Bernard Unett
William Bernard Unett (22 July 1936–2000) was a British racing driver and development engineer, three times winner of the British Touring Car Championship (then called British Saloon Car Championship) in 1974, 1976 and 1977.[1]
Unett was born on 22 July 1936 in Wolvey, Warwickshire. His parents ran a farm. He joined Humber as an apprentice at the age of 15 and later joined the Rootes Group organisation and became a development engineer[2] - known as 'The Set 'em Alight Boys' because of Rootes Chief Test engineer Don Tarbun's expression 'For **** sake, set 'em alight', often exclaimed by him when facing difficulties.[3] Unett was deputy head of the department for the development of the 'series' Sunbeam Alpine in 1958–1959.[4] He began motor racing in 1961. After competing a disastrous Club rally, Rootes competition manager Mike Parkes encouraged Unett to attend a race meeting at the Goodwood Circuit, leading him to buy his first racing car,[5] a prototype from the Alpine development programme registration number XRW 302.[6] After developing it for racing it was in this car that Unett won his first trophy in 1964, the 'Freddie Dixon Challenge Trophy', one of the biggest prize in motor club racing at the time.[7] The history of this surviving prototype can be found here. The site also has a film and pictorial history of Bernard Unett's career.
By 1965 Unett was married with three children and helped out on his parents' farm when there was time for relaxation. He was now racing for the Alan Fraser racing team, who developed the Hillman Imp for racing from 1964 onwards, competing principally against the Mini Cooper S. The team were soon having great success in surprisingly standard Imps. Unett, in a 998 cc Imp, was soon showing a 1299 cc Mini Cooper S the way around the track at the motor show 200 meeting. (The Imp was much better on the corners.)[8]
In 1966 the Rootes competition department decided to enter the Imp in saloon car racing. Being heavily involved in rally car preparation, they had to have outside help. Alan Fraser and his team got the job. Unett was soon setting lap records in the Imp at Brands Hatch. At the 1966 Easter meeting he set a lap record of 59.8, an Imp becoming the first car in its class to lap Brands in under a minute, and also won the Edward Lewis Trophy. By August the team had won 16 first places, 2 seconds and 7 class lap records. Unett had also won the Westover Saloon car Championship, a 'free formula' Saloon car series run at Brans Hatch, with 41 points.[9] The Hillman Imp led in the British championship series.[10]
Unett was also having great success racing a Sunbeam Tiger, registration number ADU 180B, in the 1965 season. It was one of the two ill-prepared Tigers that had an embarrassingly short outing at the Le Mans 24 hour race the year before. Unett, having modified the car, had little trouble beating the competition, receiving glowing press reports. In just over 20 races he had eleven outright wins, nine second place finishes and never failed to get placed. He just fell short of winning the Autosport championship in the final races of the competition, due to a broken fan belt and a broken rear axle.[11] Details of this surviving ex-Le Mans car can be found here.[1]
For the 1966 season Unett and Alan Fraser built what was to become known as the 'Monster Tiger'. Driven by Unett and other drivers, it was very competitive, winning many races outright. But Unett lost out on a major title, using his original Tiger as in the previous year, in the very last race of the Autosport 1966 championship. Unett also finished 2nd overall in the Fred W Dixon Marque Trophy in one of the Tigers.[12] Continuing to race what were now highly developed Fraser Imps in 1967, Unett won the Grovewood 'Redex Gold Cross' championship.[13] and came 5th overall in the 1967 British Touring Car Championship season,[14] battling it out with Ralf Broad's Broadspeed Anglias.[15] Eventually, Rootes withdrew their finantual support for the Hillman Imps and soon after Fraser retired from racing, moving to Tenerife.[16]
Unett went on to race in the Imp powered Vixen cars that dominated the BP Formular 4 championship in 1968, the Vixens winning the first 6 places, With Unett winning the BP title.[17] In 1969 Vixen decided to enter Formula 3. Unett already had a brief go at Fomula 3 using a Lotus 31 in the 'Les Leston Championship' in 1967,[18] and he started to develop a Holbay powered car for Vixen. However, Unett crashed the car at Silverstone on its first test and that's as far as the project got. Although walking away uninjured from quite a wreck, Unett then temporarily retired from competitive racing, becoming chief racing instructor at Mallory Park. Unett was a last-minute stand in for a three-man private entry for the 1970 London to Mexico World Cup Rally, using a Hillman Hunter. They got as far as Yugoslavia before crashing out in a collision with a wood truck.[19]
To end his retirement in 1971, Unett planned a big comeback in Formula 5000. He was to buy a Lola Cars T 142 from racing driver Derek Williams. Williams rolled the car and was killed, ending the deal. His comeback finally came in 1972 with Unett in charge of the re-opened Rootes competition workshop, which had closed shortly after their big win with the Hillman Hunter in the London to Sydney Marathon in 1968. He immediately won the 1972 'Britax' Saloon car championship in a MOPAR Hillman Avenger, the team being managed by Des O'Dell.[20] Unett also had great success in a Hillman Hunter of the Chrysler dealer team managed by Des O'Dell, Winning the Castrol Production Saloon car series in 1973.[21] Also in this year, Unett entered a Hillman Hunter in the Avon Tour of Britain, with Brian Coyle as co-driver, and finished 9th overall.
