KEEPING THE SPIRIT ALIVE SINCE 1999
Harry Schell
29/6/1921 - 13/5/1960
A playboy racer who made his Grand Prix debut at Monaco in 1950 in a Cooper, the first rear-engined car to contest a Formula 1 race. He was killed in during practice for the Silverstone International Trophy.
Harry Schell died 60 years ago, he was 39 , He would have been 99.
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This charismatic, immensely popular semi-professional racer was born of a French father, prewar Delahaye racer Laury Schell, and his feisty Irish-American wife Lucy O'Reilly Schell, who won the Coupe des Dames on the Monte Carlo Rally in 1929. He was brought up in France, where his father ran the Ecurie Bleu Talbots and Delahayes until his death in a car accident. Harry's mother took over the team, taking Rene Dreyfus to the Indianapolis 500 in 1940. Harry went with the team and began racing after the end of World War II. He made his Grand Prix debut at Monaco in 1950 in a Cooper, the first rear-engined car to contest a Formula 1 race. In the years that followed he raced Formula 2 machinery for HWM and Gordini, while enjoying his life as a playboy. In the mid-1950s he drove a Maserati and finished second in the Rome GP and third at Aintree.
In 1956 he drove a Vanwall in the French Grand Prix at Reims, where he battled for the lead against a trio of Lancia-Ferraris. In 1957 he drove a works Maserati, finishing third in the Pescara Grand Prix, and produced a career best second place in the 1958 Dutch Grand Prix in a BRM P25.
He stayed with BRM through 1959 before switching to the Yeoman Credit Cooper team for 1960 and it was in one of their cars that he was killed during practice for the Silverstone International Trophy race when he crashed at Abbey Curve in the wet .
He was a popular figure and a partner in a motor racing bar in Paris, L'Action Automobile. He also raced sportscars with some success. His love for the nightlife would sometimes effect his driving.
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Antony Powys-Lybbe 1909 - 2004 -
Raymond Hassler 1935 - 1972 -
Frank Sytner 1944 -
Nicolás Vuyovich 1981 - 2005
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Phil Hill 1927 - 2008
The only American-born driver to win the Formula One World Drivers' Championship (Mario Andretti, an Italian American driver, won the World Drivers' Championship in 1978, but was not born in the United States). He also scored three wins at each of the 24 Hours of Le Mans and 12 Hours of Sebring sports car races.
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Bruce Kessler 1926
Kessler was an American driver who shared a car in the 1958 Monaco Grand Prix with a certain B.Ecclestone! He went on to be involved in the trawler and television industries, even acting as a TV director for such notable shows as Knight Rider, The A Team and I Dream of Jeannie. -
Bob Drake 1919 - 1990
Bob Drake was a privateer driver from Los Angeles who raced in the 1950s and early 1960s. -
Pete Lovely 1926 - 2011
Pete Lovely started racing in a track roadster in the late 1940s. In 1955 he won the SCCA 1500cc Championship and was offered a drive by Lotus in Europe. He took a class win in the 12 hour race at Rheims with Innes Ireland, before competing in a few Grand Prix with an ex-works Lotus 49B. -
Robert Schroeder 1926 - 2011
Rob Schroeder made one World Championship Grand Prix appearance in the 1962 US Grand Prix before returning to relative obscurity.