Mexican Grand Prix - October 24 1965

The Mexican GP turned out to be a tremen­dous race, with Dan playing an important role. Our cars have always gone well there. I think the reason is that it is a very twisty circuit where power is not as important as handling; whatever the reason, our machines always seem to shine there. If only we had a little more power I think Dan would have been untouch­able there this year.

But there was no doubt that the Honda was the star of the meeting. Not only was Richie's car very fast but it kept going like a clock right to the finish. This was undoubtedly the finest drive of Richie's career; I've never seen him go better. The Hondas were obviously getting more power than anyone else, and a lot of this was due, I'm sure, to the way they have succeeded in sorting out the fuel injection.

For me, the Mexican GP was a great big disappointment. On the first lap, just as I put on the brakes for the banking, the cockpit was filled with smoke. The gasket blew out from underneath the cam cover, and oil squirted out over the exhaust pipes. 1 just had sufficient warning to pull up and go straight into the pits without doing a second lap, but though we tried to repair the engine it was a losing battle, and in the end we gave up. But al least this gave me an opportunity of seeing Dan have the biggest go of his driving career.

After the first lap Richie was something like 2 seconds ahead of the mob, and absolutely streaking along. Dan had a tussle with Stewart and then with Mike Spence, eventually getting into second place about a quarter of a minute behind the Honda. Then he really got the bit between his teeth, and began to whittle down the gap. The last 15 laps were the most exciting I had seen for quite a time. The previous lap record was over 1 minute 58 seconds, but Dan put in eight laps in succession at 1 minute 56 seconds or under, and left the record groggy at lm 55.84s.

Naturally, we were hoping that Richie would make a slight error under pressure, but he drove with his head and didn't make a mistake. What we wanted was for Dan to get into the Honda's slipstream, when things might have got really interesting, but Dan didn't manage to get within striking distance until the last lap, by which time it was too late. But it was a fantastic race, and 1'm only sorry that Dan won't be with us in the team next year with a competitive car. Dan is a really great driver and I've much enjoyed our association.