Name:Chris   Surname:Craft
Country:United Kingdom   Entries:2
Starts:1   Podiums:0
Fastest laps:0   Points:0
Start year:1971   End year:1971
Active years:1    

Christopher Craft (born 17 November 1939 –  20 February 2021) is a British racing driver who has competed in many different forms of motor sport.

Craft was born in Porthleven, Cornwall and began his career in 1962, with a Ford Anglia and became recognised as a leading saloon car racer, particularly with the Team Broadpeed Escort which he campaigned from 1968–70. Having also previously driven a Tecno in Formula Three, he moved to sports cars from 1968, initially with a Chevron and then joined forces with Alain de Cadenet to drive his Porsche 908 and McLaren M8C. It was this association that led to his participation in two World Championship Formula One Grands Prix, in 1971, driving a Brabham BT33 prepared by Cadenet’s team Ecurie Evergreen, but he failed to score a championship point. He did not qualify for his first World Championship race (the 1971 Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport Park) but would have been able to start the race following the withdrawal of two other drivers due to accidents in the raceday warmup sessions. However, his own car suffered engine trouble, denying him the opportunity. His second Grand Prix, at Watkins Glen ended with a suspension failure and tyre problems during the race.

Craft continued to compete in many other forms of motor racing, including saloon cars, notably with a Ford Capri; sports cars, including a period with the Dome team in the early 1980s; Formula 3 and Formula 5000. One of the highlights of his career was a third-place finish in the 1976 24 Hours of Le Mans.

After his race career Chris Craft started the Light Car Company with F1 designer Gordon Murray to build the Light Car Company Rocket. Info from Wiki


Taken from the BRDC website; the obituary of Chris Craft.

We very much regret having to report that Life Member Chris Craft died last Saturday morning. He was 81 years old and had been suffering from the effects of dementia for some time.

Although born in Cornwall, it was with the Ford Motor Company at Dagenham that Chris first found employment after leaving school – as a mail boy. Ambitious to become a racing driver, he soon gravitated towards the competition department where he was pointed towards the, for him, less appealing rally section. Undeterred, in his spare time Chris built up a 1340 cc Ford Anglia with which he went racing for the first time at Mallory Park in 1961. It was almost the last time too since he crashed, damaging the car beyond effective repair so he built another one, installed a 1650 cc engine, painted it bright orange (which would remain the colour of Chris’s crash helmet to the end of his career) and began to be noticed on the national scene.

The Mk 1 Ford Lotus Cortina was the main weapon of choice by some quick drivers for the 1964 BRSCC Saloon Car Championship, led by the Team Lotus entry for reigning F1 World Champion Jim Clark. Standing out among them by reason not only of its bright orange colour but also its speed was Chris’s version, his performances in which attracted an invitation towards the end of the year from Team Lotus to share one of its Lotus Cortinas with David Hobbs in the Road America 500 in the USA. Chris was also invited by Alan Mann Racing to drive a 1000 cc Anglia in the final round of the European Touring Car Championship in a bid to defeat the hordes of Fiat Abarths on home ground, only to run out of fuel on the last lap of the four hour race!

Without the means to continue running the Cortina in 1965, Chris joined the Superspeed team of 1300 cc Anglias as team mate to Mike Young, running in class A against numerous Mini-Cooper Ss. In dry conditions the rear wheel drive Anglia was a match for the quickest of the Minis but in the wet it struggled. Best result was a third place at Crystal Palace. A highlight of the 1965 season was an invitation to share the DR Fabrications Jaguar E-type with Jackie Oliver in the Brands Hatch 1000 miles, the duo finishing third overall and winning their class.

Touring car regulations changed to Group 5 for 1966 when Chris stayed with Superspeed and its 1300 cc Ford Anglia Supers. John Fitzpatrick won the BRSCC championship in a 1000 cc Broadspeed Anglia while in the 1300 cc class Mike Young finished second to the Cooper S of John Rhodes with Chris third. This was the year in which Chris dipped his toe in the cauldron that was 1000 cc Formula 3 but, although his name appeared in a good few F3 championship entry lists to drive a Merlyn Mk 9, it was only at the end of the season that the Merlyn made it to a starting grid before retiring after one lap with gearbox problems.

Undeterred by the Merlyn experience, at the start of 1967 Chris headed for Italy to drive a works BWA T324 in the Italian F3 Championship, following in the wheel tracks of Jonathan Williams and Boley Pittard. While Jonathan had dominated the 1966 Italian Championship in a De Sanctis, in June 1967 Boley was grievously and fatally burnt when his car caught fire on the grid at Monza and Chris, who to that point had a couple of sixth places in F3 heats to show for his BWA efforts, returned to Essex to spend the rest of the year in the BSCC with a Superspeed Ford Anglia. For 1968 Chris moved from Superspeed to Broadspeed to drive the new Ford Escort 1300GT as team mate to 1966 champion John Fitzpatrick. Chris’s car was not ready until mid-season and in the meantime he enjoyed himself by ruffling the feathers of many drivers of more potent machinery in a 1000 cc Anglia.

