After nearly an eight year absence from Motor Racing
due to business commitments, early in 1997 Duncan metw ith Mr
Fred Goddard a very successful team owner. During their
conversation Mr Goddard invited Duncan to visit his workshop at
Silverstone. He duly took up the offer some weeks later and was
very impressed with what he saw. Fred asked Duncan if he would
be interested in having a test in one of his Formula 3000 Cars
at Donington Park later that week.
A few days later Duncan arrived at Donington Park
on a general test day to try the Reynard Formula 3000
car on the Grand Prix Circuit and after a few
laps shaking down the F3000 car, Fred then set a lap time bench
mark to see how competitive Duncan could be. After some 20 laps
Duncan began to get to grips with the 500 bhp F3000 car during
which time he not only equaled the time set by Fred but went on
to set a time that would have qualified him in the previous International
Formula 3000 race held at Donnington.
Fred was delighted with Duncan's performance, especially taking
into account how long it had been since Duncan had last sat in
a racing car. Several days later they both got together at Fred's
headquarters at Silverstone to see if a contract could be finalised.
Much to Duncan's delight the final outcome was positive, leading
to Duncan signing for Fred Goddard Racing for
a full season in Euro Formula 3000.
Although on a fairly small budget in comparison to the some of
the other teams, the season got off to a promising start with
Duncan finishing a creditable 5th position on his debut race at
Donington Park, to the delight of both Fred Goddard Racing and
the team's sponsors.
During the coarse of Duncan's 1997 Euro Formula 3000 campaign
he finished in 3rd position at Snetterton, a 2nd and 3rd position
at 2 Silverstone meetings, 3rd at Mallory Park, a 2nd at Donington
Park and a 2nd at the penultimate round at Castle Combe putting
Duncan and the Fred Goddard Racing Team 3rd overall in the Championship
only 8 points adrift from the leader with one race in the Championship
left.
The final race was at Oulton Park. Duncan qualified his Reynard
on the second row of the grid along side the Championship leader.
As the race got underway, Duncan failed to make his usual good
start, dropping him down to 7th. Ahead of him the championship
leader was fighting for fourth. By half distance Duncan's determination
saw him slice his way up through the field to 4th. He then went
on to take 3rd place in an outbraking manoeuvre at Old Hall corner.
With only one lap to go, Fred had been on the radio saying "You
can do it Duncan". Duncan closed the gap to within a second
with only 3 corners remaining. Arriving at the last corner, Lodge,
Duncan lunged down the inside of the second place car, leaving
his braking to the very last moment. Both cars exited Lodge Corner
side by side. Duncan's determination showed, as he managed to
pull ahead by the smallest margin, crossing the start finish line
in 2nd place.
