Ivor Léon John Bueb (6 June 1923 – 1 August 1959) was a British professional sports car racing and Formula One driver from England. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Ivor Bueb was one of Britain’s top sports car drivers, who won at Le Mans in 1955 in the Jaguar D-type with Mike Hawthorn and repeated the victory two years later with Ron Flockhart and Ecurie Ecosse.
Born in 1923 in London, watching races at the Crystal Palace track as a teenager stirred his enthusiasm for motor racing. Alongside his interest in racing, he was also learning to fly and obtained his Aviator’s Certificate in 1949 in a DH82A Tiger Moth. Into the 1950s, he went into partnership in a motor business and became involved with a group of motor traders who were also keen motor sport enthusiasts. His first race came in 1952 in a Cooper in a 500cc F3 race at Castle Combe and later, driving an Iota he had a heat win at Thruxton then won the Junior race at Silverstone (ahead of Ken Tyrrell).
For 1953, he used a modified Arnott and took a podium at Silverstone, a heat win at Crystal Palace then won the production car race at Silverstone and was second in the Silverstone 100. He also contested his first continental race, travelling to southern France to the Circuit d’Agen, near Toulouse. In his heat, he was racing hard for the lead but on the last lap he ran short of fuel and coasted over the line second. In the final, he suffered magneto trouble plus had a rear hub shaft break and was forced to retire.
Realising that the car could not compete with the latest Coopers, he switched to a Cooper Mk V111 for the following year, under the banner of Ecurie Demi-Litre. His performances progressed and after several heat wins, victory came in Sweden at Skarpnack. This led to wins at Silverstone, Brands Hatch, Cadwell Park and Crystal Palace’s Redex Trophy and he finished off the year with the Christmas Trophy at the Boxing Day Brands Hatch meeting(beating Stewart Lewis-Evans and Les Leston). Besides this he contested hillclimbs and also supported his Cheltenham club’s speed trials.
In 1955 he was a Cooper works driver, alongside Jim Russell, and won the 500 Championship of Ireland at Kirkistown, the International Trophy support race, the Earl of March Trophy, the Sporting Record Trophy and the Redex Trophy. The year finished with victory in the Brands Hatch Yuletide Trophy and he finished second to Jim (by two points) in the British Championship. Alongside numerous podium finishes, during the year he was also the 500 F3 Hillclimb champion and in sports cars won the Anerly Trophy at Crystal Palace, the Aeroplane Co.Trophy at Castle Combe and had several victories at Brands Hatch.
His performances got him noticed by Jaguar, who offered him a race seat at Le Mans. Teamed with Mike Hawthorn, they went on to win though the result was overshadowed by the race’s tragic accident. His performance was impressive considering he had little prior experience of the D-type plus took over for his first stint minutes after witnessing the terrible disaster unfold in front of him. Writer/journaalist Denis Jenkinson wrote in his race report, “the second driver standing up extremely well to his first important race with a fast car” and Mike Hawthorn stated ”All this time Ivor was out on the course doing a wonderful job hanging onto the Mercedes. He had been through an ordeal calculated to shatter the nerve of most people. As he stood there on the pit counter, waiting to take over from me and keyed up at the prospect of taking over the lead in his first Le Mans race-and, indeed, his first big road race in a fast car-he saw the accident and all that happened in the interminable five minutes while I was sent off to do another lap. Yet he was driving beautifully, holding second place and keeping the Mercedes lead down to reasonable proportions so that we could counter-attack later.”
There were further Jaguar drives the following year and he drove an XK140 to victory in the International Trophy Saloons and he and Duncan Hamilton won the Reims 12 Hours. Racing the Cooper, there were podiums at Silverstone, Brands Hatch and Snetterton.
In 1957 he took podiums at Brands Hatch and Silverstone, plus won at Snettterton with a Lotus Eleven. But at a race at Oulton Park, he was involved in a four-car crash and his Cooper hit a tree and overturned. Although it was feared he had been badly hurt, fortunately he only chipped a vertebra and soon recovered. The year saw a return to Le Mans to claim another victory, with Ron Flockhart and the Ecurie Ecosse team. He also made his F1 World Championship debut, at Monaco, qualifying a Connaught Type B-Alta 16th though retired after 47 laps due to a fuel leak. Following this came a Maserati 250F for Gilby Engineering in the British GP at Aintree, but though he completed 71 laps he wasn’t classified.
He started 1958 at the Sebring 12 Hours, sharing a Jaguar D-Type with Ninian Sanderson, though they never finished. There were two more Grands Prix, with the first coming at Silverstone with Bernie Ecclestone’s Connaught Type B, though he retired after nineteen laps due to gearbox failure. In the German GP at Nürburgring, he raced an Ecurie Demi Litre Lotus 12-Climax and finished eleventh. He also drove in the ‘Monzapolis’ race, the 500-mile race at Monza also known as the Race of Two Worlds, with a Jaguar D-Type. He also won at Elaintarhanjo (Finland) with a Lotus 12 and at Silverstone in a Tojeiro plus racing a Lister had wins at Brands Hatch and Goodwood, and podiums at Oulton Park and Silverstone.
While racing the Lister in 1959’s Sebring 12 hours, they were leading at half distance when co-driver Stirling Moss was disqualified for illegal refuelling. Returning to Le Mans, he and Bruce Halford raced a Lister Costin LM though retired after 121 laps with a broken engine and his last sports car race was the Aintree GP, in which he finished sixth. However, he went on to win at Goodwood and take a podium at Silverstone with the Lister. Alongside his sports car racing, he recorded three wins in three races of the British Saloon Car Championship with a Jaguar 3.4 and raced with British Racing Partnership in Formula 2 and Formula 1 races.
Ivor had been making plans to join Jim Russell at Snetterton for 1960, joining Jim’s Racing Drivers School as a director and instructor, and to share his Cooper Monaco in long distance sports car races. Sadly, it would not happen.
After participating in two races at Aintree, Ivor travelled to France to race BRP’s Cooper T51-Borgward in an F2 race at Circuit de Charade. Tragically, he suffered serious injuries when he crashed and was thrown out of his Cooper and died six days later in Clermont Ferrand hospital.
Ivor’s funeral was at Manor Park Cemetery, Newham, London. Fellow 500 racer Jimmy Ebdon said of him, “Despite his burly figure, he was indeed a quiet and very sensitive person. He was very modest in success and always most outspoken about his failures” while Mike Macdowel, whom Ivor mentored in the late 1950s, recalled him as “a generous, warm-hearted and genuine man”.
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