just 1 race. He was a non-qualified for the next two races. Keegan finished P9 in Italy and P8 at Watkins Glen.
The Ertl car was leased to F5000 driver Ian Ashley from the Austrian GP onwards. After three non-qualifications and a P17 in the USA, it all went wrong for him in Canada. A loosening of the rear wing made his Hesketh getting airborne. The car crashed heavily after making a somersault. It took a few hours to get the driver to the hospital. Only two broken ankles and wrists. On Sunday, Keegan also crashed hard, destroying the chassis. There were no chassis available anymore so the last GP in Japan was skipped. During the winter, Rizla and Penthouse stopped their sponsoring.
For 1978, Keegan was off to Lotus and Ian Ashley recovered to slow. Horsley looked for a new driver and found Davina Galica, ex-Olympic ski athlete, and her sponsor Olympus. She had raced in the British Shellsport Championship. Davina got the brand new chassis (308E/03) for the first 2 races. On both occasions however, she did not get through the qualifications being too slow (photo below left). For the next races, Derek Daly took her seat. But, he had not the super-licence yet, so for the South African GP, Eddie Cheever was the driver (photo below right).
Daly and Galica were entered in the non-championship International Trophy race at Silverstone. Daly and Hesketh created there a sensation by leading the race in the rain for 10 laps.
In the next race at Zolder, Daly failed to qualify.
Olympus stopped his sponsorship and Daly found a seat at Ensign and Frank Dernie was off to Williams. So the only thing that Horsley could do was: close the doors on the team. He created Hesketh motors, specializing in the revision of F1 engines.
The 308E car had a lot of potential, but there was not enough money to develop things further. And maybe Rupert Keegan was better than he could show. It is not always about statistics!
