Roy Salvadori

In the following year he began racing a Maserati 250F for Sid Greene and competed with it for three seasons. In one race at Snetterton he entered two Maseratis and a C-type in six races and scored four wins, a second and a third. With any prize money earned, he told how he had “a simple deal with Sid Greene: the mechanics got 10 per cent of all start and prize money and we split the rest 45/45. But Esso would pay a big bonus for a win, because they liked to use it in their press advertising. Second place was no good to them so it really mattered if you won. But at Aston Martin John Wyer would pool the start and prize money and split it equally between the drivers, so we all got the same amount whether we won, or finished fourth, or retired.” He raced a DN3S alongside Reg Parnell that year at Le Mans and Rob Walker told of an incident involving Roy and Prince Bira, who was also driving for Aston Martin. One evening Bira asked if he would mind taking his sister-in-law to bed, to which he mischievously replied “I’d rather have your wife!”Bira thought about it for a moment before replying “No, I don’t think that’s on, Roy. It’s either my sister-in-law or nothing.” In non-championship events he won the Curtis Trophy at Snetterton while at Goodwood was second in the Lavant Cup, and a BARC F1 race plus third in the Goodwood Trophy. A tough encounter that year involved Ken Wharton’s BRM at the Easter Monday Goodwood race, where the BRM was losing oil and fuel but Roy couldn’t get past and tried to force his way past. “Ken was a hard driver too and he wasn’t going to let me through. We collided, and we both spun. We both restarted, but my clutch exploded a lap later, bits of shrapnel came out through the bodywork, and Ken won the race. We didn’t have a nasty scene afterwards or anything like that. We just didn’t talk to each other-which in the friendly atmosphere of motor racing then meant just as much, really. Later the Duke of Richmond & Gordon sent me a silver cigarette box and on it was engraved ‘In acknowledgement of a splendid show at Goodwood’. So I thought, well, he realises I was robbed of that race-until I found out he’d sent exactly the same box, with the same inscription, to Wharton!” Racing gave great opportunities to see the world and “no sooner had we returned from Casablanca than we were preparing to travel to Argentina. I remember the Argentinas Aerolineas flight to Buenos Aires being unexpectedly routed via Lisbon where we spent the night while they found a radio operator! This and a series of stops on the South American mainland did not as you can imagine amuse John Wyer. The whole trip took about three days, by which time we ran out of booze – Ecurie Ecosse were also on the flight. To while away the time we were invited onto the flight deck where the crew made us most welcome. I think it was Ninian Sanderson, the captain and I sitting on the floor playing gin rummy, with the ‘plane on autopilot, when in walked John Wyer! That certainly put a dampener on the proceedings, particularly as John had already fallen out with the skipper. I could write a book about that trip. It was on this flight that I palled up with a scruffy individual whom I took to be an Italian mechanic who surprisingly spoke several languages. It turned out to be the international horseman and playboy-the Marquis de Portago. He was there to drive a private Ferrari with Harry Schell.”

During 1955 he retired the Maserati at the British GP though won the Glover Trophy and Curtis Trophy at Goodwood and Snetterton and finished second to Peter Collins’ 250F at Silverstone’s International Trophy. Still racing four or even five cars at some meetings, he described how some had “left-hand changes, some right-hand changes. The 250F had a central throttle pedal. Torque curves, rev ranges, braking points, gearchange points, they were all different. I’d try not to talk to anyone between jumping out of one car and into another, to keep my concentration, but basically it was instinctive. I don’t know how I did it, really.”

He also raced a DB3S at Le Mans alongside Peter Walker though engine failure after ten hours ended their race. He recalled “at the start I led Peter Collins and according to team orders race positions should remain with us in eleventh and twelfth place-we were no match that year against the new Mercedes,’long nose’ D-types and the new 4.4 litre Ferraris. Well, Peter Collins and I had the most terrific dice, swapping places all round the circuit, and then when we approached the pits we would sort ourselves into the right order so it looked like we were behaving ourselves. On one lap I was trying so hard I spun at Arnage and Peter waited for me while I got going again, roaring with laughter. Peter was such a nice chap.” Although he was aware there had been a bad accident he had no idea of its severity and it was only when he pitted to hand over to Peter Walker that he was was made aware of the tragedy. Sadly, they “were staying as usual at La Chartre where we were well known to the villagers who used to watch us playing gin rummy outside the hotel. They would come to the race and try to get a position in the stand opposite our pit; it was here that Levegh’s Mercedes crashed taking some of the villagers with him.”

