Michael Henderson Spence (30 December 1936 – 7 May 1968) was a British racing driver from England.
He participated in 37 Formula One World Championship Grands Prix, debuting on 8 September 1963. He achieved one podium, and scored a total of 27 championship points. He also participated in numerous non-Championship Formula One races, as well as sports car racing. Info from Wiki
Bio by Peter Hopper
Mike Spence never got the success he deserved in F1.
He was a regular points scorer, but had just 1 podium finish. Perhaps he was unlucky to drive alongside both Jim Clark and Jackie Stewart in his career. Away from F1, he had a most impressive sports car season in 1967, driving Jim Halls Chaparral 2F with Phil Hill. The car featured a 7.0 litre Chevrolet V8, automatic transmission, and a huge, high strutted rear wing, and proved very quick. Spence put the car on pole at Monza, and set fastest race lap at both Sebring and Spa. With Hill equally as quick, they were potential winners everywhere. But the gearbox was the cars Achilles heel, and its only finish was at the Brands Hatch 6 Hrs, where it won!
With the Chaparral ruled out for 1968, Spence became a works Ford driver for the new F3L prototype. The car had a difficult debut at Brands Hatch, with Spence driving both cars, #33 in practice, with Jochen Rindt, and #34 in the race with Bruce McLaren. Sadly, this proved to be his only race in the Ford. Early in May, he was killed in a terrible accident during practice at Indianapolis, made even more tragic because he was only there as a late stand in for Jim Clark, who had earlier lost his life in an F2 race at Hockenheim.
Bio by Stephen Latham
Born in Croydon, Surrey, Mike Spence was struck down with polio as a child but fortunately overcame it. After finishing his national service, during which he commanded a British Army tank crew, he joined the family’s Coburn Engineering business in 1957, which would lead to his involvement in racing.
He did some early drives in his father’s Turner 950 and made his race debut at Goodwood in a family owned AC Ace sports car. Eventually he raced a Cooper Austin in Formula Junior as Coburn Engineering Racing and showed a talent in the highly competitive series, where top drivers included Peter Arundell, Jim Clark and Trevor Taylor. There were regular top five position finishes and he went on to win the Stanley Sears Trophy, a North Staffs M.C. event plus travelled abroad to win a heat at the Lotteria G.P. at Monza.
In 1961 he competed in F1 in an Emeryson Climax, making his debut in the non-championship Solitude GP in Germany and went on during the year to finish second in the Lewis-Evans Trophy at Brands Hatch and won the Commander York Trophy at Silverstone.
1962 saw him with the Ian Walker FJunior team with a Lotus 22 and he scored many top three finishes and took a victory at Reims. Though he only won at Rheims, his drive and technique at the FJ race in Monaco attracted the attention of Colin Chapman, which led to him following his future drives with interest.
For 1963 he drove a Lotus 27 for Team Lotus F/Junior, with Peter Arundell and John Fenning, and at the end of the year he was offered a drive in the Italian GP at Monza, replacing an injured Trevor Taylor. Team mate Jim Clark won, and took his first World Championship, though Mike had been running seventh until his engine failed near the end of the race.
Lotus started the following season with Jim Clark and Peter Arundell in F1 and Mike signed again to drive for Ron Harris, although had an F1 run in a non-championship Syracuse GP. His season started well, when he won the F2 class of the Aintree 200 and went on to win the British F2 title. However, during the season Peter Arundel was injured at Reims and after Mike replaced him as Clark’s number two, he would finish sixth in Italy and fourth in Mexico plus was even running second at one stage of the US GP. At Mexico he had even considered helping Jim Clark’s Championship hopes by literally pushing his stricken car round the last lap.
Colin Chapman continued with him as team mate to Jim Clark for the following year and in the season opening South African GP, he and Jim Clark ran in 1-2 formation for many laps, though Mike eventually finished fourth. At Brands Hatch’s Race of Champions, after Clark had made an uncharacteristic error and crashed whilst being pressured by Dan Gurney’s Brabham, Mike won the two-heat event on aggregate ahead of Jackie Stewart. He finished third in the International Trophy at Silverstone and took points finishes with fourth in Britain and third at the season’s final race in Mexico.
1966 began with victory for him in a non championship race in South Africa though when a recovered Peter Arundell returned to the team Mike lost his seat. Chapman had promised Arundel his place in the F1 team would remain open following his Reims crash 18 months earlier and he stuck to that commitment. Mike consequently signed for Reg Parnell Racing but their Lotus 25 was unreliable and he finished only twice, taking fifth in the Netherlands and Italy. At Zandvoort, the car was painted white with a central green stripe and was used for filming for the ‘Grand Prix’ movie as the ‘Yamura’. Also in 1966 he opened a prestige car showroom, Mike Spence Ltd, in Maidenhead.
With Graham Hill leaving BRM at the start of 1967 Mike was promoted to the works team alongside Jackie Stewart and did superbly to take five points scoring finishes. His best result was fifth in the Belgian GP and this was the only time that both BRM H-16s finished in the points together. During this time he also raced a Chaparral (with Phil Hill) but despite suffering several transmission failures, they beat the Ferraris at Brands Hatch’s BOAC 500. The Chaparral’s victory was loudly applauded as they came in ahead of J. Stewart/C. Amon’s Ferrari 330P/4 and third place J.Siffert/ B.McLaren’s Porsche 910. Mike also raced a McLaren M1B Chevrolet in Can-Am and had two third place finishes. Phil Hill would say of Mike, that he “was absolutely in his prime with the 2F. I had the greatest respect for him as a driver and as a man.”
At the start of 1968 BRM had decided to abandon the H-16 and things looked positive for great success with the new BRM P126 V12. He qualified second for Brands Hatch’s Race of Champions and was running second to winner Bruce McLaren until retiring with an an oil line issue. At the International Trophy at Silverstone, he retired after 40 lap with engine failure, though not before he had overtaken Bruce McLaren round the outside at Woodcote.
After Jim Clark’s tragic accident, Chapman asked him to race at Indianapolis in the turbine Lotus 56. A week before the first qualifying runs, he took the STP-Lotus Turbine around for a practice lap of 169.555 mph, the second fastest lap ever and he and Graham Hill would both top 169 mph in their Turbo cars, which was the first time two cars had made such high speeds in one day.
Such is the way of fate, that Mike intended leaving Indianapolis that night for the Spanish GP with Graham Hill and then return for the Indy 500 race. However, towards the end of the day, with just 48 minutes left in practice, he was asked to test team mate Greg Weld’s turbine. During the run he crashed and the right front wheel swung back on its steering arm, hitting Mike on the helmet. Sadly Mike never regained consciousness and surgeons were preparing to operate but he died several hours afterwards.
Jim Clark had planned to drive for Granatelli in this 1968 race, and Mike had replaced him, but Chapman wanted nothing more to do with it and gave over his operation to Granatelli for the race. Granatelli would say of Mike that not only was he talented, but “he was pure brilliant.”