Despite the BWA experience, Chris had not given up on his single-seater aspirations and acquired a Tecno TF68 with which to contest as many British F3 Championship races as he could fit in around his saloon car racing. A second place in the Anerley Trophy at Crystal Palace behind F3 ace Roy Pike and third place on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit in a classic slipstreaming screamer of a race were his best results. Other highlights of the 1968 season included some races for Tech-Speed in a Chevron-BMW B8 with which he finished second overall and first in class in the Birthday Cup at Croft behind only the Lola T70 Mk 3 of Frank Gardner and ahead of such Chevron GT regulars as John Lepp and their creator Derek Bennett. Chris also won the 2-litre class in the sports car race supporting the Oulton Park Gold Cup and shared a Ford Escort 1300GT with the great rally driver Roger Clark to win their class in the Nurburgring 6 Hours round of the European Touring Car Championship. At the end of the season Chris was offered the chance to drive Sid Taylor’s Lola T70 in Austrian airfield races at Aspern and Innsbruck, finishing third at Aspern behind a pair of Abarths and going on to win overall at Innsbruck. He was also given the chance to drive Sid’s prototype Formula 5000 Lola T140 at Phoenix Park where he succeeded in breaking the lap record. To cap it all, Chris was chosen to receive the third Grovewood Award in recognition of his achievements and future prospects.

Tech-Speed switched from its pair of Chevron B8s to a singleton Lola T70 Mk 3 for the 1969 season, retaining Chris as its principal driver. He rewarded them by winning the Martini Trophy at Silverstone and the Wills Trophy at Croft, the latter success following a week after with David Piper he had won the Vila Real 6 Hours in David’s Porsche 908/02. There was more success to come in the Autumn with the Porsche, Chris finishing second with Alain de Cadenet at Mantorp Park, second in the Barcelona 12 Hours and third in the Paris 1000 Ks at Montlhery, the latter two with David again. And in amongst all this sports car activity, which had brought him second place in the RAC Sports Car Championship, Chris also continued to drive for Broadspeed in the British Saloon Car Championship, ending the season by finishing second overall to Alec Poole’s class-dominating 1000 cc Mini-Cooper S and winning the 1300 cc class on the back of six class victories and three second places.

Into the 1970s Chris established himself as one of the UK’s best sports car and saloon car drivers. He began the year in Argentina sharing David Piper’s Lola T70 Mk 3B with Richard Attwood in the Buenos 1000 Ks from which they retired before going solo the following weekend in the Buenos Aires 200 miles to finish 11th. With Alain de Cadenet’s Ecurie Evergreen Chris contested sports car races around Europe although it was not until the Swedish Sports Car Grand Prix at Karlskoga that the first race win came along with the team’s Cosworth DFV-powered McLaren M8C. In the team’s little Lola T210 Chris won a RAC Sports Car Championship round at Brands Hatch, half a minute ahead of the next car in a 20 lap race, and finished second in an Interserie race at Thruxton against some much more powerful machinery. The McLaren delivered another strong result with second place at the Nurburgring at the end of the season. And all this while Chris was continuing to compete in the British Saloon Car Championship, still with Broadspeed but now moving up to class C with an Escort Twin Cam. Again Chris was class champion on the back of six victories, which gave him fifth overall in the championship standings.

Broadspeed had planned to take Chris into Formula 5000 in 1970 but the project was a disaster thanks to a wrong choice of chassis initially and problems with the Ford Boss Mustang engine which culminated in the whole plot catching fire after a Chevrolet engine had been fitted to a McLaren M10B chassis which should really have been the starting point. This was not the end of Chris’s involvement with single-seater racing. During 1971 Alain de Cadenet acquired one of the Brabham BT33 chassis from the factory which was entered for the Oulton Park Gold Cup and the Canadian and US Grands Prix for Chris to drive. In the combined Formula 1/Formula 5000 Gold Cup Chris brought the Brabham home third of the F1s and fifth overall. The trip to America was less happy, the car failing to qualify in Canada and retiring at Watkins Glen. The BT33 was soon to become the donor car for the Gordon Murray-designed Duckhams de Cadenet which went so well at Le Mans in 1972 in the hands of Chris and Alain.

Chris’s main commitment for 1971 was as factory driver for Chevron with its B19 sports-prototype in the burgeoning European 2-litre championship and the RAC Sports Car series. After winning the opening RAC round at Oulton Park ahead of his good friend John Miles, Chris only visited the podium twice more across both championships, finishing second in the Nurburgring 500 Ks to Vic Elford’s Lola T212 and third at Silverstone. With the Ecurie Evergreen McLaren M8C Chris won at the Norisring in the infamous race in which Pedro Rodriguez lost his life, and finished second in the Coppa Shell at Imola. Chris’s introduction to the Le Mans 24 Hours also turned out well with fourth place sharing American driver David Weir’s ex-Steve McQueen Solar Productions Ferrari 512M. In total Chris contested Les Vingt-Quatre Heures 14 years in succession. Only once did he finish higher than at this first attempt when he claimed third place in 1976 with Alain de Cadenet in the latter’s Lola-DFV T380 in one of the most outstanding achievements ever by a true privateer team at Le Mans.

