F1 Trivia~ Within Minutes
July 18, 2009 by Negative Camber
Filed under F1 Trivia
This tragic Grand Prix had two drivers involved in fatal accidents in close proximity and within minutes of each other. Two other drivers were injured, one career ending, in practice the day before the race. Can you tell me which Grand Prix and what year?
bonus: Another driver who contested in Formula 1 was killed on this same day but not in the same series or grand prix. Can you name him?
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1960 Belgian Grand Prix
Jimmy Bryan
Some more info on the people behind the numbers on this dark day in motorsport:-
Chris Bristow was the son of a London, England garage owner. Bristow was called the wild man of British club racing, as he had spun out or had collisions on almost every race track he had raced on. He started four Formula One World Championship races and scored no championship points. He was killed during the 1960 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps, in a gruesome accident at the Burnenville corner, in which he was decapitated, when the car rolled over. It was lap twenty and Bristow was fighting desperately to stay in front of the Ferrari of Willy Mairesse. Bristow was driving a Cooper owned by the Yeoman Credit team. Yeoman Credit was an automobile financing company that entered racing for publicity purposes. Spa was the world’s fastest road circuit and was 8 and 3/4 miles in length in 1960. The weather was warm and sunny and a crowd of 100,000 witnessed the race. Bristow and Alan Stacey died in close proximity and within a few minutes of one another. They both failed to properly negotiate the same extended fast right hand bend in which Stirling Moss was severely injured the previous day. Moss suffered broken legs, three broken ribs, and a broken nose. Cars regularly speeded through the Burnenville corner at 120 miles per hour. There was an embankment there four feet high and barbed wire in the meadow about ten feet back from the road. The Cooper of Bristow impacted the bank and he was hurled into the barbed wire, beheading him. A friend of Bristow’s said after the wreck, We all knew this was going to happen. It does no good to say now, but Chris simply did not have the experience to drive that way in Grand Prix racing.
Alan Stacey was a British racing driver from England. He began his association with Lotus when he built one of the MkVI kits then being offered by the company. Having raced this car he went on to build an Eleven , eventually campaigning it at Le Mans under the Team Lotus umbrella. During the following years he spent much time developing the Lotus Grand Prix cars, most notably the front engined 16 and then the 18. He participated in 7 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 19 July 1958. He scored no championship points. He also participated in several non-Championship Formula One races. Stacey was killed during the 1960 Belgian Grand Prix, at Spa-Francorchamps, when he crashed at 120 mph (190 km/h). after being hit in the face by a bird on lap 25, while lying in sixth place with his Lotus. Stacey was driving the same type of Lotus as Stirling Moss, who was nearly killed on the previous day. He went off the road on the inside of a fast curve. The inside of a turn is where great forces push a car out. Stacey’s Lotus climbed an embankment that was waist-high. It penetrated ten feet of thick hedges and fell into a field. He died within a few minutes of Chris Bristow who was driving a Cooper entry which belonged to the Yeoman Credit team. The two Englishmen were killed only a few hundred feet apart, on the same right hand bend where Moss crashed the previous day. Moss came away with broken legs, three broken ribs, and a broken nose. In a mid-1980s edition of Road and Track Magazine, Stacey’s friend and teammate Innes Ireland wrote a touching article about Stacey’s death, in which he stated that some spectators claimed that a bird had flown into Stacey’s face while he was approaching the curve, possibly knocking him unconscious, or even possibly killing him by breaking his neck, before the car crashed.
James Ernest Bryan (January 28, 1926 – June 19, 1960) was born in Phoenix, Arizona, Bryan died as a result of injuries sustained in a champ car race at Langhorne Speedway. He drove in the AAA and USAC Championship Car series, racing in the 1952-1960 seasons with 72 starts, including each year’s Indianapolis 500 race. He finished in the top ten 54 times, with 23 victories. Bryan won the 1958 Indianapolis 500 and the 1954 AAA and 1956 and 1957 USAC National Championship. During his 1957 championship season, Bryan also won the inaugural running of the Race of Two Worlds at Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Italy. He died after a crash in a Champ car race at Langhorne Speedway in 1960, on the same day that two drivers were killed in the Belgian Grand Prix, making the day one of the most tragic in racing history.
Great job guys!! Wow, that’s impressive and ER, thanks for the additional history and info. Many here will enjoy that background on the race. Great job Tim…very impressive.
One thing I have come to enjoy about the trivia section is it has become a great way to learn about the sport. Just as Eau Rouge has posted background on the event, many may not know this tragic day and will learn more about it now. Keep up the great work folks.
Everybody is faster than me in answering, i blame the timezone! :d
LOL. I blame that all the time. :)
Bernie blames that for not dixing Formula1 within his said 48 hours!
err… fixing.. stupid 3:30am!