There were three more Championship races in 1956 with the 250F, retiring at Silverstone (with a possible victory lost due to a fuel line problem) and Nurburgring and finishing eleventh at Monza. In non championship events with the car he won the Vanwall Trophy, was second in the Glover Trophy (to Stirling Moss in a works 250F) and third in the GP de Caen. Success also came with an F2 Cooper T41 where he had wins in the British GP support event and the Sussex Trophy, plus a Brands Hatch Bank Holiday meeting and at Oulton Park’s International Gold Cup F2 race. He won a Daily Express sports car race in May at Silverstone, which featured four DB3S’ driven by himself, Stirling Moss, Peter Collins and Reg Parnell plus six D-types, including Mike Hawthorn and Des Titterington. His DB3S was actually his own car, “which I’d bought from the works on the basis that they could borrow it back when they wanted. Des and I made joint fastest practice time. Stirling’s contract gave him the pick of the cars, but when he asked John Wyer to try mine John pointed out that he would have to ask me, as it was my car. Well, he didn’t ask me: if he had I’d have let him have it. But he asked me to try his car in practice and I told him I preferred it with the 6.50 tyres-he’d opted for the 6.00s. He was changing down for Stowe and I was taking it in top. The downside of that was that unless you got it right you’d be understeering off the circuit, whereas in third you’d be right in the power band and you could just floor it to get some pull from the back. Stirling led away from the Le Mans start but I screwed myself up and went by on the inside under braking for Stowe, and unfortunately I pulled two works D-types through with me. Then at the next corner, Club, a D-type came nosing up the inside. I assumed it was Mike so I moved to the right, so he would have to go round on the outside. I knew Mike would know the score, he’d know Salvadori wasn’t going to let him through on the bloody inside. But he kept coming and I thought, ‘Oi, Hawthorn, you’re making this a bit dangerous.’ What I didn’t realise was that it wasn’t Mike, it was Titterington. Then the Jaguar spun in a cloud of rubber smoke and Collins and Parnell in our Astons and an Ecosse D-type crashed into him. It was a four-car pile-up.” He went on to win though there was an enquiry afterwards, as some felt he had squeezed Titterington but “the only verdict they reached was that we should all be more careful on the first lap. Well, it’s no bloody good telling a racing driver that, is it?” However, he took no part in the actual enquiry as he was in a local hospital as while battling with Archie Scott-Brown’s Connaught in the F1 race, the 250F had broken a driveshaft, which locked up the rear wheels, and the car hit the bank at Stowe and overturned.

He rated Moss as “the greatest British driver of the time and unquestionably the best in the world after Fangio had retired. When Stirling made up his mind to set a really fast lap in an Aston we knew that his lap time was the ultimate for the car on that circuit and the benchmark for which we should be aiming. His driving always stimulated me to greater effort. The only drawback as far as I was concerned was that I felt that the Aston design team had built the car with Stirling’s measurements very much in mind. The cockpit of the DB3S was particularly uncomfortable for a tall driver such as myself, but fortunately, I was paired with Carroll Shelby for Sebring as he was about the same height as me, simplifying the pedal and seating arrangements.” His most notable result at Sebring was in 1956 when he and Shelby finished fourth and first in class with the DB3S. The pair contested several 12 Hour races there and on one occasion had a run in with the sheriff after parking near a No Parking sign. “We were only there for half an hour, but on our return-no car! We were told to go to the sheriff’s office where he gave us a rollicking, no fine, but he wouldn’t release the car unless a representative of the Aston Martin Team made an apology. So, off we went to see John Wyer, explained the situation, and brought him back to see the sheriff, whereupon an almighty row broke out with John calling him a ‘hick sheriff’. It was finally left to Carroll to smooth things over and eventually the car was released with a frosty reception awaiting us from John back at the hotel. It was in New York on the way back that I got to know the lighter side of Rob Walker, having previously regarded him as rather reserved-the perfect English gentleman. It all started in the Gay Nineties Club, as guests of Esso, when I noticed Rob getting increasingly lively. Having grabbed a policeman’s helmet on leaving, he escaped in a trash can which we rolled down the street, engaged in a wrestling match with Reg back at the hotel, tore up a series of telephone directories and finished up at three in the morning with a glass of Gin and Eno’s-apparently his favourite tonic for that time of day!”