A couple of third places with David Piper’s Porsche 917, in Interserie races at Keimola and Hockenheim, were the most notable results in 1972. However, in conjunction with Martin Birrane plans were being made to run a Lola T292 in the 1973 European 2-litre Sports-Prototype Championship which was at the peak of its competitiveness. In the season of eight races, only two drivers won more than one race, Chris being one of them with victories at Misano and Imola. Together with second places at Clermont-Ferrand and Montjuic Park, Barcelona Chris emerged as champion ahead of John Burton’s Chevron B23. If the Sports-prototype campaign had gone very well, the same could not be said of Chris’s last venture into single-seaters as team mate to Teddy Pilette in the European Formula 5000 Championship with Team VDS in a Chevron B24. A fifth place at Zandvoort was the best result and Chris ended up 17th in the points whilst his team mate Teddy won the Championship.

Chris took his champion’s #1 to Abarth for the 1974 2-litre season but was beset by various car problems and left the team before the end of the year. His best result was his last one with a fourth place at Enna behind the invincible Alpine-Renault A441s. For the next couple of years Chris kept his hand in at Le Mans driving Alain de Cadenet’s cars before returning to the BSCC in 1977, as usual with a Ford but this time a Capri backed by Hammonds Sauce. While Gordon Spice with four wins won the 3000 cc class, Chris finished runner up with three victories. It was in 1977 that Chris was elected a Member of the BRDC.

In 1978 running as team mate to Gordie in the Autocar-backed Capris, Chris won just once. Over the next few years, he concentrated on endurance racing, principally with Ford Capris with which in 1979 he finished fourth in the Spa 24 Hours with Jeff Allam and fifth in the RAC Tourist Trophy with Gordie Spice and Pete Clark. He played a major role in the development of the Dome Zero RL sports-prototype which he qualified third for the 1979 Silverstone 6 Hours. However, tyre problems in the race meant that he and team mate Gordie could only finish 12th. Chris was seventh in the same race the following year in a Ferrari 512BB with Steve O’Rourke and Vic Norman and third in the Brands Hatch 1000 Ks in 1981 with Derek Bell in a BMW M1. His last race came at Le Mans in 1984 when he shared a Porsche 956 with Alain de Cadenet and Allen Grice which ended in retirement out on the circuit on Sunday morning with Chris at the wheel with engine failure.
Active in property development during his racing career – Chris was one of the first to realise the potential in the London Docklands – Chris teamed up with Gordon Murray to create the Rocket Roadster which its designer reckons is to this day the lightest road car in the world. Quite a few of these unconventional cars were sold by The Light Car Company which Chris and Gordon set up.
Despite its length this tribute to Chris Craft perhaps only scratches the surface of the remarkable career of a driver who was highly-regarded within the sport and who was able to perform at the highest level whether in sports cars and saloon cars. To his wife Jill and son Luke, the BRDC sends its most sincere condolences.

Bio by Stephen Latham

Although perhaps best known for his exploits in touring cars (narrowly missing out on 1969’s British Saloon Car Championship title) Chris Craft drove some 44 different makes and models in a wide variety of formulae across his 20 plus years on track. He started racing in his twenties with a Ford Anglia in national events and went on to become one of Britain’s leading sports and touring car racers. He won the 1973 European Sports Car Championship plus took a podium finish in 1976’s Le Mans 24 Hours, with his one GP outing coming in 1971 with a Brabham BT33 at Watkins Glen.

Born on 17th November 1939 in Porthleven, Cornwall, his father was a bank manager from Essex who went on to become a missionary in Africa. After leaving school Chris began working as a mail boy with the Ford Motor Company at Dagenham and soon moved to the competition department, with the rallying section, and became involved in motor racing through his brother Andrew, who owned a garage in Woodford Green, London. In his spare time he built up a Ford Anglia and contested his first race with it in 1961 at Mallory Park but unfortunately crashed and badly damaged it though built another one and began to be noticed on the national scene. He contested 1964’s British Saloon Car Championship, where his best results were fourth and seventh at Crystal Palace and Aintree but despite a strong drive at Brands Hatch he and Mike Young’s Superspeed Anglias were disqualied due to a technical infringement. He received an invitation from Team Lotus to share one of its Lotus Cortinas with David Hobbs in September’s Road America 500 and the pair finished fourteenth. In the following month he was also invited to drive an Anglia in October for Alan Mann Racing (alongside the team’s Lotus Cortinas fielded by Henry Taylor and John Whitmore) in the final round of the European Touring Car Championship in a bid to defeat the Fiat Abarths, but ran out of fuel on the last lap of the four hour race.

Chris joined the Superspeed team for 1965 as team mate to Mike Young but at the first race the two Anglias, which finished second and third to John Rhodes in the 1300 cc class, were disqualified for infringing regulations as to track width and inlet manifold design. Further finishes included third at Crystal Palace, sixth at the Silverstone International Trophy and fourth in the final round at Oulton Park’s Gold Cup while a highlight of the season came when sharing the DR Fabrications Jaguar E-type with Jackie Oliver in the 1000 Mile Brands Hatch and the pair finished third and won their class.

