A Memorable Racing Experience: A Conversation with Dickie Ashworth

Dickie Ashworth, a seasoned racing driver, shared his exciting experience at the 24 Hours Nurburgring with Evo TV. As he recounted his story, it became clear that this event holds a special place in his heart. The conversation took place while watching footage of the race, which Dickie had participated in with Aston Martin.

Dickie began by recalling how he was initially trying to pressure his teammate into making a mistake, but ultimately decided not to put too much pressure on him. Instead, he focused on enjoying the experience and having fun. He mentioned that the car's features, such as the headlight flasher button, added to the humor of the situation.

As they talked about the racing aspect of the event, Dickie shared his strategy for overtaking his teammate. He discussed how he had a good exit from the turn, got into fourth gear on the straights, and managed to overtake his teammate early on. The conversation also touched on the challenges of the Nurburgring, with Dickie noting that the track is notoriously difficult.

One aspect that caught Dickie's attention was the pit stop window during the race. He explained that this window allowed drivers to make strategic decisions about when to pit, and that their teams had to be quick and efficient in order to maximize their chances of winning. Unfortunately, Dickie's team encountered a setback during the pit stop, as one of the cars refused to restart.

Despite the setback, Dickie was pleased with the overall outcome of the event. He noted that while they finished second on the road, the officials later imposed a one-minute penalty, which effectively moved them up to seventh place. This change in ranking was welcomed by Dickie and his team, as it was still an impressive result.

Looking ahead, Dickie shared his plans for upcoming racing events. He mentioned that he would be participating in the Nurburgring 24 with Aston Martin once again, and that he had already booked himself into several other notable races, including Paul Ricard and Spa-Francorchamps. One of these events, the Daytona at Paul Ricard competition, was particularly exciting to Dickie, as it offered a unique combination of speed and strategy.

Throughout our conversation, it became clear that racing is not just about winning or losing, but also about enjoying the experience and having fun with friends. Dickie's enthusiasm and camaraderie were palpable, even as he discussed the challenges and setbacks that come with competitive racing. As we wrapped up our conversation, it was clear that Dickie will be back behind the wheel soon, taking on new challenges and pushing himself to be his best.

Finally, I'd like to share a personal anecdote from my own experience in MotoGP. While competing in an event, I found myself struggling with my crash helmet and glove. For some reason, they just wouldn't cooperate, and I couldn't seem to remove them easily. It was a frustrating experience, but one that ultimately taught me the importance of being flexible and adaptable when faced with unexpected challenges.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enwelcome to another episode of inside Evo and today we have Dicky Minden with this all start with many Evo TV videos don't forget to subscribe and more good videos coming up Dicky is co-founder of Evo has been with the magazine for a long time forever forever does it feel like that yeah and if he also spends a lot of his weekend's racing racing a huge variety of cars this year you've been racing something that is oversteer II I think we can say yes an old it's a little bit outside of Evo's normal remit I think you could say but but it looks great fun so tell us about is lotus cortina yeah it's a lotus cortina which is 50 years old this year so it's a really good year to be racing them it's in a championship called you to TC which stands for under two litre touring cars yeah so there's quite a nice mix as loads of Cortinas there's aphromoo GTA's there's BMW 1800 TI SAS so they're all pre 66 cars yeah there's a smaller engine class as well so Mini Cooper S is and little rear engined fears yeah so there's all sorts of stuff going on and you've been racing you've roasted some cool tracks this year you know this this year has been brilliant Ashley Vaz the first race of the year was at Donington for the historic festival and then we went to mom's and then after monitor it was Dijon yeah and then we can also go it was Silverstone for Silverstone classic now tell us about how I have these cars drive us about his Lotus Cortina in particular they're they're quite unlike any sort of modern car you might drive they're really really slidy because they're on historic tires all the cars on the same tires they're very light and 750 kilos as they're sort of obligated weight power figures I sort of not really talked about in the patter because no one wants to let anyone else know quite how much power they've got but they're certainly over 180 horsepower from a twin-cam 1600 locus engine so significantly more than they ever made when they were racing back in the day yeah but yeah they're just fantastic from there they feel quick they feel precise they're quite tricky because you've managing everything you managing the steering and then obviously the 90 look bikes and the brakes are quite easy to lock there's not a great deal of grip they're quite tail-happy so there's a lot going on you're always really really busy in the car but it's so much fun and they're so competitive of them it's generally a mountain ute a historic racing but it's generally accepted that UTC is pretty much the most competitive most intensely full championship there is for old car so it's really good fun and you