He signed with BRM for 1957, but after his brakes locked solid, causing his retirement from his debut race, the Glover Trophy at Goodwood, and then failing to qualify for the Monaco GP, he walked away from the team. “Raymond Mays could really lead you up the garden path. He was very charming when he wanted to be, made you believe he could make you World Champion. Because BRM had had a lot of braking problems, I specifically agreed with Ray that only Lockheed should be allowed to develop and modify the brakes. First time out at Goodwood I spun in practice when a brake locked. Then on the warm-up lap they all locked on. It happened again on the first lap of the race. The marshals couldn’t push the car and had to heave it off the track. Ray promised me Lockheed would be summoned to sort out the brakes before the next outing, which was Monaco. In qualifying there the brakes were still jamming on and I failed to qualify. At the hotel I bumped into the Lockheed rep, who said BRM had made their own modifications to the braking system and had not involved Lockheed. I found Raymond Mays, told him what I thought about it, and left the team forthwith.” There was a retirement in a Vanwall drive at the French GP at Rouen while racing the Cooper T43 he was fifth at Aintree though retired at Nurburgring and Pescara. In non championship Cooper drives he won the Woodcote Cup at Goodwood and the F2 class of the Daily Express International Trophy plus finished second in the London Trophy at Crystal Palace.

Championship races contested in 1958 saw third and fourth at Silverstone and Zandvoort but despite achieving his highest finish with second at Nurburgring, it was marred by the death of his friend Peter Collins. In what would be his finest F1 season, he finished fourth in the final standings, behind Hawthorn, Moss and Brooks. In non championship events he was second in the International Trophy at Silverstone, third in the Glover Trophy at Goodwood and fourth at the BARC 200 at Aintree. Looking back on his time with Cooper he stated “old Charlie Cooper kept it all together. He was the businessman, the disciplinarian, and he always told John what to do. When we got back from a race on Monday, Charlie would ask John to hand over the start money, then he’d go through John’s pockets to see if he’d kept any back.” Recalling the Aston Martin DBR1, he told how “it had neutral handling with a slight tendency to understeer that I liked, much more stable, particularly in the wet, with even better brakes. Its one weakness was the new David Brown five-speed ‘crash’ gearbox which had a heavy change and a tendency to stick and jam. Our first outing with the car in 2.5 litre form was the British Empire Trophy at Oulton Park in April 1957 in which I led initially, before being slowed by gearbox trouble and letting Archie Scott-Brown with the new Lister-Jaguar through. In fact I could never have competed with the superior torque of the Lister-in fact Archie passed me on the opening lap…It was on my way up to Chester on the eve of the race at the wheel of a hotted up Morris Minor that I caught up with Archie’s distinctive Ford Zephyr painted green with a yellow stripe, just like the works’ Listers. I chased him really hard and we had a hair raising dice down the dark Cheshire roads, as I struggled to pass Archie and he fought off the unknown driver at the wheel of the Minor. Eventually, I managed to scrape by on the grass, almost losing it, and leaving Archie to sort himself out. When we stopped at some traffic lights in Chester, Archie got out of his car, came to the driver’s window of the Minor and said ‘ You are an absolutely fantastic driver, you got out of line once but recovered. You ought to try motor racing.’ ‘But Archie’ I replied ‘ That’s what we shall both be doing this weekend.’ When he recognised me he was absolutely livid.”