In 1966, he contested the Saloon Car Championship but also drove in some Formula 3 races. In his F3 outings in a Merlin Mk.9 he dns at Crystal Palace, dnq at Monza plus retired from two Brands Hatch races and was tenth with DR Racing Division’s Brabham BT18 at a Les Leston Trophy race at Brands Hatch. The saloon car regulations for 1966 allowed significant modifications to engines, transmissions, brakes and suspensions and it saw the Ford Falcon and Hillman Imp introduced to the series. He continued with the Superspeed Anglia and, battling a Galaxie, Falcon Sprint, Mustangs and Lotus Cortinas was sixth in the first two rounds, at the Archie Scott Brown Memorial Trophy at Snetterton (and recorded a new lap record) plus Goodwood. There were retirements at several rounds including Crystal Palace, when his car locked in first gear and later overheated and at Brands hatch where a locked differential caused him to spin. Then in September came victory at Oulton Park’s International Gold Cup meeting. Despite a mediocre start, by the second lap he had passed both his team mate Young and the leader and eventually the Anglias were running 1-2. By half distance, with Chris driving on top form, he opened up a 3.6 seconds lead and kept his position to the flag. There was a seventh place in the final round at Brands Hatch and the standings saw John Fitzpatrick win the championship in the 1300cc class, Mike Young finished second, to the Cooper S of John Rhodes, with Chris third.

At the start of 1967 he headed for Italy to drive a works BWA T324 in a number of early rounds of the F3 Championship and returning to the UK he contested two BSCC races though retired the Superspeed Anglia at Brands Hatch and Oulton Park. For 1968 he undertook a wide programme of touring and sports car races and also continued his single-seater aspirations with a Tecno TF68. He entered as many British F3 rounds as he could work in around his saloon car schedule but dnf and dns at two Oulton Park events and retired from the prestigious Monaco race due to an accident while second place in the Anerley Trophy at Crystal Palace behind Roy Pike and third at Silverstone in a classic slipstreaming race were his best results. Switching to the Broadspeed team alongside John Fitzpatrick, he raced their Ford Escort 1300GT but with his car not being ready until mid-season he enjoyed battling drivers of more potent machinery with his Anglia. In the first two rounds at Brands Hatch and Thruxton he was seventh and fifth (with a class win) then took a further class win with tenth at Silverstone. There were retirements at three rounds, then racing the Escort he was twelfth at Brands Hatch, tenth at Silverstone (second in class), plus had a class win with ninth at Oulton Park. He was seventh in the final round at Brands Hatch, though with the Escorts claiming a one-two-three finish, Chris beat Peer and Fitzpatrick to take class win. He also had a shared drive alongside Roger Clark at the Nurburgring 6 Hours and the pair were ninth, and took Division 2 victory, in the Broadspeed Escort. Sports cars saw him with Tech-Speed Racing’s Chevron B8 where he finished second overall and first in class in the Birthday Cup at Croft behind Frank Gardner’s Lola T70 Mk3 plus was fifth (and also won his class) at Oulton Park. In two Lola T70 outings he was third at Aspern and several days later won a Preis von Tirol event at Innsbruck plus raced Sid Taylor’s prototype F5000 Lola T140 at Phoenix Park where he broke the lap record and at the end of the year received the Grovewood Award in recognition of his achievements.

The following year saw him finish runner up with the Broadspeed Escort 1300 TC in Class B. Despite a poor start to the season, missing the first race and retiring at the second, his finishes included second at Crystal Palace and Mallory Park, third and fifth at Silverstone, fourth at Thruxton, sixth at Brands Hatch, seventh at Oulton Park and eighth at Snetterton, with all being class victories. He took second in class results with fifth and seventh at Croft and Brands Hatch and finished the season second to Alec Poole’s Mini-Cooper S. Outside the BSCC, there were shared BMW 2002 drives at the Spa 24 Hours and an ETCC round at Brands Hatch but he retired from both. In sports cars, Tech-Speed had switched from the Chevrons and were running a single Lola T70 Mk 3 and he was fourth in his first race in March at Silverstone and eighth the following month in a shared drive with Eric Liddell at the 6 Hour Brands Hatch. There were several retirements, though he won the Martini Trophy at Silverstone and the Wills Trophy at Croft. In July he began a partnership with Alain de Cadenet, taking a win with his Porsche 908 at the Vila Real 6 Hours alongside David Piper. There was more success to come with the Porsche, finishing second in a solo drive at Mantorp Park then in further drives with Piper they were second in the Barcelona 12 Hours and third the following week in the Paris 1000kms at Montlhery.

