Purcell Race Engineering

(Continued)

The following year, Eric moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area, and ran his own racing prep shop, sharing space with composite specialist Doug Brewer. During this era Eric designed and built three Super Production cars, wildly modified versions of the original cars. These included a tube framed, Hart 2 liter powered Lotus Élan, which dominated the San Francisco regional racing series, as well as a Chevy V-8 powered Bug-eyed Sprite, and a turbocharged Cosworth powered, aluminum monocoque Lotus Elite. These imaginative, ground up designs gave Eric a wealth of experience in the field of race car design and manufacturing, which has since been put to use of more conventional designs.

Also during this period, Eric raced in the Jim Russell series, but his injuries from the testing crash in Europe continued to plague his health, and he was not in top form for many of the Jim Russell races. Rarely outside of the top three, and with 4 victories out of 12 races during the season, Eric stayed close to the championship lead, but was eventually beaten by Tom Kendall and Johnny O’Connell – both just starting out their illustrious careers.

During the Jim Russell racing season, Eric befriended a young Canadian driver, Thierry Delbuoget’, with whom Eric would form professional team for the new Mazda Pro Series. Eric managed and engineered the three car effort, but the team struggled with budget constraints, and was disbanded at the end of the 1986 season following Thierry’s death in road car accident in Toronto. The team did manage two top five finishes in the extremely competitive series, and had a greater than 95% finishing record. One driver on the team, Clive Twyman was awarded the “Most Improved Driver” award at the end of the season, an award that several other drivers Eric would work with in the future would attain.

INFINEON

Eric’s meticulous preparation and engineering abilities did not go unnoticed by others as he ran this team, and he was hired by the Jim Russell School to redesign and revamp their entire fleet of Formula Mazda and Formula Ford race cars. This position allowed Eric to work with the famed Carroll Smith, the prolific author of several racing “how to” books, and an outstanding engineer. Eric worked with Carroll to solve many of the problems presented by the original Hayashi design of the Formula Mazda, including the redesign, testing and development of the prototype. During this project, Eric also worked closely with the School’s owner, Jacques Couture, on the development of a very early data acquisition system, in order to properly quantify the changes to the car. While relatively commonplace now, data systems were virtually non-existent in 1987, and this work was considered relatively pioneering.

Following the design and prototype stage, Eric stayed on with the School to rebuild the fleet of cars. In the following 28 months, Eric and his nearly all trainee crew rebuilt 55 Formula Mazda’s, constructed an addition 17 new cars, and rebuilt the entire 42 car fleet of ’78 Van Diemen Formula Fords – a total of 109 cars. Reliability of the Schools’ fleet of cars skyrocketed, as did profitability for the school. Eric personally test drove each of the cars following rebuilds, and also tuned every car prior to school race weekends in order to achieve parity.

Eric’s duties also included managing and engineering a six car “Pro” team of customer cars that competed in the Mazda Pro Series. This highly competitive series was the launching pad for many of today’s professional race drivers, and the level of competition was second to none in the U.S. at the time. Drivers that worked with Eric during the two seasons he was in charge of the team won 6 races, finished 3rd in the championship twice, and won two Most Improved Driver awards. Eric was named Mechanic of the Year in 1988, an unusual award as Eric’s duties as team manager and engineer prevented him from actually performing mechanical work on the cars!

At the end of the 1988 season, Eric was hired away from the Jim Russell School by another relatively new business, Cameron/Mcgee Motorsports (now Cameron Motorsports Management). Steve Cameron, noted for his ability to spot talent and develop it in drivers and team members, recognized Eric’s abilities, and immediately put him in first in charge of Cameron Motorsports’ Pro Formula Mazda team, then later had Eric lead a two car Sports 2000 effort as well. In just short of four years of employment with Cameron, Eric would work crew, engineer, or manage efforts in Formula Mazda, professional Sports 2000 (ACRL), Formula Atlantic, and Indy Lights. During this time, drivers working with Eric benefited from his driving experience and coaching expertise, winning three Most Improved Driver Awards – one for each full year Eric worked with the Cameron organization.

At the end of the 1992 season, one of Eric’s customers at Cameron Motorsports left to start his own team, Team Lucas Motorsports. Eric was hired by Lee Lucas to manage and engineer the ambitious effort, and in 1993, Team Lucas dominated the Sports 2000 scene, winning 7 championships in one season, including the SCCA National Sports 2000 title and the professional American Cities Racing League driver and team titles. In a dream season that saw the team run 36 races, Lee won 30 of them, and had only 2 DNF’s – one mechanical and one crash. Lee also won the Most Improved Driver Award – a fifth such award for drivers working with Eric.

Due to the successes achieved in the 1993 season, Team Lucas tripled in size for 1994, and continued to be a major player in the west coast Sports 2000 scene. Eric was responsible for overseeing the large crew to run the multi-car effort, as well as acting as engineer for all three ACRL cars. Even while not running a full schedule due to business conflicts, Lee still won three ACRL races, and finished 2nd in the championship. Once again, one of Eric’s drivers, J.R. Parrish, won the Most Improved Driver Award - award #6.

By 1995, Lee Lucas had other demands on his time and resources, and the team scaled back and began to run a limited schedule. Eric consulted to several race teams during this season, both in open wheel racing and sports cars. One of these clients, Jeff Glenn, hired Eric at the end of the ’95 season to help with his own fledgling ACRL effort. Jeff was a very talented driver, and the combination of Jeff and Eric immediately began to move to the front. Jeff purchased one of the Team Lucas ACRL cars, and in 1996 became one of the front runners in the series. The under-funded duo barely lost the championship at the final race, finishing second in the series with three wins and two poles.

The speed demonstrated by the team of Eric Purcell and Jeff Glenn caught the eye of new race car manufacturer Carbir, and Eric and Jeff were hired to run the factory Carbir effort in S2 and ACRL the following season. The team worked tirelessly through the winter, logging more than 3,000 test miles in preparation for the car’s Sports 2000 debut at Sebring in January. The new car required major revisions in early development, including revised suspension geometry, different spring, shock and anti-roll bar packages, and aerodynamic refinement. A crash while in the lead spoiled the first outing for the car, but the team redeemed themselves with a dominant victory the following weekend at Moroso Motorsports Park outside of West Palm Beach, Florida.

On the team’s return to the west coast, Eric set about the task of converting the successful Sport 2000 car to ACRL spec, modifying the engine bay for the Cosworth engine, and adapting the aerodynamic package to make full use of the rear wing. The result of all the hard work and engineering paid off in 6 poles, 6 fastest race laps, 3 victories 3 qualifying lap records, and 3 race lap records, all leading to the 1997 ACRL driver championship. Jeff Glenn was awarded the prestigious Motor Sports Press Association’s Driver of the Year Award for closed wheel, road course racers – another high award for a driver Eric coached and engineered to victory.