Aston now had their DBR4 ready and Roy had given his word to race for them but it proved the wrong move as Cooper went on to win the 1959 Drivers and Constructors titles. Seven GP starts were spread between the Aston and Tommy Atkins’ Cooper and racing the Maserati powered T45 in three races, he was sixth at Monaco though mechanical failures ended his drives at Reims and the US GP at Sebring. At the French GP at Reims, he qualified sixteenth but on race day the heat was almost unbearable and drivers were soaking themselves in water and cockpits were being watered. At the end of lap one he was running in eighth place but the race became a test of endurance with drivers having to avoid flying stones and some were getting badly cut about the face. Ron Flockhart had his goggles broken and took them off, only to collect another stone in the eye, and Bruce McLaren was also badly cut. With the heat reaching 110°F in the sun, the drivers were exposed to it as there were no trees near the edges to provide any shade. On the straights Tony Brooks tried to get fresh air by leaning his head over the side of the cockpit and Jack Brabham had his elbows over the cockpit sides trying to deflect air on to himself. Masten Gregory pitted with a badly-cut face and was overcome by the heat and despite attempts by the team to revive him the car was withdrawn. Roy was forced to make numerous pit stops then retired on lap sixteen due to engine problems. At the end of the race, the pits saw many prostrate drivers with a number of them cut and bleeding from flying stones and lumps of molten tar. Some were lucky enough to be able to relax but others had to start in an F2 race which was due to follow. Sebring was the final round of the World Championship and with Aston Martin not travelling to America he raced HEM’s Cooper-Maserati. After starting eleventh he made a good start and was inside the top ten at the end of the first lap but on lap twenty four his transmission failed and his race was over. In his DBR4 drives in the Championship, mechanical failures ended his run at Zandvoort and Monza though he was sixth at Aintree and Monsanto (Portugal) while in the non-championship Daily Express International Trophy at Silverstone he was second, to Jack Brabham.

Alternating between Tommy Atkins’ Coopers, T45 drives saw fourth at Oulton Park’s International Gold Cup while in the T43 he was second (plus fastest lap) at the Lavant Cup, sixth in the British Empire Trophy then in May won Crystal Palace’s London Trophy (plus fastest lap) and second and fifth in Brands Hatch’s John Davy Trophy and the Kentish 100. He was second in three Jaguar Mark 1 drives in the British Saloon Car Championship, at Goodwood, the Aintree 200 meeting and the International Trophy meeting and towards the end of the year was second with an Austin Healey 100 in the preliminary Nassau TT. Racing the John Coombs Cooper Monaco he won the Silverstone International, the Norbury Trophy and a race at the Aintree 200 meeting, was second in the British Empire Trophy and the Anerley Trophy plus fourth at Goodwood and Mallory Park. The high point of his Aston Martin career came that year at Le Mans where, after retirements in six previous attempts, he took victory alongside Carroll Shelby with the DBR1. The pair drove to France in an Aston Martin DB MK III while Jack Fairman took a Lagonda Shooting Brake packed with spares for the race and though he stated he didn’t really like Le Mans he “loved the week we’d have there, staying at Aston’s hotel at La Chartre.” Three cars were fielded, with the others raced by Stirling Moss/Jack Fairman and Maurice Trintignant/Paul Frere though they required modifications to stand any chance against the faster Ferraris, one of which was a re-routing of the exhausts. Unfortunately the heat around the pedals ended up burning Roy’s feet and, wearing boxing boots “it was very painful throughout the race, but you just had to get used to it. You had to cope.” Although it wasn’t a problem for Shelby, as he wore asbestos driving shoes, he was struggling with a stomach bug and said he drank Coca-Cola all through the race. Describing the race, he said “in 1958 I’d been partnered with Stuart Lewis-Evans, who was probably seven inches shorter than me, but for 1959 I was with Carroll Shelby. We were the same height, so we could make ourselves comfortable in the car…Carroll and I had the right mental approach for winning and decided to put all our effort into late braking and fast cornering in order to save the engine and gearbox as much as possible. For the same reason we kept