"My son forwarded these photos sent from Jacob Ebrey. They got me thinking about how times have changed.
And Why the bow ties?
The whole RML /NME machine had worked tirelessly over the 97/98 winter to make a number of improvements to the car , team and strategy. We started the season with some confidence but still unsure of the competition, as all of us were sandbagging at shared tests. As the season started it was evident things had improved, and we had a strong package.
At Oulton park at the Friday free practice debrief, we had a conversation to what we would do if we had a pole position on Saturday, we agreed that engineering and management would wear a bow ties on race day.
That year David Leslie would pick up two victories, including the first for the car at Silverstone in April. But the star of the season would be Anthony Reid picking up eleven pole positions and seven victories, the most of any driver. So the bow tie became a common sight on Sundays.
In reflection it had a dual significance one as a sign to other teams we were on pole, and also that we didn’t take ourselves too seriously. It created a great sense of accomplishment in the team and helped to build confidence.
A few years later when we told the story to Eric Nève the Chevrolet motorsport manager, he delighted in telling us the Chevrolet logo is actually a bow tie , so as the Lacetti improved performance and got its 1st pole position the bow ties came out but were gold rather than red.
Nothing sounds better in your head set than listening to the race engineers commentary, saying, purple sector 1, purple sector 2 , purple sector 3 , and that’s pole! It was then down to media team to update Cefax and teletext and tell the world to help sell some cars"