From my archives .Taken at Brands Hatch in the late 60's. Lotus guru,Roger Putnam ,reckons that they are Lotus 44 Formula 2 cars .Can anyone identify the team ?
I love the casualness of it all .Parts and tools all over the place and the spectators wandering freely . So different to today .
Roger sent me the photo below with an explanation as follows
"Here I am in a Lotus 51 of Formula Ford fame, a development of the Lotus 22 Formula Junior car.
It is of interest because the guy on the left is Firmin Dauwe, the Belgian National Motorcycle Champion in the '50's who changed to cars and famously won the Paris 1000 kms at Montlehry in 1966 in a Lotus Elan against all the big beasts of the day - Cobras, 275LM's etc. It was a streaming wet race and the Elan outhandled all the other cars. Firmin's co-driver was a fellow Belgian, Jean Blaton, who raced under the 'nom de course' of Berlys so that his parents didn't know he was racing. It's in fact Firman's 'Herbert Johnson Gentleman's Racing Helmet' that I'm wearing. Stirling Moss raced in the same model helmet. Blaton was later injured in a semi-works Ferrari he was sharing with Willie Mairesse at Le Mans."
great post, loved the last pic, tie tucked into shirt, blazer on, helmet on, the very picture of a gentleman racr ;-)
ReplyDelete