In November 2019 I met John Mann at the Island Magic meeting at the Phillip Island Grand Prix Circuit in southern Victoria. John has a long and illustrious career in motorsport so it was great to have a chat.
John, who is now eighty and despite a battle with cancer, is still racing.
In the chat John covered
- His first car, an open wheeler, he made himself
- The many cars he raced
- He nursed about eight of the current supercar drivers when they were babies. Craig Lowndes’ father was his pit crew manager.
- As a young mechanic and he made a mistake that costs a world champion bike rider the race. He had to escape and hide out for a while
- His Friendship with Barry Sheene and his own fight with cancer
An edited version of the interview appeared in the Overdrive radio program first broadcast on 7 December 2019.
We also produced a video of several other characters who were racing at the meeting “Reflections from Phillip Island”