1970 began in Argentina, with two races in Buenos Aires though he and Richard Attwood did not finish with David Piper’s Lola T70 Mk 3B in the Buenos 1000kms and he was eleventh in a solo drive the following weekend in a 200 Mile race. Back in Europe he contested sports car races with Ecurie Evergreen though retired in the first races with the McLaren M8C at Thruxton (with Trevor Taylor), Silverstone, the Vila Real 500km (though took pole and fastest lap) and an Interseries event at Croft (again taking pole and fastest lap). Then in August came victory at the GP Swerige (from pole and recording the fastest lap) and tenth the following week at Wunstorf and in two following races with a Lola T210 he won at Brands Hatch and was twenty third at the Nurburgring 500km. Back in the M8C he retired from the Imola 500km though in his final two races he took second place finishes with it at Nurburgring and with the Lola at an Interseries race at Thruxton. He also continued with Broadspeed in saloons and was the main candidate for victory in his class. In the first races with the Escort he took class wins with second at Brands Hatch, fourth at Snetterton and was eleventh at Brands Hatch. In a shared drive with Jackie Stewart they were twenty sixth at the Tourist Trophy plus Chris took further class wins with third at Crystal Palace and fourth at Silverstone and Croft. He was second in class with fourth place at Silverstone and fifth at Oulton Park, where he started from near the back after a practice engine seizure and gearbox issues. In the two final rounds at Brands Hatch he was fifth (and second in class) though did not race in the final event and was fifth overall in the championship standings. Broadspeed had planned to enter F5000 but though he was on the entry list with a Leda LT20 he did not attend Brands Hatch, Silverstone and Anderstorp, did not start at Silverstone’s International Trophy and in a single outing with a McLaren M10A he was twelfth at Monza. This was not the end of Chris’s involvement with single-seaters though as he would make his F1 debut the following year.
1971 saw a busy schedule as he also entered his first Le Mans 24 Hours plus raced sports cars for Chevron and Ecurie Evergreen’s McLarens. His first race in early January saw ninth place with an M8C alongside Trevor Taylor at the Buenos Aires 1000km. His remaining Ecurie Evergreen drives came in an M8E and he was second in the Coppa di Shell Interseries race at Imola, twelfth in an Interseries round at Zolder and July saw a victory from pole at Norisring (though Pedro Rodriguez tragically lost his life during this race). After winning the first race at Oulton Park with Chevron’s B19, ahead of John Miles, he returned to the podium the following month with third at Silverstone. He was twelfth at Hockenheim and in September was second, to Vic Elford, at the Nurburgring 500km and twenty second at Zandvoort. His final Chevron drive came late in the year with Mike Hailwood at the Kyalami 9 Hours, teamed in a Team Gunston B19, though they did not finish. The year saw his Le Mans debut and there was an impressive fourth place finish sharing David Piper’s Ferrari 512M with David Weir, behind two Porsche 917Ks and NART’s Ferrari 512 LM. Keith Greene told how “Alain was friends with this millionaire American playboy called David Weir. He desperately wanted to race at Le Mans but he was a real high liver: parties, birds, the lot. I told Alain that there was no way I was going to Le Mans with a 220mph car with a playboy as one of its drivers. But Weir was very determined so I sent all of us, Chris and me included, to Dave Prowse’s gym (Prowse was the Green Cross Code Man and later Darth Vader) in the East End. To his credit, Weir was great, stopped all the partying and got very fit. As usual, we went to Le Mans with the car towed behind the Transit, with just Keith Baldwin, one other mechanic and a gopher. What we did have, though, was a Ferrari with an absolutely stonking engine. Ferrari gave us a dyno sheet that showed it gave 640bhp-a top figure at the time.” Chris stated that Weir “drove well-nice and steady, with smooth gearshifts and plenty of respect for the car. The 512 was fantastic” and said that, “including my wins and championships, my fondest memory is lap after lap dicing with Jo Siffert’s 917 in the night.” De Cadenet was also competing with Ecurie Belge’s 512 but was unable to take the Mulsanne Kink without lifting his foot off the throttle; “Chris said he was taking it flat but I just couldn’t do it. He suggested that I plonk my left foot over my right to stop myself lifting. All that happened is that both feet came up! Chris eventually suggested that I just follow him through the Kink. On my own the engine was pulling 8200rpm, but in his slipstream it was hitting 8400rpm. After that, going flat through they’re on my own didn’t seem such a big deal.” Despite the 512 destroying its clutch early on Sunday morning, Baldwin fixed it in under an hour, despite the rear of the the car being red-hot and said “we managed to separate the motor and gearbox, then hit the clutch with a club hammer to free it. The works Ferrari had the same problem; it took them 64 minutes to fix theirs.” The car also suffered a crack in the windscreen that became longer and longer each time it took the crest at White House though he stated “Chris was phenomenally brave but even he was getting worried by the prospect of it caving in at 220mph.” During the year De Cadenet decided to enter F1 and did a deal with Ron Tauranac for a Brabham BT33. In late August the team entered Oulton Park’s Gold Cup and in a mixed field of F1 and F5000 cars Chris qualified twelfth. Unfortunately, “it came with the wrong wheels on it-so we could never get it to feel right! I must admit that I wasn’t very happy with it. It was terribly light and I couldn’t get any feel in the steering. Later on we found out it should have had 20in wheels and it had 22in wheels, and the geometry was wrong.” He went on to finish fifth both in the second heat and also on aggregate and was third in the F1 class. They travelled the following month to race in the final two World Championship events of the season at Mosport and Watkins Glen. Money was so tight Chris and Keith Greene travelled via a Page & Moy tour to get to North America and in return, Chris would regale the company’s guests with tales of his career in racing. The BT33 travelled across in the hold of a ferry, sitting on an open trailer attached to the back of an old Transit van and though mechanic Keith Baldwin flew to the race, de Cadenet had originally intended putting him and another mechanic on the ferry with the car. He failed to qualify at Mosport but a soaking wet warm-up session saw Henri Pescarolo and Howden Ganley crash heavily enough to rule them both out of the race. Chris and fellow non-qualifier Skip Barber were invited to join the grid but after an overnight engine change in preparation for the following race, the Brabham didn’t run cleanly, and his place went to Pete Lovely. “We came round to start the race and the engine went all funny. It transpired that it had broken a cam, so we didn’t start. I can remember having a good few drinks afterwards and riding a scrambles bike back to the hotel. The boys said, ‘How did you get past where the road was washed away?’ I didn’t even notice!” He recalled how “Alain would do anything to save a bit of money. He drove the Transit miles and miles on this huge loop around New York so that he could avoid paying a $1 toll on a bridge.” At Watkins Glen, Chris and Keith Greene were late for practice after the Page & Moy bus got caught in traffic and De Cadenet recalled he was standing by the car “watching other drivers going out, and wondering where on earth Chris and Keith were. Jackie Stewart came up and said, ‘Where’s your man? You’d better go out in it yourself.’ I was considering doing exactly that when Chris came sprinting across the paddock and jumped in the car. I don’t even think he put his overalls on.” The Evergreen car was officially entered by Motor Racing Developments as a third works entry alongside Graham Hill and Tim Schenken, where he qualified twenty seventh in the twenty nine car field. “I finally got used to how bad it was at Watkins Glen and then you just adapt. I think it cut out and I spun it on the first lap. It stalled and we got it going. I came in for a new battery and went out again..I was behind Denny Hulme and I had Ronnie Peterson behind me. I stayed there for about 20 laps and thought I’d cracked this! And I did literally crack it because the chassis then cracked in half. It started tyre chunking and that broke the horseshoe on the back of the chassis. I came in and Tauranac gave me a huge telling off. I said to him, ‘I’m from sportscars-you don’t get out of them until they hit the ground!’ He said, ‘You don’t do that in F1.’ He and I didn’t get on that well at the time…”