get some really interesting drivers that they've been and out of it as well yeah so do you get a sense driving the Lotus Cortina how Jim Clark became so well known for driving that car I think it's very hard to say I'm not sure he would probably recognize the Lotus Cortinas that racing today because they are significantly more powerful and I think because the championship is so competitive my only competitive motorsport the cars are developed and honed and refined so they're not the bigs of inside front wheel wagging the cars that they used to be but that said I think drivers of his era they were always racing lots and lots of different things it was a pre down four so everything moved around quite a lot so it was very different driving style to to the one that modern Grand Prix drivers or touring car drivers are used to yeah today I started racing you maybe give each other just enough room yeah you never you obviously try not to make contact with the cars because they're quite precious things and they're not disposable families and there's a lot of work to fix the cars but it was you can see from the in-car there's the mirrors are probably interlocked at some stage well let's talk about this race then and silver standard 2013 silver st. classy took us through the start and where you qualified on the grid and what it was like going into that first corner uh qualifying so she didn't go quite as well as we'd hoped but we did okay we're fixing to drivers as well most of the races are one hour long you know this particular race was fifty minutes right I was starting at qualified fifth I think from memory and we were quite a long way off the pole position car which was also a lotus cortina how many on the grid there 51 cars so it was ridiculous in the assembly area just lines and lines and lines of cars yeah so yeah probably the biggest I would say it's the biggest grid yeah certainly new Kapus toric racing yeah so qualified fifth 5002 cars yes you lined up to the grid a standing start rolling start rolling start okay you don't have the sort of shaky left leg when you're watching the lights go but there's a buildup of anticipation and everyone's warming their tires and brakes and and then you have to form up in grid order and everyone bunches up and you cannot waiting for the lights to change so they it's a really you feel this pressure building up and then there's a similar kind of release when the lights go and you're into the racing you're not really too apprehensive then you just have to get stuck in so you're off towards the first corner the field spreading out a little bit and notice that somebody's coming up on the left-hand side who was that there's a jockey Oliver who is a bit of a legend actually he was resting for me the one the one the mom we won Sebring you won can-am he's done everything founded the arrows for me the one tear and he's still one of the front-running drivers yeah it'll be MW Lotus Cortinas are the most prevalent in the series has people quit being doubly used as a few quick out for GTA's but he's always there or there abouts he always qualifies well so in the top top five cars okay and he's really really on it who that's our so you're he's always one of the drivers that you're you know you're mindful off because he's always gonna be quick and he's uncompromising so you through the first corner three abreast sometimes it seems like your breasts and then up from in the red BMW who's that Andy Priaulx was like doing a guest drive so three-time World Touring Car champion he did really well I think he qualified second on the grid so again totally different to what you need used to slicks and wings in here lots of downforce the sequential parts were probably paddles or whatever and there he is in a in a you know yeah pre 66 BMW saloon car so he was having a brilliant time so you found you got into a groove it sort of first dive six laps or so and then it seemed like from the footage that you're just starting to pick people off one by yeah I got a bit mugged at the start because of everything that was going on and I think I dropped one place or two places and then made up one place very quickly and then things settle down and the way these cars are and particularly Silverstone you don't want to drop too far off the back of a pad because it's quite hard to close up the the distance between you again I always tend to race better than I qualifies my first few laps seem to go quite quickly and made a couple of places at one on Cortinas quite soon says a guy called Leo voyeurs ADIZ who is a stalwart sort of historic racer he's got all sorts of really fantastic cars now and he always races Cortinas and they're the guys to beat him and a gurkel simin had feels yeah yeah so I knew it was important to get past him because Simon is a bit quicker than him so as the race pans out you need to make up as much there at time as you can on the guys that you know you're quicker than yeah by the time I have to get past him Jacky Oliver and Phil keen and Andy Priaulx had pulled out a bit of a gap so I I had to get along yeah fortunately they were very you know they were fighting all the time so I think they slowed each other down a little bit yeah do you think I wasn't tripping him so tripping each other off a little bit and yeah chance - yeah and I've managed there's no one immediately behind me so I could concentrate on trying to do the best a few laps I could so you're catching pre oh yeah all the while are you checking him out you're watching where he's quick but he slow where you're quick trying to sense when it's gonna make a mistake or trying not to make mistakes cells what's going through your head as you're catching I think it's just always constantly trying to tread this tread