“See you at tea-time,” quipped Nigel Greensall to his driving partner John Spiers as they finished lunch one Sunday at Silverstone last month. The duo were about to embark on an epic quadruple stint for the afternoon: four consecutive two-driver races, four cars from three decades, run by three different teams. Spiers started each, they were ships passing at the pitstops, then Greensall finished them.
When they did properly meet again it was indeed tea-time, and on the podium’s top step – which Greensall had already occupied alone three times. Yes, they’d won all four races. Spiers only got to experience the celebration for that last one because, for the others, he’d been busy strapping himself in the next car to start another race.
For those who witnessed the feat at Motor Racing Legends’ season finale, it felt special. Four races in a day is always a decent effort, but hardly uncommon at this level. But to win them all, and consecutively too… Now that’s something else.
Stirling Moss won three in a day at his first-ever race meeting at Goodwood in 1948. Roy Salvadori scooped four twice, at Snetterton in 1954, then at Crystal Palace on Whit Monday 1961. But were they consecutive? Autosport can’t confirm.
Perhaps a speedway rider or short oval hot-rodder has managed it. Whatever, Greensall and Spiers have every right to be proud of an epic afternoon’s work.
The win roster, for the record, was as follows: Pre-63 GTs in a Shelby Cobra; Gerry Marshall Trophy in a Hermetite Ford Capri – the only one where they lucked in, when a dominant Jack Moody in a Rover SD1 picked up a drive-through for a daft pitstop infringement; Stirling Moss Trophy in a Lister Knobbly; and Jack Sears Trophy in a Ford Mustang. Not bad, especially since Spiers is 74 years old.
“Three different teams running the cars – Historic Automobiles for the Cobra and Mustang, TT Motors for the Capri and CKL for the Lister, and they all ran absolutely faultlessly,” nods Spiers. “That’s not easy to achieve.
“It’s been a brilliant end to the season and it’s just a shame we have to wait five months before it kicks off again. I’ve won more races this year than ever before, I think. So I’m still getting better. When I’m at 80 maybe I can go for Formula 1…”
“Maybe you’re the next one for Red Bull’s junior scheme,” suggests Greensall. “Sergio Perez is looking a bit shaky…”
"We were completely relaxed about it. John started all four and I finished all four, which is typically how we try and do it"
Nigel Greensall
Spiers adds: “When the track’s slippery like it has been today and the car is sliding around all the time it suits me. When it’s dry, it’s fast and scary!” Was he tired? He didn’t look it.
“When you break it up like we did and you have time out of the car it’s not a problem,” he says. “And in the wet you are not subject to so much g-force, so I find it much less tiring. It’s a shame there’s not another race, actually.”
Later, Autosport catches up with Greensall for some reflections on that day. “We were excited and really thrilled, but we hadn’t taken on board what we had actually done because we’d been so busy doing it!” he points out. “We should have gone out for dinner afterwards, but we didn’t have a chance on a Sunday night. Now it has sunk in, to a degree, and a lot of people have spoken about it.”
The premise was one neither could resist.
“I’ve been working with John for a number of years and he has a real sense of adventure and is always up for a challenge,” relates Greensall. “That’s why previously we’ve run two of his Listers in the same race and swapped cars halfway through. We talked about that afternoon. John had four eligible cars run by three teams that specialise in those specific areas and eras of expertise, so we decided to do them, without knowing the timetable.
“It happened to be four back-to-back races and we were completely relaxed about it. John started all four and I finished all four, which is typically how we try and do it. John gets to enjoy the early stages of the race, then I pick it up from the pitstops, see what we’ve got and go flat out to find what result we can achieve.”
Greensall is one of an increasing number of professional drivers who build their careers around coaching and racing alongside wealthy amateurs with ambitions to make the most of the cars they are lucky enough to own. Spiers is by no means Greensall’s only client, but he’s a good case in point on how such relationships work.
“What’s been interesting over the years I’ve worked with John is how I’ve encouraged him to become more relaxed with his racing, in terms of getting ready but also when you’re in the car and how you drive,” explains Greensall.
