FEATURED DRIVERS

Olivier Gendebien

Olivier Gendebien

After serving with the British army in WWII he took up Rallying. He was hired by Enzo Ferrari to race his sports cars which he did very well. He won Le Mans four times, Sebring three times and the Targa Florio three times. He also raced in 15 Grand Prix.

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Count Alexander Kolowrat

Count Alexander Kolowrat

Born in New York, Alexander returned to Austria-Hungary where he set up the first film studio in Vienna. A keen racing driver he once entered a midget as his riding mechanic to save weight.

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Giancarlo Baghetti

Giancarlo Baghetti

Giancarlo Baghetti, arguably the first and only person to win his very first F1 World Championship Grand Prix when the Federazione Italiana Scuderie Automobilistiche acquired a new Ferrari 156 for the French Grand Prix at Reims, entering him for this World Championship event....continue reading
Luis Fontes

Luis Fontes

Fontes won the Le Mans 24 hour race for Lagonda in 1935 driving with John Hindmarsh. He also raced aeroplanes. However his racing ended when arrested and charged with manslaughter after a head on collision resulted in the death of a motorcyclist. He served three years in jail and was banned from driving for 10 years. He died in 1940 when the Wellington bomber he was flying stalled and crashed after an engine failed while circling the RAF base at Llandow, Wales.

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Grover Bergdoll

Grover Bergdoll

Grover Cleveland Bergdoll was a wealthy early aviator, racing driver and notorious World War I draft dodger who fled to Germany to avoid service....continue reading
Luigi Musso

Luigi Musso

Winner of the Italian two-liter sportscar championship in 1953 and the Targa Florio in 1957. He also raced in F1 on occasion and won the Italian Championship in 1955. He was killed in the French Grand Prix in 1958....continue reading
Violette Morris

Violette Morris

Violette Morris's story is a not comfortable tale. Indeed some historians have shied away from her completely. Disturbing and bizarre she is never the less worth including if for no other reason than to illustrate the full spectrum of people involved in our sport....continue reading

FEATURED DRIVERS

This section has grown from Friday Chaps which was started by the late Chris Bowen. Over the past few years we worked with Chris to add and contribute to the Friday Chaps stories. Chris had started in F1 with Brabham in 1984 before moving on to Benetton, McLaren, Ligier, Arrows, Toyota, Red Bull, Honda, Brawn GP and in 2010 to Mercedes AMG Petronas. Sadly Chris passed away suddenly in 2020. His knowledge and story telling ability were of the highest order.

Thus in the spirit of proper chaps, our featured items will not neccessarily come from the annals of Formula 1, they will be characters from all the corners of motor sport and the globe. Their one requirement is to be, for whatever reason, good or bad, to have a story worth telling.

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