Early races in 1972 came in World Championship for Makes rounds with Jo Bonnier’s Lola T280 but he retired at the Daytona 6 hours and Brands Hatch 1000kms though was seventh at the Buenos Aires 1000kms (with Larousse and Wisell). He retired Canon Racing’s Chevron B21 at the Nurburgring 1000km with John Burton while Interseries races with David Piper’s Porsche 917 saw third place finishes at Keimola and Hockenheim and sixth at Nurburgring. There were ETCC outings with a Ford Mustang alongside Martin Brian at the 6 Hour Paul Ricard and with Kent Racing’s Ford Capri 2600 RS with Jean-Claude Franck though they retired in both events. He would contest the 24 Hours race 14 years in succession and, sharing a car for the first time in 1972 with De Cadenet, they were running fourth though finished twelfth after Chris crashed during a shower in the closing hours. There would be a number of Le Mans outings with the Gordon Murray-designed Duckhams car but de Cadenet stated that “although the car looked like a Duckhams can on wheels, they only coughed up £500. But the whole car only cost about £5000. Gordon used a fair few bits from the Brabham BT33.” The team arrived with just a set of wets, a set of slicks and a set of spark plugs and Chris described how “The car was fantastic and we were going really well-until I aquaplaned off. The worst moment of my career. I felt I’d let everyone down.” However, de Cadenet said “Chris was a fantastic driver. He never gave up and wasn’t frightened of anything or anybody, in or out of the car. Jackie Stewart, who drove a Broadspeed Escort himself several times and watched Chris drive them, thought he could easily have done F1.” However, Chris later stated “I never really liked single-seaters..I did Formula Three and F5000, but I preferred saloons and sports cars.”

There were further Lola drives the following year when Martin Birrane’s Crowne Racing, with Keith Greene as team manager, ran him in the European 2-litre Sports Car championship. He qualified fifth with the T292 at the opening race at Paul Ricard but did not finish though then won the following rounds at Misano and Imola. There were a number of retirements but he had second place finishes at the Trophee d’Auvergne at Clermont Ferrand and the 400km Barcelona from pole. In the eight races, only he and Guy Edwards won more than one race and Chris emerged as champion with 70 points ahead of John Burton, and Guy Edwards third. In 1974, the car was due to be fitted with a Tecno P82 flat-8 engine but the project ran late and Birrane sold the car. He also raced a Crowne Racing Porsche 911 Carrera alongside Martin Birrane at the 1000km Monza though they did not finish and on his return to Le Mans with de Cadenet in the Duckhams LM they retired after 81 laps. Unfortunately, despite the success enjoyed in sports cars, he did not fare as well in his single-seater racing. He missed a number of races and his first outing came at the sixth round in May, where he was eleventh with the Team VDS McLaren M22 at Oulton Park. His remaining races came with the team’s Chevron B24 and finishes included seventh at Mallory Park and Brands Hatch, eighth, ninth and tenth at Oulton Park, Brands Hatch and Snetterton, twelfth at Mondello Park and his best result was fifth at Zandvoort. Chris finished seventeenth in the final standings whilst his team mate Teddy Pilette won the Championship.

He switched to Abarth for 1974’s 2-litre season but in the seven race series, which was dominated by the Alpines, he retired in two rounds and his only finishes were twelfth at Misano and fourth at Enna Pergusa but he left the team before the end of the season. He contested F5000 with Crowne Racing’s Chevron B24, finishing ninth in the standings, with results along the way including fifth and seventh at Brands Hatch, seventh and eighth at Oulton Park and Mallory Park, twelfth at Brands Hatch, fourteenth at Monza and his best results were two third place podiums at Zolder and Mondello Park plus fourth Zandvoort and Thruxton. After two Le Mans drives in the Duckhams car, he and Alain de Cadenet returned to la Sarthe though Chris and co-driver John Nicholson retired after an accident after 168 laps.

