Music and Motors: Vince Neil

This week’s Music and Motors is something a little different – instead of delving into a particular artist’s car history, this week is a look at the time one famous frontman tried to forge a second career on the race track. This entry was also co-written by Autosport, Motorsport.com, and Motorsport Week journalist Lewis Duncan.

The high adrenaline lifestyle has seen many stars fill the void left by performing to thousands on tour to take their passion for speed to the race track.

Sometimes, however, a rocker’s passion for racing outweighs that of their desire for music. During the 1980s, the decadent Los Angeles glam metal scene exploded into life, with Mötley Crüe leading the charge. Frontman Vince Neil’s love of speed was well documented, and often he would contest celebrity challenge races.

But racing was getting in the way, and in 1992 he was sacked. Neil refutes his need for speed as the reason, but his admission that “racing is a hobby, but a pretty serious one”, and his reported ambition to compete in the Indy 500 suggests the rest of Crüe weren’t far off the mark.

Neil’s burgeoning motorsport career took him to the Indy Lights series mere months after his firing from Mötley Crüe.

The rocker competed in a part-time schedule for a P.I.G. (Personal Investment Group) Racing team that also included the likes of future IndyCar race winner Jeff Ward and former-Formula 1 driver Tommy Byrne. He also sponsored the team’s IndyCar entry for Ted Prappas.

His move to the series raised eyebrows – eight years prior Neil was charged with drink driving and vehicular manslaughter for an incident he was involved in which claimed the life of Hanoi Rocks drummer Nicholas “Razzle” Dingley.

Neil cleaned himself up after this and set about starting a second career in racing. So much was his commitment to staying clean for his new line of work, his car’s sponsor was even listed as ‘Say No To Drugs’.

However, despite the promise and the profile, Neil’s path to the Indy 500 ended after just four races in the development series. Things started off well enough; at the season opener in Phoenix, Neil qualified 14th and finished the race 12^th in a 16-car field.

The following race at Long Beach wasn’t quite so positive. Dead last in qualifying, he crashed out of the race on lap two. Missing round three in Detroit seemed to have a positive effect because in Portland, despite another back-row start, Neil equalled his best finish of 12th in the race – albeit with an extra car in the field.

Neil’s final appearance was at the Milwaukee Mile, where he finally broke into the top 10. The grid had shrunk to just 13 cars and he was a lap down at the finish, but Neil was off the back row of the grid for the first time since Phoenix and held station during the race.

Neil never quite reached the heights he had hoped for in motorsport, but before the new Millennium, he was back where he belonged – fronting Mötley Crüe, until the band bid farewell in 2015. His motorsport career never ‘kickstarted’ again sadly, though the rocker, who turns 58 this week, continues to contest celebrity challenge races.