Mario James, Gleaner writer
Peter 'Bull' Thompson with his third-generation tube frame RX7. - Photo by Mario James
AFTER THE first Dover meet this year, held on March 24, which saw the amazing final GTS event - a real cliffhanger between Doug Gore and Peter 'Bull' Thompson - Automotives caught up with a mild-mannered Bull in a reflective moment. He spoke about his journey with motorsport in Jamaica.
Bull, for how long have you been racing?
I have been running the drags from I was 17, and that would be 19 ... 68, I believe. Those days I was into Fords, and we had to get speed parts from overseas. At that time they came to the post office. We did not have to go to customs, they came to the May Pen Post Office: 40s, valve springs, cams, extractors - when ordered, they came to the local post office. That's how far back I go.
Your CV says that you used to be very hands-on with your cars. You now run a serious Gen III lightweight RX7 and I have seen your pit crew. Was there ever a stage when it was just you and a couple of friends? Have you raced any of the cars you built yourself?
Yeah. In 1967, I had a (Ford) Anglia with a 1558cc 'non-cross-flow' head that I ran. The following year I had a 1600 Cortina with a cross-flow head and 1598cc. These cars I built myself, at home!
What you are currently running is a huge departure from that! How did you get from there to here? This is miles away from running an Anglia!
It's a matter of progression, I guess. I have to thank God that He made it possible for me to afford motorsport. My first race car for Dover was a Mazda RX7, which we converted by taking out seats, installing a roll cage and a 'peri-port' 13B ... . That same car in 1991 ran 1:25 around this track. That car in that same year dethroned Peter Moodie. I took the championship away from him.
Then came a second-generation RX7, which I eventually sold to Peter Rae. But life sometimes catches up with you. I ended up taking a break from racing for about nine years. I had invested in agriculture and this caused me to enter my most financially challenging period to date.
When a little daylight appeared at the end of that tunnel, I got a chance to buy the car you see here. At first, the offer that was made to me I couldn't work with, but eventually some terms were worked out and I bought it. Car, truck, trailer, spare parts ... I had it for four years before I even started it. I came out of racing in about '97 and started racing again either last year or the year before.
Nine years? Those must have been trying times.
I think it was one of the greatest things that could have happened to me in life, and I learnt a lot from that, y'understand? That is how I look on life and that is how I've always behaved in life. I don't look on trying experiences and colour them bad.
Things happen that might not suit us at the time, might even hurt us - greatly. But if you are strong enough and have enough faith to live through it, you can see what you have derived from all of that adversity. Because of my experience, I don't have a bad day any more, I don't. I am into ice, and when it rains very few people buy ice. With my perspective, when it is pouring, I know that someone out there is benefiting. And I am happy!
I have heard of a glass ceiling that existed at the higher echelon of the sport. Most of the competitors, in Thundersport and even in the faster MP classes are light skinned. Have you experienced any barriers as a black man in your rise to this level?
No, I have NEVER felt it. But then again, I am a child of the '70s, grew up in Jamaican schools at the time and never felt it then either. If someone passed an off-colour remark about me, I would think that it was directed at me, not the colour of my skin. I never went looking for it, and it never found me.
Yes, there are more light-skinned people in Jamaican motorsport, but in most countries where the sport exists, this is so. A similar situation existed in golf, until Tiger Woods came along. Now every black man has a set of clubs! It is just perception, I think, and one that is highlighted by today's economic realities.
Footnote: Victory eluded Thompson on the day this interview was done. He was defeated by the narrowest of margins. For the meet on October 20, he will be looking to sport a new, turbocharged 13B and is hoping to generate in the neighbourhood of 400 horsepower at the wheels. If he gets the combination to work, his race car should be one of the most competitive car on the grid, even with the extra weight mandated by the class.
mario.james@gleanerjm.com
