Stephen South (born 19 February 1952 in Harrow, Middlesex) is a British former racing driver from England.
He was educated at Harrow County School for Boys. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Born in Harrow, Stephen South’s interest in motorsport was encouraged by his enthusiast father, who would even arrange family holidays around the time of overseas races.
As a former kart champion, winning British titles in 1968 and 1969, he starred during his early years in Formula Ford, in his first year winning five races and finished third in 1973’s the Wella for Men Championship and fourth in the BOC series, driving Rayrace International’s Ray 73F. Continuing into 1974, he went on to win eleven races and finished second in the BOC championship, with Rayrace’s Ray 74F car. In the following season, he continued with Rayrace when they moved up to Formula Three and started with third place at Aintree and fifth places at Brands Hatch and Croix-en-Ternois in France. The team changed from their Ray RB3 75 to a March 753 and he finished on the podium at the season’s final race at Thruxton.
He was entered by Dortmunder Union Bier/Bogarts of Birmingham for his second F3 season in 1976, initially starting with a March 753 before switching to a March 763. In his first three races, there were two second place finishes at Thruxton, followed by third place in the Monaco Grand Prix F3 race, and he then achieved his first F3 win at a non-championship Griffin Golden Helmet Trophy race at Mallory Park.
In 1977 he moved to Team BP and raced their March 763 to victory in the opening races of the BRDC Vandervell British F3 Championship and the BARC BP Super Visco British F3 Championship at Silverstone and Thruxton. Before the end of the year he picked up another four victories at Brands Hatch (twice), Snetterton and Mallory Park and eight more podium places saw him take the BRDC Vandervell British F3 Championship title, plus second place in the BARC BP Super Visco British F3 Championship.
Late in the year he competed in his first f2 race, in the JAF Grand Prix at Suzuka. Held two weeks after the F1 Japanese GP at Mount Fuji, this race was the final round of the Japanese Drivers Championship and he finished seventh with a March 752. Kazuyoshi Hoshino and Kunimitsu Takahashi were the only Japanese drivers still able to take the national title but also in the race were Satoru Nakajima, Keke Rosberg, Riccardo Patrese (who won the race), Noritake Takahara, Didier Pironi, Jose Dolhem, Danny Sullivan and Masahiro Hasemi.
In 1978, due to lack of funding, there were only several races in an unsponsored F2 March 782. Running the plain blue car himself, with his father and one mechanic, at Donington they qualified seventh and set fastest lap in the first heat before suffering electrical problems. On his debut in the British F1 Championship at Brands Hatch he qualified on pole (ahead of the GP cars) and with some modest extra backing he was able to compete in the European F2 finale at Hockenheim, where he finished fourth. Ron Dennis’s Project Four team signed him and he took two poles and a win in the Rhein-Pokalrennen (at Hockenheim) and finished sixth in the final standings.
During this time he was invited to test for Lotus at Paul Ricard, with Elio de Angelis, Jan Lammers, Eddie Cheever and Nigel Mansell, but though he was quickest and impressed in it, Elio de Angelis was selected. He was offered a test contract but declined and went on to race F2 for 1980, alongside Derek Warwick in a BP sponsored Toleman. However, early in the year he tested for McLaren at Paul Ricard but when Toleman found out about the test the relationship between them soured and he eventually left the team.
Following this he signed to drive Paul Newman’s Can-Am Lola T530 but when an injured Alain Prost had to miss the US GP at Long Beach, McLaren turned to Stephen. With only a few laps in the M29C at Brands Hatch he was then on his way to California but the car proved uncompetitive and he did not qualify for the race.
A few months later he was at the Golden State Raceway (now Sonoma Raceway) with Newman Racing for the first race of the 1980 Can-Am Challenge. There would be a second place finish at Mosport Park, despite a front wheel breaking apart then at Road America he took pole and was leading the race before a spin dropped him to fifth. At testing at Brainerd he had a wheel failure at high speed and luckily escaped from his wrecked car with bruising but during practice for the Grand Prix Molson, at Circuit Trois-Rivières, he crashed heavily and suffered serious injuries. Sadly, complications later set in and he had to have his lower left leg amputated, which ended his racing career, and months of recuperation followed plus more operations on his return to England.
In 2017 his biography “Stephen South. The Way It Was” was published and in 2018, after a forty year gap, he was re-united at Donington Park with the March 782 he raced in 1978’s European F2 Championship.
The man who might have been Mansell
