Stuart Nigel Lewis-Evans (20 April 1930 – 25 October 1958) was a British racing driver from England.
He participated in 14 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 19 May 1957. He achieved two podiums, and scored a total of 16 championship points. He also achieved two pole positions. Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
At the end of the 1958 season, Mike Hawthorn had won the Championship, and Tony Vandervell had won the Constructors Championship, but as they flew back together on the charted plane the flight was a sad and depressing one. Poor Stuart Lewis-Evans, who had been seriously burnt at the season ending Moroccan GP, lay quietly on a stretcher in a space made by removing several seats in the cabin. Covered in bandages and dressings, he sipped tea and chatted as best he could but his brave, uncomplaining, attitude masked his grave condition.
Stuart Lewis-Evans grew up around cars and racing as his father Lewis ‘Pop’ Lewis-Evans, owned a garage and had been a mechanic for racing driver Earl Howe. After leaving school he was an apprentice with Vauxhall Motors and during his National Service was a motorcycle despatch rider in the Royal Corps of Signals.
Encouraged by his father, he began racing a Cooper 500 F3 car, sometimes racing against him, and his first win came in 1951 Brands Hatch plus a second in class at Great Auclum Speed Trials.
1952 would be a busy season, racing at home and abroad and he scored his first big win in the F3 race supporting the International Trophy at Silverstone. Other results included victories in the London Trophy and Holiday Special at Brands Hatch, then at Chimay, plus podiums at Brands Hatch and Orleans. The following year saw wins and podiums at Crystal Palace, Orleans, Agen, Goodwood, Davidstow and in the British GP support race. He was also second in a Morris Minor in a saloon car race at Snetterton and there were class wins at Great Auclum Hillclimb and the Brighton Speed Trials.
For 1954 he and Les Leston were Cooper works team drivers and formed a successful partnership, with Motor Sport magazine stating ‘Lewis-Evans will take a lot of beating this season-he is a very polished driver’. He had podiums at Kirkistown, Brough, Brands Hatch, Fairwood, Nurburgring, Castle Combe, and Crystal Palace and won at Brough, Orleans, Senigallia, Castello, the Ashmead Tankard at Caste Combe and the Open Challenge and Senior Finals at Brands Hatch.
He finished third overall in 1955’s National F3 Championship and during the year took victories at Castello Terano, Brands Hatch, Oulton Park and Charterhall plus a third successive win at Orleans.
In 1956 he again won the John Bull trophy at Oulton Park and the Sporting Record at Brands Hatch and added victories at Crystal Palace, Aintree, Goodwood, Brands Hatch plus a dead heat at Mallory Park against Jim Russell. Rodney Clarke of Connaught asked him to drive for the team at Brands Hatch later in the year and he impressed with a second place to Archie Scott-Brown’s Connaught. He also had a second place finish at Oulton Park plus took the FTD at a speed trial at Brands Hatch.
Into 1957, as a works Connaught driver he won the Glover Trophy, took third at Pau and during the Naples GP he had been running second at one stage before retiring. The year saw his Grand Prix debut and after qualifying his Connaught B-Type fourteenth for the Monaco GP he finished fourth behind JM Fangio, T.Brooks, and M.Gregory (in one of the dominant Maserati 250Fs). After coming to the attention of Tony Vandervell, by the time of the next Grand Prix he had been signed to drive for the Vanwall team. Standing in for Stirling Moss at Rouen, despite being in a strange car and on an unfamiliar circuit, he drove well and was running fifth before the car failed. At the Nürburgring, the Vanwall team struggled with the suspension settings with the result that it caused both he and Tony Brooks to be physically sick during the race. However, despite the ordeal both kept going but Stuart’s race ended when ngearbox oil got onto his back tyres and caused him to spin. His courage was further shown at Pescara, when a rear tyre threw a tread at just over 100 mph and he completed the 16 mile lap on bare canvas. However, after replacing the tyre it happened again and his car was thrown sideways and he struggled to control it, narrowly avoiding shops on one side of him and telegraph poles on the other. It was a well earned fifth place finish. Frustratingly, after starting on the front row at Monza, he was leading for a period until eventually retiring due to a cracked cylinder head though in non Championship races, there were third places at Reims and the Casablanca GP. Besides F1, he was offered a drive with Ferrari at Le Mans and co-drove the Ferrari 315S with Martino Severi to fifth place, behind the four Jaguar D-Types, and was the first of the Ferraris to finish. Back in the UK, in F3 he won the International Trophy support race and the Redex Trophy at Crystal Palace, and in a Willment Sports was third at both Oulton Park’s Gold Cup and Brands Hatch’s Christmas Libre race.
