Williams Page #2

Great sense of humour.

And she loved motor racing,

she understood motor racing.

She had a very good feel

for racing drivers.

Frank probably thought

you're not gonna believe it,

she went to a finishing

school in Switzerland,

they've got Labradors

in the garden, I've cracked it.

I suspect that's what he told his mates.

I mean she was just

a fantastic girl to talk to,

it was like talking to a fella,

but you know with, wearing Chanel No. 5

it was just brilliant.

But in those days,

to back out of a marriage

or a looming wedding was

almost impossible to do,

you know invitations had

gone out and stuff like that

and it would've been very tough

for her to, to pull the plug on it.

Anyway she went through with

the wedding

but this attraction didn't go away.

It was the charm,

it was the Frank William's charm I think,

that smile and the big green eyes

and mum just went loony.

You know,

I remember going to cross a road

and she's sitting in a Mini car,

I said, What you doing here?

"She said

Brode, don't say anything to anybody"

and she had a flask and sandwiches and

she'd been sitting there from nine o'clock

hoping Frank would go across the road

and buy a paper at the newsagents

and she could get out and say.

"Oh Frank,

fancy bumping into you here"

and she didn't do it once,

she did it all week.

It was a real magical

world, the world Frank started racing,

it was this, you know, boys club

and I think Frank,

he loved being a part of it,

and maybe because

he hadn't been a part of a,

a gang, a group

when he was you know in his childhood.

My father left, he was

a bomber pilot, left my mother.

My mother brought me up.

She did bring me up

pretty much single-handedly.

They lived in

Jarrow in South Shields,

that was a difficult environment,

difficult to make your way out of

and my grandma made the choice,

she would sacrifice

the normal home environment

in order to try and give dad

a better chance in life

by giving him this education.

My first memories

were being sent to

a Roman Catholic convent,

I was about, just coming up for five

and I used to run away at

the railway station

and they used to ring up

and say he's here again,

please stop this happening again,

whenever I got back, the school

they took my little trousers down

and hit me with a, a coat hanger.

I didn't mind,

I was quite happy at the school.

- You were happy at school?

- I was happy at the school, yes.

So, and why did

you run away then?

Uh... because

I wasn't that happy.

No, but it was, I also loved trains,

I love trains and movement,

I was always trying

to get a ride in a car,

you know when someone's dad

turned up with a car,

I was all over the car

and sometimes they gave me

a ride up and down the road in it.

I was, I was nuts about cars by then.

I did qualify for uni

but I had no interest,

because I was uh... in a convent for

three years, one year at a day school,

then another nine years

locked up as well,

I was kind of keen on freedom.

I'd bought for 80 a racing A35,

it was a hot little ship I can tell you,

very quick car

and that's how I got into

motor racing proper.

He was totally

obsessed by motor racing.

I mean, to a degree

that was ridiculous. Ridiculous.

Nothing else mattered.

I don't think he's ever been

in a supermarket in his life.

Frank, when he first went there,

there wasn't any room for him

so he slept in the lock ups

down the side there in a sleeping bag.

Everybody had a nickname.

Roger Bunting was Bunt,

Charles Lucas was Charlie Luke,

Piers Courage was called Porridge,

and Franks was called Wanks.

Ah is Wanks around?

No he'll be in later.

Oh okay.

They were all

aristocratic, wealthy guys

who wanted to go motor racing

and Frank was mixing with them.

And he wasn't either

aristocratic or wealthy.

Well, all the other guys

that live in that flat

had hereditary incomes.

Frank didn't, nor did I,

so Frank had to earn some money.

So the way he earned money

was to buy and sell parts.

And every waking moment

he was chasing around the country

buying stuff for a pound

and selling it for 2 pound.

He called himself Frank Williams

Racing Cars in the end.

The motivation behind the organisers

wanting certain drivers was

that in France they had to have Matre,

they had to have Beltoise

and Servoz-Gavin starting.

Italy had to have a Ferrari on the grid.

And I guess England

particularly wanted to be RM.

He seemed to me to be

the ultimate wheeler dealer.

And then he expanded

and expanded and pretty soon

he was selling a lot of cars

to European drivers particularly in Italy.

So Frank would get

a phone call from an Italian customer.

Hey Franks,

what are you gonna give me

"for my car I need a new Brabham?"

I'll give you X for it."

Okay, I'll come and get it."

He's got an order

from the same customer

for a brand new car.

He'd then take that car apart,

repaint it,

re-electroplate it, re-polish it

and it would be, 3 months later, a totally

immaculate brand new looking car

with a brand new chassis number

that he got out the back door at Brabham.

The guy would then get the car back

and what he actually got back

was the original car.

I know one guy had the same car

for at least 3 years

but he thought

he got a new car every year.

Ginny had grown up

in a very sheltered environment

and suddenly there was this man

who didn't go by the rules

and he was very exciting.

We'd go to parties on a Saturday night

and Frank's dancing with Ginny

and it's getting obscene

and her husband has got

daggers coming out of his eyes

"and I walked up to Frank and I said

Frank, what the f*** are you doing?"

I said you can't be doing this,

have a normal dance,

I mean you know the only thing

he wasn't doing was having sex,

and Frank said, Oh I hadn't noticed"

and Ginny said, Well I certainly hadn't"

but everybody else had.

And then of course the show

was on the road then with them two.

And she moved into a flat

and then she thought,

How do I let Frank know that I'm here?

Because I mustn't let him know that I,

left my first husband because of him,

"that would scare him off."

So he didn't drink but

what he loved was fresh orange juice,

so she wrote a letter,

'if you fancy some fresh orange

juice, it's now being served at... ',

and she put her new address

and a day or two later

the doorbell rang

and he turned up at the door.

Looking for

some orange juice?

Looking for some orange juice,

obviously.

And they're away...

I saw Frank Williams

make a very good start from the back,

he's now in third place

from about the third row of the grid,

that's very good indeed.

Back then his whole thing

was to be

the greatest racing driver in the world.

..who's the yellow car

sneaking through there?

Frank Williams.

It's Frank, look at him sneaking,

what a battle with these two saloons.

My word...

He was racing saloon cars,

but for some reason,

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