Le Mans in 1975 saw fourteenth (and fastest lap) with de Cadenet’s Lola T380 though he did not qualify in one outing with a Cheetah Automobiles G501 at the Dijon 800kms. In saloon cars with Wisharts Garage’s Capri he was fifth at Oulton Park, seventh at Brands Hatch and eleventh at Thruxton. Then, his fifth 24 Hour attempt in 1976 resulted in a podium when, after a hard charge in the De Cadenet Lola T380, they came home third behind the Porsche 936 of Ickx/Lennep and Lafosse/Migaults’s Mirage M8. He was fourteenth with a Triumph Dolomite Sprint in the Tourist Trophy at Silverstone and competed in saloon cars with a Tricentrol Ford Capri. The series started well with second in the first races at Brands Hatch then victory at Silverstone but he was disqualified after the race as his car had run without an air filter. He was third at Thruxton (with a Hammonds Sauce car) after a doorhandle to doorhandle battle with Gordon Spice’s Capri on the last lap. Back in a Tricentrol car, on a return to Thruxton he was third and took fourth place results at Brands Hatch and Snetterton. At Mallory Park, just 1.8s covered the fastest ten cars on the grid and Chris was in the mix against Capris, Dolomite Sprints, an Opel Commodore, a Vauxhall Magnum and a Mazda RX-3. Eventually, on the eleventh lap he took second place and tried everything to wrestle the lead from Walkinshaw, with Spice in turn harrying him, but they crossed the line in this order.

There was a return to the BSCC the following year, this time with a Hammonds Sauce backed Capri and while Spice won the class with four victories, Chris finished runner up with three wins. Silverstone’s opening round saw a spirited battle with Spice’s Capri for most of the race, and he seemed to be gaining the upper hand, but with only ten miles to go, his car jammed in gear and he had to retire. At Brands Hatch his clutch exploded on the warming-up lap and he was fourth and sixth at Silverstone and Thruxton. Although he was third at Oulton Park, he had been leading though had to battle against an ignition switch which kept causing the car to cut out but still recorded a new class record. There was a victory at Thruxton where, from the moment he took the lead on the first lap he controlled the race from the front while further rounds saw second at Silverstone and Donington and third at Thruxton. He started second to Tony Dron at the final race at Brands Hatch but Dron had a poor start and dropped at one stage to fourth in the hectic opening laps. Chris later lost the lead to Spice, who went to cross the line two seconds ahead of Chris. In shared drives with the Capri he was nineteenth at the Silverstone 6 hours (with de Cadenet) and twenty third at the Nurburgring 1000kms with Spice though retired from the Tourist Trophy alongside Pete Lovett and Brian Muir. He and de Cadenet were on the podium again with a Lola at Le Mans, finishing fifth overall and third in class, plus he was fourth in a solo Lola T296 drive at the Estoril 2.5 Hours.

Driving Gordon Spice’s Autocar backed Capris in 1978, the year saw some close battles with his team mate. At Oulton Park he had an engine blow in practice and started eighth but after working his way through the field, with five laps remaining he had taken fourth place and was third at the flag. Spice made the best start at Silverstone though after three laps team mate Chris managed to sneak inside Brodie and he was soon tailing him. Towards the end he pressured him hard, but there was no way past and he came home second. Then came a victory at Donington, where, despite Dron making a superb start from the second row, he edged his way to the front and he held this lead at the end of the opening lap from Dron, Spice and Walkinshaw. The two Capris began to pull away from the rest and began a race long duel though Chris was first to the flag. There were fourth place results at Mallory Park and Donington plus fourth and fifth at Brands Hatch. At Thruxton, Spice took an immediate lead from Rouse, Graham and Chris, who had qualified second fastest. At the halfway stage it seemed nobody would threaten him but his team mate had passed Rouse and Graham and was gaining. By three quarters distance he was only a few yards behind and, approaching the chicane for the final time dived for the inside line. Chris briefly took the lead though slid wide and Spice went back in front, then almost overdid himself coming onto the start/finish straight and took the flag second, less than a length from Chris. During the year shared drives saw retirements with the Capri from an ETCC round at Brands Hatch (with Spice) and the Spa 24 Hours (with Alain Corbisier) while Le Mans with de Cadenet’s Lola LM saw a fifteenth place finish.