this line and not lose so much time and but you're trying to pressure them into a into a little mistake which obviously some one of his experiences unlikely probably to really pressure him too much but you were pressing some something on the steering wheel though a lot boys the cool team that I drives prepared by tinkle race works and they've got a sense of humor so there's um it's got like a headlight flasher button like a Japanese GT car or something so I was laughing whenever I got up behind him I'd give him a pop on the flashes in the hope that it would distract him a little bit I think he's probably surprised the first time yeah seeing in a 50 year old car but yeah so that that was quite funny yeah but it looking back at someone a video I'm surprised how many laps we were yeah you know in very close waters in my mind before I looked at it it seemed like I caught up with him and then I you know managed to overtake quite quickly but it was a long you know probably five or six laps which the two and a half minute laps so it's well let's let's talk about that moment then as you're as you're heading for the overtake you've you've got good exit on to hangar straight yeah I had a good run through cops yeah run a bit wide will be wider than I did and then maggots Beckett's again is a very fast approach in the fourth gear and then you need to change down in the middle of the corners and then keep him mentum up as much as you can and then he changed up into fourth just the exit again yeah and I got a really good run got into his toe and he didn't really have much of a chance to try and block me cuz I caught him early on there on the straight so then we're just side by side all the way down the straight yeah I'm trying not to think about who won the ten so yeah it was a really cool moment actually I think the whole race is the best best race I've ever yeah ever done and he gave a little signal to the team on the pit wall rather than fire singly yeah and when we went past and I was leading over there the vessel came out they got to the lead and then what happened well the compulsory pit stop and there's a pit stop window within the race so not as I said normally they're an hour long this particular race was 50 minutes but the pit stop window was still the early so you could start with twenty minutes into the race the latest you could stop was 40 minutes row and it transpired that we pitted 40 minutes and 16 turns into the race so there's a little bit confusing because at the time you know we finished second on the road which we lost some time during the pit stop because a car wouldn't restart which was frustrating um but that's all cars for you and then it was it was four hours afterwards when the officials had gone through their various things that they applied a one minute penalty so right officially we finished seventh but no-one was no one was too disappointed because it was the first forty minutes and 16 seconds worth absolutely mega yeah now the footage is fantastic it's inexperience oh you got taste with a historic place yeah because you did the Nurburgring 24 again this year for with Aston Martin yeah she's become a bit of a regular for yourself now and what else have you got planned in with on the historic side ah you've more you to TC stuff yep so paul ricard at the end of august and then spa at the end of September yeah and I think I'll remake it when it the s bar should be really good yeah yeah that'd be lots to slipstreaming I think round there and then a few other cars I think I'm racing a competition Daytona at Paul Ricard okay as well so whole world of amazing things to drive we've been doing this a lot lot I know I like MotoGP rider arm pump for some reason I couldn't take my crash helmet off I couldn't take my glove off anything so because you're constantly too much Styria t my steering in not enough gym right side well no gym exercise right no yeah I don't know help my arm they just cut you open in MotoGP did I just cut it open in the Hoover it outs did you up again dr. Koster I'll do that I get his number for you all right thanks deke no worries great to see the footage and it's good to see you have so much fun in the car yeah brilliant fun don't forget to check out some other Dickies other videos on Evo TV search for a number of track battles that the Dickies done also some fun stuff with the offensive as well yeah thanks for watching and check out more episodes of inside Evo very single youwelcome to another episode of inside Evo and today we have Dicky Minden with this all start with many Evo TV videos don't forget to subscribe and more good videos coming up Dicky is co-founder of Evo has been with the magazine for a long time forever forever does it feel like that yeah and if he also spends a lot of his weekend's racing racing a huge variety of cars this year you've been racing something that is oversteer II I think we can say yes an old it's a little bit outside of Evo's normal remit I think you could say but but it looks great fun so tell us about is lotus cortina yeah it's a lotus cortina which is 50 years old this year so it's a really good year to be racing them it's in a championship called you to TC which stands for under two litre touring cars yeah so there's quite a nice mix as loads of Cortinas there's aphromoo GTA's there's BMW 1800 TI SAS so they're all pre 66 cars yeah there's a smaller engine class as well so Mini Cooper S is and little rear engined fears yeah so there's all sorts of stuff going on and you've been racing you've roasted some cool tracks this year you know this this year has been brilliant Ashley Vaz the first race of the year was at Donington for the historic festival and then we went to mom's and then after monitor it was Dijon yeah and