At the start of 1958, he raced Bernie Ecclestone’s Connaught (which he had bought at Connaught’s closing-down sale) in New Zealand. In the New Zealand GP he was running second to Jack Brabham when his engine failed though in the Lady Wigram Trophy at Christchurch, despite suffering from a misfire, he finished third. On his way back, via California, he made a guest appearance in a 500CC race at Pomona. Continuing with Vanwall, he raced alongside Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks but frustratingly there were more retirements than finishes (one of them after qualifying on pole at Zandvoort). However in the three he did complete he was third in Belgium and Portugal and fourth at Silverstone. In F2 that year in a British Racing Partnership Cooper, he finished fifth at Aintree and Caen. Despite his slight physical build, he was able to maintain impressive pace for short periods, but suffered with stomach ulcers. During 1958 his severe ulcers were affecting him so much that he had reluctantly decided to undergo surgery to heal them after the end of the season. His condition also meant that diet was a constant problem, causing him lack of energy, and he was constantly consuming milk though he never let his discomfort show. He was described by Ken Gregory as “brave as a lion.”
Sadly, in October came the Morocco GP at Ain-Diab circuit. Stuart qualified third and started on the front row, alongside S.Moss and M.Hawthorn, who were battling for the title. During the race his Vanwall’s engine seized, sending him at high speed into the barriers, and his car burst into flames. He was engulfed by blazing fuel, but though he got out of the cockpit his overalls were alight and he sustained severe burns. After extinguishing the flames he was helicoptered to a local hospital but staff there realised they could not do much to help. Tony Vandervell flew him immediately back to England to be treated at the legendary burns unit at East Grinstead hospital in Sussex, which had developed many techniques for treating burns during the war. However, his burns were too serious to treat and all they could do was make sure he was kept as comfortable as possible and, brave and uncomplaining, Stuart sadly passed away on October 25, 1958.
After a service at Christ Church, Bexleyheath, he was cremated at Charing Crematorium and his ashes placed in the family grave in Plumstead Cemetery. A plaque in his honour reads “This bell was given – To the glory of God – In memory Of – Stuart Lewis-Evans – Royal Corps of Signals – Late of Bisecestone Manor – Who was killed driving for Britain – In the Grand Prix of Morocco – 25th October 1958 – Aged 28 – He had unbounded courage kindliness and Humility. There is also a tribute to him at Donington, which reads: In Honoured Memory of Stuart Lewis-Evans, who died on the 25th October 1958 from injuries received when racing in the British Vanwall team in the Grand Prix of Morocco at Casablanca 19th October 1958. “World fame only increased his modesty.”
Tony Vandervell never fully recovered from his death and withdrew from motorsport at the end of 1958. As a friend and advisor, Bernie Ecclestone accompanied him to many events when Stuart moved up into Formula 1 and following his death he sold his Connaughts and ceased involvement with the sport for a number of years. Speaking later of Stuart, he declared “he was a really good bloke” and referring to his stomach ulcers, “yes, I did carry milk around for him to get him comfortable before a long race”. He also said of him “he was superb, oozing with talent. He would have been one of the greats.” The writer Cyril Posthumus wrote “Stuart was…modest about his achievements and never bragged, but he was confident in himself. I thought of him like a little bantam. He was extremely approachable”.
Away from the circuit he was described as a lively character, full of fun and was modest about his considerable, sometimes hard-won, successes. Although his health issues caused him problems, who knows what Stuart would have achieved in the future. There had been plans for Bernie Ecclestone to run a team of Coopers in 1959, and as they were much easier to drive, his stamina problems may have been overcome and his talent fully allowed to shine.
Complex mind, complex output – from 