Over the next few years, he concentrated on endurance racing, principally with Capris and in 1979 finished fourth in the Spa 24 Hours with Jeff Allam and fifth in the Tourist Trophy with Spice and Pete Clark. He played a major role in the development of the Dome Zero RL sports-prototype, which first raced at 1979’s Silverstone 6 Hours, and though it was third-fastest in practice, tyre problems meant he and Spice finished twelfth. The 16 foot 4inch long Zero RL (Racing Le Mans) was notable for its extremely narrow front track, giving a very small frontal aspect and drag co-efficient. The bubble canopy was designed to maximise aerodynamic effect but in practice the drivers tended to be roasted due to the large amount of glass surrounding them. Also, the aerodynamic ‘slot’ proved large enough to set up uncomfortable turbulence in the cabin, so the canopy was chopped. It said that the steering also proved to be rather vague at high speeds, which obviously unsettled the drivers while travelling down the Mulsanne Straight. Keith Greene was team manager and the driver line-up included Chris and Gordon Spice plus Tony Trimmer and Bob Evans in the second car. The cars, one running with 450hp while the other had 415hp, qualified fifteenth and eighteenth but the race would prove disappointing. After only seven minutes Chris stopped at Arnage with the coil having fallen off and a fire started in the engine bay, which required a pit-stop for repairs. Following this the car was plagued with fuel-feed problems which saw him having to do roadside repairs at Mulsanne but the car was eventually retired at seven pm. After a good start, the Trimmer/Evans car was in fifth place at the end of the first hour but the engine suffered fuel injection and ignition problems. This led to it pitting four times in one hour, before finally retiring after three hours eight minutes with a blown head-gasket. The Zero RL returned to Le Mans with new versions of the car in 1980 and 1981, with him and Bob Evans as the drivers but the RL-80 and RL-81 retired from both races.

In 1980 he was seventh at the Silverstone 6 Hours with an EMKA Productions Ferrari 512 BB alongside Steve O’Rourke and Vic Norman and the following year he and Derek Bell took third place with an EMKA BMW M1 (an ex-Niki Lauda BMW M1) at the Brands Hatch 1000kms. Racing Dome’s RC-82 in 1982 he, Raul Boesel and Eliseo Salazar retired at the Silverstone 6 Hours and he and Salazar did not finish at Le Mans, retiring on lap eighty five. In the following year his 24 Hours race ended in retirement after seventy five laps with the RC82 (alongside Salazar and Nick Mason) though racing a Lola T298 in a Brands Hatch Thundersports race he and Mason finished seventh.

His final race came at Le Mans in 1984 when he shared Charles Ivy Racing’s Porsche 956 with de Cadenet and Allen Grice, though it ended in retirement out on the circuit on Sunday morning due to engine failure, with Chris at the wheel. In 1984, Ford’s Supervan 2 was constructed with its bodyshell a fibreglass replica of the Mark 2 Transit, although slightly lowered and fitted with a front airdam, large side air inlets and a high-mounted rear spoiler. The chassis was a Ford C100 Group C car, powered by a Cosworth DFL engine and built by Auto Racing Technology. Supervan 2’s debut was at Donington Park for the first British truck racing GP while it was timed at 174 mph during tests at Silverstone. Chris also drove Supervan 2 during the year at Brands Hatch.

He then decided to end his professional racing career. He had been active in property development during his racing career and after retiring also stayed involved in motorsport and the automotive industry. He started the Light Car Company with F1 designer Gordon Murray to create the Rocket, an ultra-lightweight car that combined motorcycle technology and proven single-seater design, with a unique tandem seat space framed chassis. The pair decided to embark on the Rocket project in the summer of 1989 and it was said that the decision was taken at Murray’s chateau in France one night after consumption of a considerable amount of alcohol and the first designs were sketched out at the kitchen table at night. Chris stated “for years I’d wanted to do a road car with him but he was always too busy. We eventually-finally-did the Rocket… Gordon wanted to do a single-seater but I’m no fan of those so we compromised on the tandem layout.” Coming in at under 400kg it was said that when it first launched it was the fastest accelerating production car in the world, with its power-to-weight ratio far exceeding even the most powerful supercars of the time. A launch event was held at London’s Design Museum in June 1991, which led to huge interest in the car, not least from enthusiasts like George Harrison and Rowan Atkinson. Promotional photographs included the company’s facility at Stanford in the Vale, Oxfordshire, plus one of Nigel Mansell driving one of the cars with Michael Aspel on the British TV series, ‘This Is Your Life’. The test chassis was driven hard by journalists and received praise, with Jeremy Clarkson stating “Sell your Elan, sell your bottom, peddle drugs, become a pimp, hold up an airliner but, for God’s sake, get yourself a Rocket!”. Unfortunately for the company, slow small-scale production over the years was not helped by a recession which hit in mid-1993. With only around 18 cars delivered and the order book drying up by that point, the prospects of the business became rather shaky. Production was moved to Harlow in Essex and later to Stanford in West Oxfordshire, with a mere handful of cars built in the mid-1990s. Despite an unsuccessful attempt to create a one-make Rocket race series in 1995/96, further investment was found to keep the production of the car going until 1998. By the early 2000s, changes in vehicle legislation meant that it was increasingly difficult to produce the cars to original specification. The last batch of Rockets (using a number of original chassis which had lain unused since the late 1990s) were produced in Chigwell between 2006-2011, with a number of necessary modifications and substitutions to bring the componentry into the modern age. After producing around 40 Rockets, red tape and more stringent SVA regulations eventually saw the end and it slipped quietly into motoring history.

A regular visitor to historic racing meetings, Chris was also involved with restoring the old Stow Maries aerodrome in Maldon, Essex. He passed away on the 20th February 2021, after a period of ill health and sadly, only 17 days later, his lifelong friend Keith Greene also passed away.

Big Bio by Stephen Latham


1971 Canada GP

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