The Carlin F3 squad is one of the most successful junior single seater teams in Europe. Having taken three championships and 79 British F3 wins, the team are aiming for another successful year in 2007.
Charged with keeping the team running smoothly is new team manager Gary Bonnor. One of the longest serving Carlin team members, Gary joined the team as a 16 year-old. Here, Gary talks about his time with the team and what it means to be F3 Team Manager…..
Q:
When did you start at Carlin Motorsport?
Gary Bonnor:
I joined Carlin in 1996 when the team were carrying out promotional activities and doing pit stops for the
Williams F1 Team, and following that I was part of the first Carlin race team.
Q:
How did you come to be involved in the team?
Gary Bonnor:
Trevor was team manager at West Surry Racing and I went there do to work experience. I used to go back in the holidays and began doing more and more. Trevor then left West Surrey to do the promotional stuff for Williams with Martin [Stone]. Then I had a phone call from Trevor asking if I fancied touring round Europe and helping out with the pit stops. That was it really! I was about 16 at the time.
Q:
It must have been fantastic to be involved in something like that at such a young age, have you got any stories from that period, any good memories that stand out?
Gary Bonnor:
Where do I start?! I’ve got many memories, but there’s too many stories to tell!!
We went to France, Hungary and Belgium and also to some rock concert venues, karting circuits; we did quite a lot of stuff in the UK, and quite a few universities. We went to a couple of the Grand Prix; Belgium, Germany, Austria. We did one in Italy on the beach – that was pretty cool.
Q:
You were one of the first to join the new race team, what was your role at that time?
Gary Bonnor:
Emptying bins basically! And making tea! It was such a small team, around five people. I was basically Boyo’s [Anthony Hiett’s] number 2. The first car I worked on was Henry Stanton’s car. I moved up to become a number one in 1998 when we ran a few races at the end of the F3 season with Narain Karthikeyan.
![Carlin team manager Gary Bonnor with Trevor Carlin and engineer Matt Callaghan [Pic credit: Kendra Abay]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/401728.jpg)
