John Coundley
Though many famous drivers raced for Ecurie Ecosse there were many other drivers brought into the team for a variety of reasons. A typical example is John Coundley, now in his eighties but as sprightly and sharp as they come. John was one of the many drivers in the 1960s who drove interesting cars and were more than competent at the wheel. I always associated him with sports cars and in his time he was to race many classic cars such as Lister-Jaguars and McLarens in the glory days. So how come he was asked to drive for Ecurie Ecosse ? To answer this question we must go back to 1964 and an incident which would probably embarrass Jackie Stewart today. "At one of the race meetings that year Stan Sproat told me the team were having trouble setting up the Cooper Monaco and the Tojeiro-Buick that Jackie was racing for the team and would I be interested in helping them. A test session was arranged at Snetterton and I made a few adjustments and then went out on the track and set a time. David Murray then sent Jackie out to match the time and I doubt if Jackie knew to this day that I was setting the car up for him. Then David was stuck for a driver at a later Snetterton meeting and he let me drive the Tojeiro-Buick and I managed to actually lead the GT race for a couple of laps and then the gearbox acted up. On another occasion at Brands Hatch in the Tojeiro I had a tremendous battle with Bob Olthoff. On one occasion we came up to pass two other cars. Bob went round the outside and I went through the middle between them and I heard the sound of a bump. When I came in after the race Stan said he couldn�t open the door of the Tojeiro as I had actually knocked the door handle off on one of the cars I had overtaken."
The following year, 1965, Ingliston circuit was about to open and David Murray wanted to build a car capable of racing in Formula Libre at his home circuit. Lying around in the Mews was the wreckage of the team�s Cooper-Monaco that Jackie Stewart had used to climb a tree at Oulton Park. As a result Stan Sproat set too to build a single-seater out of the remains that was to be called the Ecosse-Climax. The Coventry-Climax 2.5 litre engine from the Monaco was one of the best available and so the car looked promising. Trouble was that David had lost Jackie Stewart to BRM and when the car was built John Coundley was once more approached to go to Silverstone to set up the Ecosse-Climax before its Ingliston debut with team newcomer Bill Stein at the wheel. However, Coundley was seriously impressed. " I did a couple of laps, came in and told Stan Sproat that the car was perfect and they didn't need to do a thing with it." Bill Stein was then to dominate the Ingliston Formula Libre with the car which will feature in a future story on this web site at a future date.
That was actually the last link John Coundley had with Ecurie Ecosse as Bill de Sellincourt and he bought a Lotus 19 to do Le Mans. Coundly then he moved on to McLarens where he was one of the most successful private McLaren drivers and raced against Jim Clark in the Lotus 30. Various Ecosse cars were to pass through his hands including a Tojeiro-Jaguar that John supplied to a film company for a motor racing movie. Today he is remarkably lively and you can never have a dull moment in his company.
