Derek Bell recalls his unexpected friendship with Steve McQueen…

“I’d only just started in sports cars, so I was pretty green. I did it to earn money, not to rub shoulders with Steve. I didn’t think it would work out that way, but he just enjoyed spending time  with us, whenever he could. He wanted to be one of us, to be accepted as a driver, not as ‘Steve McQueen’. And of course we weren’t starstruck. Maybe I didn’t go to the movies much.

We thought he’d be on some other agenda, that he’d disappear and we wouldn’t see him for a week. But he was with us every time we’d turn a corner. We’d go off riding bikes together, or there would be me, Dickie Attwood and Siffert riding around the Solar Productions village in 911s to see who could get the quickest time on the dirt on a Sunday afternoon. God, it was amazing when  I look back on it.