practice to the minimum and after achieving a competitive time on the Wednesday we decided not to go out at all on the Thursday to save the car…I started the race and deliberately kept out of the initial ‘Grand Prix’. At the end of the first hour I was eighth, moving up to fifth at the end of the second hour. Meanwhile Stirling had been fighting it out with the Ferraris and was leading the race before retiring with engine failure. He had done a magnificent job as pacemaker for the team and had probably lured the Ferraris into over-stressing their cars. The leading ‘Testa Rossa’ of Behra/Gurney had lost its oil pressure and was lapping slower and slower, making several pit stops, and after about six hours I moved up into the lead. We held the lead for about four hours until I stopped at the pits with rear-end vibration. The mechanics could find nothing wrong and I was told to carry on for several more laps until the car became eligible for refuelling..By this time the vibration was so bad that I thought the rear end was about to fall off and I lapped at a crawl. I thought it was probably transmission, which was always the DBR1’s weak point. When I came in for my fuel stop they discovered that the offside rear tyre had lost part of its tread. We’d now lost the lead to the Hill/Gendebien Ferrari and I had a terrific row with Reg Parnell, who said, ‘You silly bugger, why didn’t you realise it was the tyre?’ That upset me and I must have said something, because there was a very tense atmosphere in the pit.” Despite feeling they could not recover the lost time, “John Wyer tried to calm us down saying that the Ferraris were dropping out like flies and there was no reason to suppose the leading Phil Hill/Gendebien car would be any different. The plan should be to keep maximum pressure on the Ferrari. When I took over again I started to motor fast to make up lost ground, while trying hard to conserve the car, keeping the revs down, changing gear as smoothly as possible, and getting down to really late braking points. We did close up to within just over a lap when at 11a.m on the Sunday morning we had the luckiest possible break. The Ferrari came into the pits steaming, did another lap and was retired soon afterwards. I eased back and began to worry about all the moans and groans, imaginary or not, from the engine and transmission. Fortunately the car held and we scored what was probably Aston’s greatest victory. Before the race Carroll had suffered from a stomach bug and had been very sick so we were always worried whether he would last the distance. In the end I drove for the maximum allowed under the regulations.” Only thirteen of the fifty three starters finished and they took the win at an average speed of 112.5mph throughout the race, combined with top speeds of 175mph down the Mulsanne straight. The car was in such good condition at the finish that it was reckoned it could have completed another 24 hours with Roy declaring “the oil pressure was 80 pounds at the start and never varied..The car was 100% for the entire race.” But though the team were ecstatic at the victory, after struggling with a heavy cold and his burnt feet, all he wanted to do was sleep and he missed the official presentation. The title would be decided at the Tourist Trophy at Goodwood, where Roy was paired with Stirling Moss, and if Aston Martin won they would take the World Sports Car Championship from Ferrari. After Moss led from the start, Roy kept the lead during his drive and when he pitted to let Moss back in they were three minutes ahead of the Shelby/Fairman DBR1. He recalled “I made sure I’d left the car in first gear for Stirling and then as I was about to get out of the car I felt wet on my back. The fuel was coming out of the hose before the mechanic had got the filler cap open…Petrol poured over the car and myself and in a moment we were ablaze. I leapt straight over the bonnet, kicking mechanic John King on the head as he was changing a front wheel-that was the first he knew of the fire! I found myself on the thin strip of grass dividing the pit road from the track and just rolled over and over, trying to put out the flames. Then a St John’s Ambulance man rushed up and wrapped his coat round me, dousing the fire except for my right hand. He wrapped his cap round that, and I was ‘out’.” The Shelby/Fairman car was called in and Moss was put in it to finish the race, which he won by over a lap. The first Ferrari finished third so the team had their victory in the Championship and Roy watched from the pits, with his burns bandaged, as they took the title.

