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I have been clearing a cupboard and happened finally to find the notes I made back in 1992 when I had a telephone interview with Don Parker. I was involved in the second edition of Yves Naquin’s book about the Monaco Grand Prix and as he speaks no English he asked me to call Stirling Moss, Don Parker and Geoff Duke, for their recollections about their races in Monaco. Yves lent me a tape recorder – it was a plastic thing that you give to 5 year old children for Christmas, and naturally it recorded nothing at all when I spoke to Parker! Luckily I copied down what he said which was as follows:
That race was a long time ago, over forty years and I am now 84 years old!
I was always a private driver. I won the Formula 3 championship in England three times. I started with a KIEFT which was awful. I modified it and won my first championship. I then built my own car, which I still called a KIEFT before giving it my own name. Altogether I won over 125 races during my career. I stopped racing in 1960.
The car used at Monaco had a 500 cc JAP engine, and Norton gearbox driving through a chain. I used Dunlop tyres and Shell petrol. We used to run 10.5/11:1 compression ratios.
As I am a small person, only 8 stone, the car was very fast up the hill towards the Casino. I finished 2nd in the heat and 3rd in the final, behind Moss and Schell.
My best memories of Monaco are the sunny weather and the cream cakes. I enjoyed the race very much.
I stayed at a hotel at the top of the hill. We really operated on a shoe-string budget. I suppose our costs were just about covered by the starting money and the prize money.
Monaco was a real driver’s track. You had to be on your feet the whole time. There was no room to make mistakes.
All the best
Marcus
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