Earlier thsi afternoon I read that sports car driver David Leslie and team owner Richard Lloyd had been killed in a light aircraft crash in southern England.
I saw David Leslie race in several single seater catergories at different tracks around the UK in the 1980s and was always impressed by his smooth racing lines. He moved into British Touring Cars full time in 1992 and seemed to find his niche. He was runner up in the 1999 British Touring Car Championship driving a Nissan Primera.
Richard Lloyd started off in the music business before launching his own motor sports based PR company while competing. He eventually stated several race teams but is best known for founding the Audi UK race team in British Touring Cars and the Bently Le Mans efforts. He was currently heading Jaguar’s development team.
Mike Hailwood is considered by some to be the most naturally talented motorcycle racer ever seen. He started racing bikes competitvely in 1957 and won his first Grand Prix just two years later. His first World Championship came in 1961 and was quickly followed by eight other World Championship titles in three different classes. In 1968 the Honda factory pulled out of motor cycle Grand Prix racing and effectively paid Hailwood not to ride for any other team.
He switched to car racing, winning the Formula Two championship and quickly moving into Formula One. Although never winning a GP race “Mike The Bike” was a popular, brave and determined driver. He is perhaps best remembered in F1 for pulling fellow driver Clay Reggazoni out of a burning wreck at considerable risk. Hailwood retired from F1 in 1974 after being injured in a crash at the German GP. He had competed in 50 Grands Prix and scored 29 championship points. During his car racing career he also scored a podium finish at Le Mans.
In 1978 Hailwood returned to motorcycle racing for another attempt at the legendary TT race, which he promptly won – his 14th victory on the 37 mile mountain circuit. He returned for another year before finally retiring at the age of 39.
On March 23rd, 1981 Mike Hailwood and his young daughter were killed in their road car when a truck made an illegal U-turn in front of them.
I was lucky enough to meet “Mike The Bike” during his 1978 “comeback” year and he was the epitome of a gentleman, and despite his enormous successes and legendry reputation, had time to chat with a young awe-struck race fan like me. He was a true class act.
The Official Mike Hailwood website.
Ernie Triplett was the 1931 and 1932 AAA West Coast Champion. Although he was born in the Midwest and did most of his early racing there, he rose to prominence after he started winning at the Legion Ascot Speedway in Los Angeles. He competed in the Indianapolis 500 five times between 1929 and 1933. He failed to finish four times because of mechanical failures. However in 1931 he completed the distance finishing in seventh place. By 1934 he had semi-retired from the sport and was racing only occasionally.
On March 4th, 1934 he entered a AAA Pacific Coast Big Car Championship race at Imperial Raceway in California. According to reports the track was so dusty that the vision of the drivers was severely impaired. One car, slowed by engine problems, had stopped on the track in the north turn. Another car hit the stationery race car and rolled over on impact. At this point several people from the infield had run onto the track to assist just as Triplett arrived on the scene at speed. Triplett’s car struck and killed a mechanic, and crashed heavily, causing injuries to Triplett that would prove fatal within a few hours.
Once again we’ll be posting our own cross-series drivers rankings as the season progresses. However this year we’ll be making a slight change to the way we calculate the overall ranking, by focusing more on average finishing positions within individual series rather than normalizing across all series.
To qualify a driver must score a Top 10 finish in F1, IndyCar (ChampCar), NASCAR, World Rally, or make it to the final of an NHRA event.
Top 10 Drivers by the end of February 2008 are:
- Robert Hight (NHRA)
- Mikko Hirvonen (WRC)
- Kyle Busch (NASCAR)
- Gigi Galli (WRC)
- Petter Solberg (WRC)
- Tony Stewart (NASCAR)
- Ryan Newman (NASCAR)
- Jari-Matti Latvala (WRC)
- Sebastian Loeb (WRC)
- Greg Anderson (NHRA)
Paul Frere, the celebrated racing driver and journalist, has died at the age of 91. The Belgian never fully recovered from an accident at the end of 2006 while he was road testing a Honda Civic Type-R at the old Nurburgring in Germany. Frere, 89 at the time, suffered a shattered pelvis, several broken ribs and punctures to both lungs.
Frere competed in 11 Grands Prix after winning the non-championship Grand Prix des Frontieres at Chimay in 1952. He was taken on by Ferrari and in 1956 finished second to Peter Collins in a Lancia-Ferrari at the Belgian Grand Prix. In addition to this in 1960 he shared a Ferrari 250TR with Olivier Gendebien to win the Le Mans 24 Hours.
Frere was also a celebrated automotive and race reporter and contributed to magazines all over the world. He published a number of books.
From Autosport.com and GrandPrix.com
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