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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Christian Kautz. Mercedes and Auto Union driver pre-war, he was killed in the Swiss Grand Prix in 1948.
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Comte George Raphaël Béthenod de Montbressieux raced under the nom de volant of 'Raph' he was a French-Argentine racing driver who sometimes entered races under his mother's of de las Casas.
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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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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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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.