1,000 Greatest Drivers: Brian Redman

Britain's best shoe.

No, I’m not saying I think Redman was the best British driver of all time. Obviously I’d take Lewis Hamilton, Jim Clark, Jackie Stewart, and probably Nigel Mansell over him, but I do think Redman was likely better than many of the other pre-1980 F1 champions. I was just making a joke because Red Man Chewing Tobacco changed its name to America’s Best Chew a few years ago. Because the Formula 5000 series Redman dominated didn’t survive and isn’t talked much about today, I feel he is one driver whose legacy has significantly diminished because the history of F5000 will not likely be discussed in any Formula One or IndyCar broadcasts and history is written by the winners, even though Redman did win the inaugural Grand Prix of Long Beach, which later became an F1 and IndyCar event, and he did beat champions in both series while competing there full-time. Redman was such an icon amongst the people who watched him race (even in America) that he made the International Motorsports Hall of Fame (which was so ridiculously biased against actual international drivers that Junie Donlavey was inducted but Jochen Rindt wasn’t) included Redman as a member, and they hardly ever inducted anyone outside the US unless they started a car manufacturer or won an F1 title. As shitty as that Hall of Fame was, it does kind of disappoint me that it effectively shut down once the NASCAR HoF opened because to be honest, that’s more or less what the IMHoF already was.