Just read this on Seloc, hope it wasn't him in the car!
It is with a very heavy heart that I am letting you know this tragic news. My service manager, no. 1 race mechanic and great, great friend Phil ‘Sumo’ Stickland lost his life in a horrific car accident in the early hours of Staurday morning and with him in the car was our young University placement student Dan Sheimann who also lost his life.
Those who knew Phil will remember him as being a warm, kind, caring and fun loving man, a larger than life character who never failed to put a smile on peoples faces with his amusing anecdotes and sharp wit.
I got to know Phil first through one of my mechanics, Stuart, who was very keen to include him in our race team when we competed in the Britcar 24 hour race with my S1 Exige. I think my words to Stuart at the time were, “I’m not having that smelly oik in my race team!” however Stuart persuaded me otherwise and there began a long and fruitful partnership. During that race Phil naturally took the lead, organizing the staff and leading the others by example. To this day I have never seen anyone else change a Honda driveshaft in 10 minutes but Phil could, and did, several times during that race.
Such was Phil’s enthusiasm for working with my team that he asked me for a job with my company, regardless of what that might entail. Although I had no vacancies for a mechanic at the time we did have some odd jobs that needed doing around the place and Phil agreed to come and work on a self-employed basis on minimum wage, just to get his foot in the door. Phil threw his heart and sole into his work, fabricating shelves for our metalwork shop from scratch, teaching himself how to weld in the process. His attitude towards his work was superb and I enjoyed working with him so much that I asked him to build my Europa racecar with me, providing him with a little extra cash and me with some expert assistance throughout a project with very tight deadlines and high expectations. He was there with me at the crack of dawn and he was there with me late at night, I think he loved that car as much as I did and thanks to his help that car went on to win on its first outing, become the dominant car in LOT, win in GT Cup and complete a 1000K race on the podium.
Phil has been alongside me as my no. 1 mechanic in every race I have done since then, putting his care into the prep and his fun loving spirit into the rest of the team. During that time I have pushed him like mad in the work place, promoting him from the odd job man, to mechanic, to lead mechanic of motorsport then to our service manager and the face of Hofmann’s Motorsport. 18 months ago Phil had practically never even touched a computer, or a shower for that matter, but we got him scrubbed up threw him on the front desk and, as ever, and he learnt quickly taking grasp of his role leading a team of mechanics and providing the customer interface. He wasn’t always the quickest to provide a quote, or to call back, but that’s because he was such a ‘yes’ man that we were pilling him with an enormous workload and every time he would knuckle down and get on with it. He was brilliant because he really cared about people and he had such a big desire to excel, which he did.
Loosing Phil is hitting me terribly hard; I guess he was a sort of protégé to me. He was loyal, caring and we were very, very close. I’m lucky that I have so many good memories of happy times spent together. He always had a smile on his face and his good humor and fun loving attitude were infectious.
Dan had only been us for a couple of months. He was studying Motorsport Engineering at Coventry University and working at the weekends with TMC Motorsport who help out with another Lotus Europa racecar we prepare. I met him at Silverstone and he was massively enthusiastic whilst assisting in an emergency head gasket change that Phil and I were doing. Although green on the spanners I really liked his enthusiasm and we agreed for him to join us for his work placement. Over the last two weeks he has been utterly tireless in helping me prepare for the Barcelona 24 hour race, doing 18 hour days and seemingly loving every minute of it. He has taken my abrupt bollockings for silly mistakes admirably and collared me at 11pm on Thursday evening to tell me how much he has enjoyed being part of the race team, something that he clearly had an enormous passion for. Although I didn’t have the chance to spend much time with Dan, I feel lucky to have got to know him over the last few weeks, taking some solace in the fact he spend that time doing something that he loved.
Phil, Dan, you will be sorely missed.
It is with a very heavy heart that I am letting you know this tragic news. My service manager, no. 1 race mechanic and great, great friend Phil ‘Sumo’ Stickland lost his life in a horrific car accident in the early hours of Staurday morning and with him in the car was our young University placement student Dan Sheimann who also lost his life.
Those who knew Phil will remember him as being a warm, kind, caring and fun loving man, a larger than life character who never failed to put a smile on peoples faces with his amusing anecdotes and sharp wit.
I got to know Phil first through one of my mechanics, Stuart, who was very keen to include him in our race team when we competed in the Britcar 24 hour race with my S1 Exige. I think my words to Stuart at the time were, “I’m not having that smelly oik in my race team!” however Stuart persuaded me otherwise and there began a long and fruitful partnership. During that race Phil naturally took the lead, organizing the staff and leading the others by example. To this day I have never seen anyone else change a Honda driveshaft in 10 minutes but Phil could, and did, several times during that race.
Such was Phil’s enthusiasm for working with my team that he asked me for a job with my company, regardless of what that might entail. Although I had no vacancies for a mechanic at the time we did have some odd jobs that needed doing around the place and Phil agreed to come and work on a self-employed basis on minimum wage, just to get his foot in the door. Phil threw his heart and sole into his work, fabricating shelves for our metalwork shop from scratch, teaching himself how to weld in the process. His attitude towards his work was superb and I enjoyed working with him so much that I asked him to build my Europa racecar with me, providing him with a little extra cash and me with some expert assistance throughout a project with very tight deadlines and high expectations. He was there with me at the crack of dawn and he was there with me late at night, I think he loved that car as much as I did and thanks to his help that car went on to win on its first outing, become the dominant car in LOT, win in GT Cup and complete a 1000K race on the podium.
Phil has been alongside me as my no. 1 mechanic in every race I have done since then, putting his care into the prep and his fun loving spirit into the rest of the team. During that time I have pushed him like mad in the work place, promoting him from the odd job man, to mechanic, to lead mechanic of motorsport then to our service manager and the face of Hofmann’s Motorsport. 18 months ago Phil had practically never even touched a computer, or a shower for that matter, but we got him scrubbed up threw him on the front desk and, as ever, and he learnt quickly taking grasp of his role leading a team of mechanics and providing the customer interface. He wasn’t always the quickest to provide a quote, or to call back, but that’s because he was such a ‘yes’ man that we were pilling him with an enormous workload and every time he would knuckle down and get on with it. He was brilliant because he really cared about people and he had such a big desire to excel, which he did.
Loosing Phil is hitting me terribly hard; I guess he was a sort of protégé to me. He was loyal, caring and we were very, very close. I’m lucky that I have so many good memories of happy times spent together. He always had a smile on his face and his good humor and fun loving attitude were infectious.
Dan had only been us for a couple of months. He was studying Motorsport Engineering at Coventry University and working at the weekends with TMC Motorsport who help out with another Lotus Europa racecar we prepare. I met him at Silverstone and he was massively enthusiastic whilst assisting in an emergency head gasket change that Phil and I were doing. Although green on the spanners I really liked his enthusiasm and we agreed for him to join us for his work placement. Over the last two weeks he has been utterly tireless in helping me prepare for the Barcelona 24 hour race, doing 18 hour days and seemingly loving every minute of it. He has taken my abrupt bollockings for silly mistakes admirably and collared me at 11pm on Thursday evening to tell me how much he has enjoyed being part of the race team, something that he clearly had an enormous passion for. Although I didn’t have the chance to spend much time with Dan, I feel lucky to have got to know him over the last few weeks, taking some solace in the fact he spend that time doing something that he loved.
Phil, Dan, you will be sorely missed.