He returned four more times to Le Mans, taking a podium in 1960 when he shared the Border Reivers DBR1 with Jim Clark. The team had restored the car, which had been burnt out the previous year at Goodwood, and they finished third, behind two Ferrari 250 TRs. His GP outings that year were limited to the Dutch and British races in an Aston (not starting the first and retiring in the second) then at Monaco and Riverside in a Cooper T51 Climax where he retired and finished eighth. In non-championship events with the Cooper he was third in the Oulton Park Trophy and Lavant Cup at Goodwood, fourth in Snetterton’s Lombank Trophy and won an F2 race at Oulton Park.

Roy was reunited with Reg Parnell when he moved to the Yeoman Credit Racing team in 1961. The Yeoman Credit Racing identity and sponsorship had been transferred by the Samengo-Turner brothers to the newly formed Reg Parnell Racing team and during the F1 season he ran two Cooper T53 Climax cars for Roy and John Surtees. He took points with sixth place finishes at Aintree and Monza though at the US GP at Watkins Glen he had battled his way from eighth place up to second, and was closing on Innes Ireland’s Lotus 18 when his engine failed with five laps remaining. He was teamed with Tony Maggs in a DBR1 at Le Mans though they retired.

Both he and Surtees remained with the team in 1962, now renamed Bowmaker-Yeoman Racing, though this would be Roy’s last season in F1. Unfortunately, while in Australia in February he crashed at high speed during practice at Warwick Farm. He recounted how “we were using an improved Dunlop tyre and although Surtees and I had a set each for the race, we had to share a set in practice. Surtees came back into the pits near the end of practice and the mechanics had a frantic rush to transfer the wheels from his car…I charged off from the pits, joined the long (Hume) straight and was approaching the hairpin (Creek Corner) that followed very quickly. As to what happened next I have to rely on what I was told, as I remember nothing of the accident. As I braked for the hairpin the car turned sharp right into a flag marshalling area protected by the sleepers and hit this at about 100 mph. I suffered head injuries, a broken cheekbone and severe facial cuts, the car was a write-off and two marshals were injured (with broken legs). I was unconscious until the following day…I was later flown back to the UK for further medical treatment…My theory as to the cause of the accident is that we failed to pump up the brakes (a procedure peculiar to the Cooper after a wheel change) and then as I pumped them up quickly for the corner, the right front brake locked.” He flew back to Australia for the Sandown Park Trophy the next month and drove a Lex Davison Cooper though admitted “I was far from fit and it was a very stupid thing to do, although it seemed like a good idea at the time! I was slow in practice and in the race retired because of mechanical trouble.”

The Bowmaker team later switched to Lolas though Roy was cramped in the cockpit of a car more suited to the shorter Surtees. Racing the T4 in World Championship events, the car did not not prove as competitive as had been hoped and he suffered retirements in the seven races entered, at Zandvoort (car withdrawn), Monaco (suspension), Rouen (oil pressure), Aintree (battery), Nurburgring (gearbox), Monza (engine) and a fuel leak at East London. Surtees later said of him that “Roy had always been serious about his motor racing and in my view, never quite realised his full potential as a grand prix driver, mainly because he was waiting in the wings while Aston Martin were being so slow in developing their DBR4 in 1959.” At Le Mans, he and Briggs Cunningham finished fourth, and class winners, with a Jaguar E-Type though he had originally been offered a drive in Cunningham’s Tipo 151 Maserati but was too tall for the car. He was fourth in a solo E-Type drive at the Tourist Trophy while in two outings at Brands Hatch he finished second with an Aston DB4GT plus second with a Ferrari 250 GTO in a Peco Trophy race. Racing John Coombs’ Jaguar 3.8 in the British Saloon Car Championship he won at Crystal Pace, was second at Goodwood and Aintree, plus third and fourth at Brands Hatch and Snetterton but was lucky to escape from a hair raising accident at Oulton Park. During practice a tyre blew at Cascades and he went straight on and finished upside-down in the lake. He recalled “when I undid my seat harness I was floating inside the car. My chest was exploding and I started to swallow water. I thought, what a way for a racing driver to die, by drowning. I was trapped until a marshal got one of the back doors open and pulled me out.” Soaking wet and covered in mud, he was given a lift back to the pits by fellow 3.8 driver Graham Hill, changed into clean overalls and went out to practise the F1 Lola for the Gold Cup. He qualified on the third row but a broken throttle cable ended his race. Reminiscing about Oulton Park, “we used to stay at the Chester Country Club. You never booked in those days: you just arrived. One year Tommy Atkins told me I had to behave myself and get a decent night’s sleep before the race. So I took a single room and went to bed early. I’d just got to sleep when there was a knock on the door and the hotel manager said, ‘I’ve got a young lady here who says she does your timing, can she sleep on your floor?’ In she came, and I’d just got off to sleep again when there was another knock. It was Jim Clark, complete with girlfriend, with nowhere to sleep. They squeezed in, too. I got no more sleep that night because Jimmy snored..Another time we were having a bit of a party and I counted 41 people in one hotel bedroom. The lady in the next door room was knocking on the wall saying, ‘My husband’s a racing driver, he needs to sleep. If you don’t quieten down I’ll send him in to sort you out.’ After a while there was a knock on the door and Graham Hill came in, very pompous, but in no time at all he was having a beer. In the end a tearful Bette came in and asked him to come back to bed.”