then we can also go it was Silverstone for Silverstone classic now tell us about how I have these cars drive us about his Lotus Cortina in particular they're they're quite unlike any sort of modern car you might drive they're really really slidy because they're on historic tires all the cars on the same tires they're very light and 750 kilos as they're sort of obligated weight power figures I sort of not really talked about in the patter because no one wants to let anyone else know quite how much power they've got but they're certainly over 180 horsepower from a twin-cam 1600 locus engine so significantly more than they ever made when they were racing back in the day yeah but yeah they're just fantastic from there they feel quick they feel precise they're quite tricky because you've managing everything you managing the steering and then obviously the 90 look bikes and the brakes are quite easy to lock there's not a great deal of grip they're quite tail-happy so there's a lot going on you're always really really busy in the car but it's so much fun and they're so competitive of them it's generally a mountain ute a historic racing but it's generally accepted that UTC is pretty much the most competitive most intensely full championship there is for old car so it's really good fun and you get some really interesting drivers that they've been and out of it as well yeah so do you get a sense driving the Lotus Cortina how Jim Clark became so well known for driving that car I think it's very hard to say I'm not sure he would probably recognize the Lotus Cortinas that racing today because they are significantly more powerful and I think because the championship is so competitive my only competitive motorsport the cars are developed and honed and refined so they're not the bigs of inside front wheel wagging the cars that they used to be but that said I think drivers of his era they were always racing lots and lots of different things it was a pre down four so everything moved around quite a lot so it was very different driving style to to the one that modern Grand Prix drivers or touring car drivers are used to yeah today I started racing you maybe give each other just enough room yeah you never you obviously try not to make contact with the cars because they're quite precious things and they're not disposable families and there's a lot of work to fix the cars but it was you can see from the in-car there's the mirrors are probably interlocked at some stage well let's talk about this race then and silver standard 2013 silver st. classy took us through the start and where you qualified on the grid and what it was like going into that first corner uh qualifying so she didn't go quite as well as we'd hoped but we did okay we're fixing to drivers as well most of the races are one hour long you know this particular race was fifty minutes right I was starting at qualified fifth I think from memory and we were quite a long way off the pole position car which was also a lotus cortina how many on the grid there 51 cars so it was ridiculous in the assembly area just lines and lines and lines of cars yeah so yeah probably the biggest I would say it's the biggest grid yeah certainly new Kapus toric racing yeah so qualified fifth 5002 cars yes you lined up to the grid a standing start rolling start rolling start okay you don't have the sort of shaky left leg when you're watching the lights go but there's a buildup of anticipation and everyone's warming their tires and brakes and and then you have to form up in grid order and everyone bunches up and you cannot waiting for the lights to change so they it's a really you feel this pressure building up and then there's a similar kind of release when the lights go and you're into the racing you're not really too apprehensive then you just have to get stuck in so you're off towards the first corner the field spreading out a little bit and notice that somebody's coming up on the left-hand side who was that there's a jockey Oliver who is a bit of a legend actually he was resting for me the one the one the mom we won Sebring you won can-am he's done everything founded the arrows for me the one tear and he's still one of the front-running drivers yeah it'll be MW Lotus Cortinas are the most prevalent in the series has people quit being doubly used as a few quick out for GTA's but he's always there or there abouts he always qualifies well so in the top top five cars okay and he's really really on it who that's our so you're he's always one of the drivers that you're you know you're mindful off because he's always gonna be quick and he's uncompromising so you through the first corner three abreast sometimes it seems like your breasts and then up from in the red BMW who's that Andy Priaulx was like doing a guest drive so three-time World Touring Car champion he did really well I think he qualified second on the grid so again totally different to what you need used to slicks and wings in here lots of downforce the sequential parts were probably paddles or whatever and there he is in a in a you know yeah pre 66 BMW saloon car so he was having a brilliant time so you found you got into a groove it sort of first dive six laps or so and then it seemed like from the footage that you're just starting to pick people off one by yeah I got a bit mugged at the start because of everything that was going on and I think I dropped one place or two places and then made up one place very quickly and then things settle down and the way these cars are and particularly Silverstone you don't want to drop too far off the back of a pad because it's quite hard to close up the the distance between you again I always tend to race better than I qualifies my first few laps seem to go quite quickly and