His biggest success came with the Hillman Avenger in the Rootes (later Chrysler) works MOPAR team managed by Des O'Dell, with which he won the 1974 British Saloon Car Championship season (now called British Touring Car Championship). Unett won the 1600 cc class on eight occasions, with victories at Brands Hatch, Mallory Park, Snetterton, the Thruxton Circuit and Ingliston. The same year, Unett was also first in class and 11th overall in the 'Access' RAC Tourist Trophy and first in class and 13th overall in the Avon 2000-mile Tour of Britain.[22] In the 1975 Avon Tour of Brittain, Unett came Third overall and his team won the 'Trade Team' award for Halesfield motors.[23] Unett went on to win the 1976 British Saloon Car Championship season and the 1977 British Saloon Car Championship season in a Chrysler Avenger, Chrysler having taken over the ailing Rootes group.[24]
Unett began to compete in rallies and in 1977 he took part in the Galway international rally using Hillman Avenger modified for group 1, finishing 6th overall and winning the team prize with Robin Eyre-Maunsell and Derek McMahon.[25] He also entered the Manx rally (now called the Rally Isle of Man) in an Avenger with Paul White as co-driver, finishing in 6th place with 13021 points.[26] In the same year, Unett was awarded the very first British Racing Drivers' Club 'Silver Star', one of the U.K. motor sports most prestigious awards.[27] In 1978 Unett did the development testing for the Chrysler Sunbeam Lotus, which was re-named the Talbot Sunbeam Lotus when Chrysler sold the company to Peugeot.[28] Unett and co - driver Terry Harryman took a works development Sunbeam Lotus to Galway to compete in the 1978 Galway international rally.[29] The Sunbeam Lotus won the RAC Rally in 1980 in the hands of Henri Toivonen and the world rally championship in 1981, teams again being managed by Des O'Dell.[30] Unett also played a large part in developing the Peugeot 205 for rallying from 1984, after he worked on Chrysler's aborted attempt to develop the Chrysler Samba for rallying in 1981.[31] The Chrysler 205 GTi won both the constructor and driver titles in the World Rally Championship in 1985 and 1986, the drivers being Timo Salonen and Juha Kankkunen respectively.[32]
Bernard Unett died of cancer in 2000.
| Sporting positions | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Frank Gardner |
British Touring Car Champion 1974 |
Succeeded by Andy Rouse |
| Preceded by Andy Rouse |
British Touring Car Champion 1976-1977 |
Succeeded by Richard Longman |
|
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- ^ British racing drivers club
- ^ sportscar magazine, Doug Nye, Oct 1966
- ^ Don Tarbun, Alpine horn, 50th anniversary edition supliment July, 2009.
- ^ Cars and car convesions, June 1977
- ^ Doug Nye Sportscar magazine, Oct 1966
- ^ Alpine the classic Sunbeam by Chris McGovern
- ^ Doug Nye, Sportscar magazine Oct 1966
- ^ Cars and car conversions June 1977
- ^ http://www.impsforever
- ^ www.imps4ever
- ^ Sportscar magazine. Oct 1966, Doug Nye
- ^ British Racing Drivers Club
- ^ Motoring News,Dec 7,1967
- ^ British Racing Drivers Club
- ^ Autocar Jan 4 1968
- ^ www.imps4ever
- ^ Car and car conversions June 1977
- ^ Formula 2 regester
- ^ Car and car convesions June 1977
- ^ Autosport 31 Oct 1974
- ^ Car and car conversions June 1977
- ^ British racing drivers club
- ^ Avon tour of Britain 1973-1975 Duke video
- ^ British racing drivers club
- ^ Galway Advertiser archive
- ^ 25 Years of the Manx Rally by Doug Baird
- ^ British racing drivers club.
- ^ Sunbeam Lotus owners club
- ^ Galway Advertiser archive
- ^ www.wrc.com
- ^ Autosport magazine Aug 29 1985
- ^ www.wrc.com
