Willie Ferguson (6 March 1940, Johannesburg – 19 May 2007, Durban) was a racing driver from South Africa.
He entered the 1972 South African Grand Prix with local outfit Team Gunston, running a Brabham BT33, but could not start the race due to a blown engine in practice. He was also pencilled in to drive a Surtees TS9 for the same team, but that car was eventually raced by John Love. Ferguson participated in numerous non-Championship Formula One races. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Born on March 6th 1940, in Johannesburg, William ‘Willie’ Ferguson’s early racing saw him compete in the 1960 Johannesburg 9 Hours in Scuderia Los Amigo’s MG A with Frank Rundel but they did not finish. Over the next two years he contested the Kyalami 9 Hours, first co-driving the MG A with Martin Skeen, and finished seventeenth though he and B.Potgier retired a Lola Mk 1 from 1962’s race. This race had first been held at the Grand Central circuit in 1958, which was an old airfield circuit, and three 9-Hour races were held there before the race was moved to the new Kyalami circuit for its fourth running. The race began to attract some of the top endurance drivers, teams and cars from around the world, and the grid would typically include D-type Jaguars and the Porsche 550. 1962’s race saw them joined by a Ferrari 250 GTO, which David Piper had driven by road all the way from Cape Town. His racing tyres had not arrived in time so he was helped with road Ferrari tyres by Gigi Lupini and Basil Read and he then raced to victory with co-driver Bruce Johnston.
Willie graduated from national Formula Vee to race Doug Serrurier’s Lola T142-Ford in 1970’s South African Drivers’ Championship and began with the Cape South Easter Trophy at Killarney on 19th January though he did not start after an accident in the Lola-Ford T142. He was seventh in the second round at the end of January at Kyalami though did not finish in the Coronation 100 at Roy Hesketh due to engine problems and did not start July’s Bulawayo 100 at Kumalo. Later in July came disappointment after retiring on the first lap due to clutch problems in the Natal Winter Trophy at Roy Hesketh but there was a change in fortune at the next two rounds in August, taking a second place podium in Kyalami’s Rand Winter Trophy (behind Dave Charlton’s Lotus) then fourth in the False Bay 100 at Killarney. He retired from the Rhodesian Grand Prix at Bulawayo with clutch problems while the season’s final round, the Rand Spring Trophy in October 1970 at Kyalami saw a fourth place result and in the Final Championship Standings he was joint sixth with Paddy Driver. There were a number of races in a Lola T210 with John McNicol and they were twentieth in the Kyalami 9 Hours with the Karl von Wendt car. In 3 Hour races they were seventh and second at Lourenco Marques and Bulawayo, retired the BG Racing Team’s Lola at Cape Town and were fourth with Karl von Wendt’s car at Roy Hesketh.
In the following year he ran his own Surtees in the 1971 series, first a TS5 and then a Chevy-powered TS8 and it started well with a third place at the opening round, Killarney’s Cape South Easter Trophy, behind Jackie Pretorius’s Brabham-Cosworth BT26 and Brian Redman’s Chevron-FVC B18. This was followed by fourth at the Highveld 100 at Kyalami, behind Dave Charlton, John Love and Jackie Pretorius then a second place podium in the third round at the Coronation 100, Roy Hesketh, behind Dave Charlton’s Lotus-Cosworth 49C. The Goldfields Autumn Trophy in May saw him fifth, with a similar placed finish at Kyalami’s South African Republic Festival Trophy though between these two races he retired from the Bulawayo 100. Then came a second place finish (after a spirited battle with Jackie Pretorius’s Brabham) at the Natal Winter Trophy at Roy Hesketh but this was followed by three retirements, at Kyalimi’s Anniversary Trophy (20 laps-accident), the False Bay 100 at Killarney (13 laps-engine) and an accident on the fourth lap of the Rhodesian Grand Prix at Bulawayo. At the season’s eleventh and final round he was fourth at the Rand Spring Trophy at Kyalami (behind Dave Charlton, Paddy Driver and John McNicol and in the Championship Final Standings he was in joint fifth place with John McNicol and runner-up in the F5000 class behind Paddy Driver.
He acquired an ex-works Brabham BT33-Ford for 1972 as he moved into the F1 class of the South African Championship but only contested Kyalami’s Highveld 100 in January and came home third, behind Dave Charlton and Peter de Klerk. Later in the year, June saw him at Kyalami with a Surtees-Chevrolet TS8 for the South African Republic Festival Trophy (the sixth round of the Championship) but he did not start. He entered the 1972 South African Grand Prix with Team Gunston, running a Brabham BT33, but could not start the race after his Ford DFV failed in practice. He then tried John Love’s Surtees TS9 and matched his practice time but with no spare engine he was left with no alternative and withdrew from the race. He sold the Brabham to John Love after the race and later quit the sport after crashing his Surtees TS8-Chevrolet during practice for a race at Kyalami.
Wille passed away on the 19th May 2007, aged 67, after sadly losing his battle with cancer.
Gallery F1 and F1 SA Championship
