George Edgar Abecassis DFC (21 March 1913 – 18 December 1991) was a British racing driver, and co-founder of the HWM Formula One team. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Apologies if some of the details or races are wrong, or aren’t in the correct sequence, but George Abecassis (and HWM) were involved in a lot of racing.
Known to friends and race rivals as ‘Fearless George’, George Edgar Abecassis, DFC, was born in Oatlands, Surrey, and his career spanned both sides of the War. He began racing in 1935 in a modified Austin Seven then moved on to an Alta and enjoyed considerable success, in 1938 winning the Imperial Trophy and Crystal Palace Trophy, the Brooklands British Trophy and Easter Handicap, a sports car win at Crystal Palace and class wins at Lewes Speed Trials. In 1939 he won the Imperial Trophy race again plus took third and fourth in the Crystal Palace Plate and Sydenham Plate races.
When War broke out he served with distinction with the RAF, becoming a Squadron Leader and member of the ’Moon Squadrons’, which flew British secret agents in and out of Europe with specially-modified Halifax and Stirling planes. The missions were ‘never above 300 feet’ though in 1944 his unarmed Stirling was shot down and he and his crew became Prisoners of War. After being liberated by the Russians he returned home just after VE day and was eventually awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
When racing resumed after the War, he had the distinction of being the person who won the last race held in England before the war and the first to be held afterwards. In 1946 he won at Gransden Lodge in a Bugatti and the following year was second with an ERA in the Swedish Grand Prix, held on a frozen lake at Vallentuna. He was third with it the Ulster Trophy, plus second with a Cisitalia in Rome but his successes were mostly with a Bugatti.
During this time he was running a small engineering company, working on performance cars and went into partnership with John Heath at Hersham and Walton Motors. Due to his association with Alta before the War, he and HWM assisted in the development of an Alta GP car and went on to construct their own cars, known as HWMs, using Alta engines. After 1948’s Alta-engined sportscar, this was followed by a second car which could be raced either as a sportscar or a single-seater and John Heath took victory with it in 1949’s Manx Cup and second at the GP de l’ACF at Comminges.
After the War a street circuit in Jersey was used for Grand Prix races but though they were non-championship events some of the top drivers were attracted to race there. The first race was held on 8 May 1947 (just short of two years after the island was liberated) and in 1948’s race George finish second with a Maserati 6CM to Bob Gerard’s ERA. In that year he debuted an Alta GP car in the British Empire Trophy, though retired after two laps due to a broken gearbox and went on to contest the Swiss GP at Bremgarten, and the 24 Hour Spa with John Heath, though retired from both. He only raced sporadically in 1949, though took third place with a Cooper Vincent in the Goodwood Easter Formula Libre race and was seventh in the British GP.
In 1951 while in an F2 HWM single-seater he was fortunate not to be seriously injured in a crash at Silverstone, where the car spun backwards and finished up beneath a barrier with a concrete beam against the back of his head. HWM competed in F2 but when the World Championship switched to F2 regulations their cars became eligible to compete in Grand Prix races. Drivers including Stirling Moss, Peter Collins and Lance Macklin raced HWMs and despite only having a small budget, the team went on to achieve great success during the early 1950s. They branched out further by pioneering a travelling race car team, with the cars looked after by chief mechanic Alf Francis and his team as they travelled across Europe. Three HWMs took part in 20 competitive international events over 27 weeks, taking in Italy, France, Belgium and Germany and they became a respected racing name. George himself would contest two Grands Prix, at Switzerland’s Bremgarten circuit, in 1951 (retiring with magneto issues) while 1952’s race saw a broken hub cause him to crash out. In 1952, Tony Gaze, a highly decorated WW2 fighter pilot, used an HWM single-seater to become the first Australian to compete in the F1 World Championship.
As a sports car driver with Aston Martin, he was fifth at Le Mans in 1950 and 1951, sharing a DB2 with Lance Macklin and Brian Shaw-Taylor. On one occasion, he crashed an Aston Martin while testing at Goodwood and after walking back to the pits he was severely reprimanded by team manager, John Wyer. After he had finished his tirade, George casually removed a cigarette from its holder in the corner of his mouth and remarked that ‘when he crashed his Stirling they gave him a DFC.’ 1950 also saw a fifth place in the Tourist Trophy plus fourth and third place finishes with the HWM and a Healey in Formula Libre at Goodwood. There were further outings with the DB2 and the HWM the following year, with his best results being third at Castle Combe plus two fourth place finishes at Boreham and Goodwood. He contested Le Mans and the Mille Miglia in 1952, though retired from them, but took podium placings with a DB3 in the Silverstone International and the Jersey International and second with the HWM at a Goodwood Easter event.
The Sebring 12 Hours was the opening round of 1953’s World Sportscar Championship and he and Reg Parnell took second place in a DB3, only one lap behind the winning Cunningham. During the year he constructed an HWM sports car for his own personal use, powered by a Jaguar engine, and went on to successfully contest many national British races. The year saw victories with the HWM at Goodwood plus three at Snetterton while in the following year he took victory at Davidstow plus podiums at Castle Combe, Goodwood, the Silverstone International and at Hedema (Sweden). In 1955 he won Castle Combe’s Redex Trophy, the USAF Trophy and Sports at Oulton Park plus two scratch wins and a handicap at Goodwood while there was also a podium finish at Snetterton with a Jaguar D-Type.
1956 started of with victory in March at Goodwood, a class win at Shelsey Walsh and podium placings at Snetterton and he also competed in an ice race at Lake Freden in Sweden. Sadly, John Heath was killed during that year’s Mille Miglia and George eventually retired from racing to concentrate on running HWM. He became the Facel Vega agent for the UK and was married to the daughter of Sir David Brown, the chairman of Aston Martin.
George passed away in December 1991 in Ibstone, Buckinghamshire. In 2010 his son David published a comprehensive biography of him, titled “A Passion for Speed” while his grandson, Jonathan has an active interest in vintage sports car racing.
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