Although he retired from F1 at the end of 1962 he continued racing sports cars for a few more seasons. 1963 was his final Le Mans entry but he was unfortunately involved in a fatal accident while sharing Briggs Cunningham’s E-Type with Paul Richards. Bruce McLaren’s Aston Martin blew up and spilt oil on the track which led to a tragic chain reaction of accidents. A DB4 driven by Jean Kerguen spun out into a ditch then Ninian Sanderson’s Cobra had a number of spins but luckily hit nothing and continued. Roy arrived and spun, then crashed into the banking but was thrown out the rear window as the car burst into flames, and was then helped by Kerguen. A Bonnet driven by Jean-Pierre Manzon (son of driver Robert) rebounded into the middle of the track and he was seriously injured and thrown onto the road. Christian Heins managed to avoid him and the wrecks in his Alpine M63 Renault but it went out of control, rolled and hit a lamp-post then exploded into flames and he was killed instantly. He recalled he felt the car sliding on the oil and “there were cars up the bank and in the trees. An Alpine was on fire on the other side of the track-that was a Brazilian called Bino Heinz, he was burned to death. I hit the bank with a huge impact and somehow I was shot out through the E-type’s back window onto the road. I was lying on the tarmac and there was another driver nearby, unconscious (Jean-Pierre Manzon, whose René Bonnet had also gone off). I was drenched in fuel because the tank had ruptured and I remember the E-type’s horn going off, this weird sound, and then it all flared up. I was lying in the road soaked in petrol, my car was burning and the flames were coming along the trail of petrol towards me. But I literally couldn’t move. Finally I stretched my hands out, managed to get my fingernails into the grass verge and pulled myself up this little earth mound. That’s all I remember. In the early hours Sue came to the hospital and sneaked me out, drove me home to England.”

His last works Aston Martin win came in that year’s Coppa Inter-Europa at Monza, after his DP214 had raced wheel to wheel throughout the race with Mike Parkes’ Ferrari GTO and took the lead in the closing laps. Roy went on to become involved in the Ford GT40 programme though said “the early GT40 was a big disappointment. There was something peculiar about it; it wasn’t a nice car, and I had no confidence in it..We eventually discovered the aerodynamics were all wrong and the back wheels were coming off the ground. I reeled off all my complaints to John Wyer (who had left Aston Martin) and he sighed heavily and said ‘Anything else, Salvadori?’ I said, ‘You don’t believe me, do you? I’ll give you a demonstration.’ So I took him round MIRA and I showed him how the doors were lifting so much at 150mph that I could put my hand through the gap. He said hastily, ‘Put your hands on the wheel, Salvadori, drive the thing.’ I said, ‘Look at the bloody bodywork, it’s swelling.’ Then there was this explosion and the front bodywork disintegrated, all there was left were shreds of fibreglass and the remains of the wire fixings.”

His final race was in a GT40 at Goodwood in 1965, where he finished second and won his class and he then retired from racing but returned to F1 as team manager for Cooper through 1966 and 1967. In the first year they ran Jochen Rindt and John Surtees (joining from the third round after his falling out with Ferrari) and was also involved in early test and development work on the 3 litre V12 Cooper T81 Maserati. In order to avoid any conflict between Rindt and Surtees, each driver had his own chassis, engines and mechanics, which was good news for the youngest mechanic, Ron Dennis. Roy agreed when Jochen insisted on having him as his chief mechanic and Dennis later paid tribute, declaring him “one of the finest racing drivers of the Fifties..His superb victory at Le Mans in 1959 was proof of that. I learned a lot from Roy.” The team went on to finish second (Surtees) and third (Rindt) in 1966 with the team in third place. In the following year Rindt and Pedro Rodriguez were the drivers, with the team finishing third in the points again, with only one victory. Roy told how Surtees “was so angry with Ferrari, so determined, that he went well for us. So did Jochen, so did Pedro Rodriguez. Some of Jochen’s races with the car were fabulous. But John Cooper couldn’t bear it that we were paying Rindt £50,000. He didn’t understand that by having Jochen, who was a brilliant driver and a rising star, we were much more attractive to sponsors. We weren’t paying the money, the sponsors were. If we’d run an unknown driver we wouldn’t have got that backing.”

After leaving Cooper he eventually ran a BMW and an Alfa Romeo dealership and after selling the businesses he and his wife Susan retired to Monte Carlo. Their apartment overlooked the start-finish straight of the GP circuit and his parties during the F1 weekend were legendary. When his health began failing he moved further along the coast and Roy passed away on the 3rd June 2012, only three weeks after the death of his 1959 Le Mans co-driver Carroll Shelby. A moment of silence was held in respect to him prior to the start of the second session of pre-race testing at Le Mans on the Sunday afternoon.