Herbert MacKay-Fraser

Herbert MacKay-Fraser was born in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil though in articles he wrote for Autosport magazine he signed them as Mackay Fraser, which was how he was known to his fellow drivers. He participated in one World Championship race, the French GP in 1957, but was killed a week later in an F2 race at Reims. His parents were American, with his father owning a coffee plantation in Brazil, and they registered their two sons’ birth with the US Consul so that they would be recognised as American citizens. Although his date of birth is listed as the 23rd June 1922 it was reported as being the 21st June 1922 in declarations by Herbert himself as he entered America from other nations, and his World War II enlistment registration with the US Army.

He attended Holderness School in Plymouth, New Hampshire and was an accomplished downhill and slalom skier. After a period ranching in Wyoming, he moved to California, which is where he started racing with an XK120 Jaguar, finishing third at Reno and winning at March Air Force Base in SCCA National Sports Car Championship races in 1953. He eventually moved back to Brazil and settled in Rio de Janeiro and continued racing and in 1954 was third with the XK120 at Bakersfield and second with a Ferrari 250 LM at Rio. In June and July 1955 he raced his Ferrari 750 Monza in Portugal and though he did not start at Porto he was seventh at Monsanto Park in Lisbon. In the following months he contested races in Britain, retiring in the Oulton Park and Aintree Internationals and finishing fourth at Castle Combe and Brands Hatch.

After settling in London, he integrated himself into the British motor racing scene and began driving for Colin Chapman’s fledgling sports car team. During this time he became close friends with Jo Bonnier and they competed in European sports car events, traveling in an old black and yellow bus with the words Scuderia Bonnier painted on the side. He raced his own Ferrari Monza under the ‘Kangaroo Stable’ banner plus also drove Bonnier’s Maserati on occasions. In 1956, teamed with Colin Chapman and Graham Hill their Lotus 11-Climax retired at Le Mans though he made a name for himself in the Reims 12 Hours, which he led superbly when sharing Ivor Bueb’s Lotus until engine troubles ended their race. Further Lotus drives in September produced tenth in the International Gold Cup at Oulton Park, fifth in the Gran Premio Shell d’Imola and fourth in October’s Gran Premio di Roma at Castelfusano. In outings in his Ferrari 750 Monza, though he did not qualify for the British Empire Trophy at Oulton Park and retired at Bari and Messina. There was an eighth place finish with the Ferrari at the Aintree 200 and twelfth at Silverstone plus he contested a production Car Grand Prix race at Spa. In one drive with a privately entered Ferrari 500TR he was ninth in at the Sverige Grand Prix 6 Hours and paired with Jo Bonnier they were eleventh in a Scuderia Bonnier Alfa Romeo Vuilietta Veloce in the Nurburgring 1000kms though they retired their Ecurie Bonnier Maserati 150S at the Gran Premio Supercortemaggiore at Monza.

He continued his successful association with Lotus in 1957 and racing a privately entered 11 he was seventh at the Grand Prix de Spa Sports but retired from the Coupe Delamare Deboutville at Rouen and a shared drive with Dan Margulies in the Nurburgring 1000kms.

In Team Lotus drives he retired from the Lavant Cup due to an accident and was ninth at Le Mans with Jay Chamberlain while in two Lotus 12 drives in June he was second to Jack Brabham at Brands Hatch but retired later at Crystal Palace’s London Trophy. He made his Grand Prix debut with BRM at Rouen in July, standing in for Roy Salvadori who had switched to Vanwall. Vanwall’s drivers, Stirling Moss and Tony Brooks, were both out of action as Moss had a sinus infection and Brooks was still recovering from a crash at Le Mans. After starting twelfth, his lightning start brought him to a surprising sixth place on the first lap and he was running behind the Maseratis and the Lancia-Ferraris for the first part of the race. Unfortunately on lap twenty four a drive shaft sheared off, forcing his retirement though it had been a very promising debut. After his promising debut, many expected great performances from him but just a week later he travelled to Reims for the F2 Coupe Internationale de Vitesse where Lotus had entered three cars, two new Lotus 12 for Cliff Allison and Colin Chapman and an older stripped down Lotus 11 Le Mans car for Herbert. Salvadori lead at the start, with Brabham and Trintignant right behind, but unfortunately on the second lap Bill Whitehouse crashed at the approach to the Thillois hairpin. With multiple fractures and serious burns, he was transported by helicopter to hospital in Reims, but died shortly afterwards. The race continued after the accident but on lap twenty seven Herbert lost control in his Lotus, leaving the road and the car rolled several times, crossing an embankment, before coming to rest in a field. He was thrown from the car and, grievously injured, was also taken by helicopter but died en route to the hospital. Jo Bonnier won the sports car supporting race but the death of his friend ensured that there were no celebrations that weekend.

Fellow racer Phil Hill stated that despite his retiring in his Grand Prix debut “Mac was able to hold on to fifth spot for a while. BRM figured that was enough to earn him a place on the team..His first race as a team member would be the English GP at Aintree in two weeks, July 20.” However, before this he had the F2 race at Reims and he recalled “no one knows exactly what happened. Denise McCluggage and I were watching the F2 race, and when we heard of Mac’s accident–and not knowing he was dead–went searching for the hospital to which he’d been taken. We had a terrible time getting the correct information about where to go, and when we finally arrived at the clinic, a young doctor looked at us with surprise and said, ‘Why, he’s dead!’” Some years later Hill told how “Once when my wife, Alma, and I were in Europe with John Lamm, we stopped at the old circuit of Reims. Caught up in the nostalgia of the moment, I decided to try to find Mac’s grave. I had a map of Reims, and a rough idea of where to find the cemetery. Somehow my brain homed in on the place as if I was being drawn to it. The cemetery attendant knew of the old grave of a race driver, over there, somewhere, and pointed to hundreds of headstones. But the magic worked again and I seemed to know the basic direction. We had trouble finding the actual grave because the headstone was hidden behind a thicket of gold dust plants. But I pushed them aside, and there it was…We were the same age when he died. He’d left his wife Marga little money, so Mac was buried in what was essentially a pauper’s grave. A year or so later, Jo Bonnier collected money from the drivers to give the site perpetual care, and the place is still well looked after. It all seems so sad now to look back on MacKay Fraser’s death. To think that the first American nominated to a Grand Prix team after the war is lost to our national racing history, almost anonymous behind shrubbery in a cemetery in Reims, France.”