made a couple of places at one on Cortinas quite soon says a guy called Leo voyeurs ADIZ who is a stalwart sort of historic racer he's got all sorts of really fantastic cars now and he always races Cortinas and they're the guys to beat him and a gurkel simin had feels yeah yeah so I knew it was important to get past him because Simon is a bit quicker than him so as the race pans out you need to make up as much there at time as you can on the guys that you know you're quicker than yeah by the time I have to get past him Jacky Oliver and Phil keen and Andy Priaulx had pulled out a bit of a gap so I I had to get along yeah fortunately they were very you know they were fighting all the time so I think they slowed each other down a little bit yeah do you think I wasn't tripping him so tripping each other off a little bit and yeah chance - yeah and I've managed there's no one immediately behind me so I could concentrate on trying to do the best a few laps I could so you're catching pre oh yeah all the while are you checking him out you're watching where he's quick but he slow where you're quick trying to sense when it's gonna make a mistake or trying not to make mistakes cells what's going through your head as you're catching I think it's just always constantly trying to tread this tread this line and not lose so much time and but you're trying to pressure them into a into a little mistake which obviously some one of his experiences unlikely probably to really pressure him too much but you were pressing some something on the steering wheel though a lot boys the cool team that I drives prepared by tinkle race works and they've got a sense of humor so there's um it's got like a headlight flasher button like a Japanese GT car or something so I was laughing whenever I got up behind him I'd give him a pop on the flashes in the hope that it would distract him a little bit I think he's probably surprised the first time yeah seeing in a 50 year old car but yeah so that that was quite funny yeah but it looking back at someone a video I'm surprised how many laps we were yeah you know in very close waters in my mind before I looked at it it seemed like I caught up with him and then I you know managed to overtake quite quickly but it was a long you know probably five or six laps which the two and a half minute laps so it's well let's let's talk about that moment then as you're as you're heading for the overtake you've you've got good exit on to hangar straight yeah I had a good run through cops yeah run a bit wide will be wider than I did and then maggots Beckett's again is a very fast approach in the fourth gear and then you need to change down in the middle of the corners and then keep him mentum up as much as you can and then he changed up into fourth just the exit again yeah and I got a really good run got into his toe and he didn't really have much of a chance to try and block me cuz I caught him early on there on the straight so then we're just side by side all the way down the straight yeah I'm trying not to think about who won the ten so yeah it was a really cool moment actually I think the whole race is the best best race I've ever yeah ever done and he gave a little signal to the team on the pit wall rather than fire singly yeah and when we went past and I was leading over there the vessel came out they got to the lead and then what happened well the compulsory pit stop and there's a pit stop window within the race so not as I said normally they're an hour long this particular race was 50 minutes but the pit stop window was still the early so you could start with twenty minutes into the race the latest you could stop was 40 minutes row and it transpired that we pitted 40 minutes and 16 turns into the race so there's a little bit confusing because at the time you know we finished second on the road which we lost some time during the pit stop because a car wouldn't restart which was frustrating um but that's all cars for you and then it was it was four hours afterwards when the officials had gone through their various things that they applied a one minute penalty so right officially we finished seventh but no-one was no one was too disappointed because it was the first forty minutes and 16 seconds worth absolutely mega yeah now the footage is fantastic it's inexperience oh you got taste with a historic place yeah because you did the Nurburgring 24 again this year for with Aston Martin yeah she's become a bit of a regular for yourself now and what else have you got planned in with on the historic side ah you've more you to TC stuff yep so paul ricard at the end of august and then spa at the end of September yeah and I think I'll remake it when it the s bar should be really good yeah yeah that'd be lots to slipstreaming I think round there and then a few other cars I think I'm racing a competition Daytona at Paul Ricard okay as well so whole world of amazing things to drive we've been doing this a lot lot I know I like MotoGP rider arm pump for some reason I couldn't take my crash helmet off I couldn't take my glove off anything so because you're constantly too much Styria t my steering in not enough gym right side well no gym exercise right no yeah I don't know help my arm they just cut you open in MotoGP did I just cut it open in the Hoover it outs did you up again dr. Koster I'll do that I get his number for you all right thanks deke no worries great to see the footage and it's good to see you have so much fun in the car yeah brilliant fun don't forget to check out some other Dickies other videos on Evo TV search for a number of track battles that the Dickies done also some fun stuff with the offensive as well yeah thanks for watching and check out more episodes of inside Evo very single you\n"