“By being more relaxed you get a better feel for the car and a better understanding what it’s capable of doing, and you’ve got more time and capacity to be aware of what’s going on around you. It then takes less energy from you and that enables the driver to adapt from car to car, which was certainly crucial that afternoon.”
Greensall is probably the most cheerful chap in motorsport, and has been for more than 30 years. But he takes his craft as a coach deadly seriously. What else does he focus on?
“First of all, John was always a very good driver, so he was starting from a good base, plus he’s worked with others including Tiff Needell,” he says. “Beyond being more relaxed, I’ve worked with him to drive with more precision. I talk about millimetre precision and how to get that on every corner of every lap.
“When you go into a lap, you don’t worry about the whole lap, only the corner that’s coming up. Once you’ve conquered that corner, you think about the next one. If I see someone miss an apex by, say, two feet I know that’s cost them 0.3-0.4s, time they will never get back.”
But how does he tutor them? Unlike contemporary racing, not many historic operations have reams of data to pore over in debriefs.
“I use onboard video for all of the cars I race,” explains Greensall. “That’s a crucial tool for all of my racing. We watch it back together. John and I will sit down over a cup of tea, overlay my video with his and go through corner by corner.
“It’s just as you see on TV with F1 when they overlay two drivers’ laps. We have two cameras: one looking out the front of the car so we can see the track positioning, as the driver would see it. The second camera looks across at the driver so I can see their steering inputs, how much lock is used and how fast are the hands on the wheel. From that you can also see where the driver is looking.”
Greensall and Spiers also have another unlikely secret weapon. It only emerges when Autosport asks whether it’s true that Spiers is also an international croquet player.
"We all went and found a fabulous crazy golf course near the circuit, played, then went back to the circuit and won the race. It’s good preparation"
Nigel Greensall
“That’s right, and a very successful one too,” Greensall replies. “More than that, he’s into crazy golf.” Come again?
“When we are planning our racing season me and John look for a crazy golf course near race tracks,” Greensall reveals. “He’s very competitive and really good! You must come and join us…
“At Zandvoort last year the way the schedule worked out we had qualifying in the morning, then about a four-hour gap to the race. So we all went and found a fabulous crazy golf course near the circuit, played, then went back to the circuit and won the race. It’s good preparation.”
There you go, free advice. Working out how to negotiate that tricky windmill on the seventh hole is the answer when it comes to taking the stress out of motorsport. You’re welcome.
Double ton delight for Greensall
As well as being motorsport’s happiest racing driver, Nigel Greensall probably has a claim as its most prolific too. A couple of weeks after Silverstone, he headed to Daytona for the classic 24 Hours, drove three sportscars from different eras and, for the second consecutive season, notched up his 100th race start in a calendar year.
“I was in a Corvette C6R GT2 and a Chevron B19 with John Emberson, then with Gary Ball in a Ligier LMP3,” he reports. It was in the Corvette that he clocked up his latest ton. “What a track for my 100th race with fastest lap and third place,” he says with glee.
Barely a day goes by without Greensall sliding into one car or another, not just on the circuits but also on rally stages. And he doesn’t limit himself to old racing cars either.
A week before Daytona, he joined another regular partner, Harry Barton, in a Mercedes-AMG GT4 at Portimao. Citing Ronnie Peterson and Hans Stuck as his all-rounder racing heroes – his helmet colours combine those of both – Greensall just can’t get enough of his never-ending racing odyssey.
“The same weekend I raced with Matt Walton in his Jaguar E-type – a total contrast, 60 years between the cars and three great races in one weekend,” he grins.
The official numbers for 2023 were: 102 races and three rallies; 34 cars raced, with 21 co-drivers; races on 23 circuits in nine countries; 30 wins (including class as well as overall), 63 podiums, 33 pole positions and 47 fastest laps. He’ll hope to top some of those numbers this year by the time he’s done. The Classic Sebring 12 Hours is next at the start of next month, then he’ll complete his season on 29 December on the Rixy Stages rally at the Stanford British Army training area in Norfolk.
Next year? More of the same, but with the promise of some exciting add-ons – including the Nurburgring Langstrecken-Serie with Barton in his Toyota Supra GT4. What a racing life.
