‘He was the real deal’

Certainly within the realm of sports car racing, there has never been a man with a more illustrious call of teammates than Derek Bell. During his career he shared cars with everyone from Ronnie Peterson to Stefan Bellof with Jacky Ickx, Jo Siffert, Hans Stuck and many other legends of the sport in between.

So you might be surprised to hear the name of the co-driver who, all round, he rates as the best he ever drove with. ‘Oh, that’s Al Holbert,’ he says. ‘Without a question.’ Al who?

The name Al Holbert may ring a faint bell in your head, he may be reasonably familiar to you or you may never have heard of him, but unless you live in the US and are something of an authority on the sports car scene over there, his name is unlikely to resonate like those other motor racing scions mentioned above.