Sir Jackie Stewart haunted by racing deaths

Published on Friday 23 October 2009 22:10

THEY are the ghosts behind the wheel, the drivers killed in competition for whom Sir Jackie Stewart can only now weep. The Scots racing legend has revealed for the first time how he is haunted by the deaths of fellow drivers almost 40 years after retiring from the sport.

Sir Jackie, 70, who won three Formula One World Championships in the late 1960s and early 1970s, said the deaths of 57 drivers in an 11-year period during his career had a traumatic effect on him. At the time he was able to suppress his emotions so as to continue in competitive racing but now, in retirement, he grieves for their loss.

They include seven of his closest friends, including two-times Formula One world champion Jim Clark, whose Lotus-Cosworth somersaulted through the air and smashed into a tree during a Formula Two race at the Nrburgring, Germany, in April 1968.

Sir Jackie, speaking on BBC Radio Scotland's Stuff of Legends, to be broadcast tomorrow, said he was able to "block out" his grief at the time in order to perform. But he said the mental and emotional "scars" had emerged in later life.

He told interviewer Bryan Cooney: "When I was racing I could block it off very successfully – because it was sadly an occasion that was too often happening, with such regularity in some cases that it was absolutely shocking. When I look back in my life at those moments, for whatever reason, I was able to almost remove emotion and grief. I can't do that now.

"I have a belief that there was a wee sack of something round my heart, a fluid that somehow was able to dilute my grief as it was happening. That saved my life and allowed me to continue and do the things that might otherwise have been difficult to do. I think it happened so often however that the reservoir went dry. So today I quite often find myself more emotional than most people would ever think Jackie Stewart would have within him in the way of sorrow.

"Because, when I think back, I saw things that a man or woman should never see. They were real scars into my mind and emotional balance. At the time I was able to block them off, but every now and again they return and they will never be forgotten."

As well as fellow Scot Clark, Sir Jackie lost several other close friends on the race track including German Jochen Rindt, Swede Jo Bonnier and Swiss driver Jo Siffert. He said that Clark's death affected him "enormously". They had shared a flat in London, which they called the Scottish Embassy, and become close. He said: "Jimmy became a great friend because we spent so much time together. We travelled to races together and raced against each other. People called us Batman and Robin, and there was no doubt who was Batman. Jimmy was the best racing driver I ever raced against.

"He was incredibly shy, introverted and complex, but when he got into the racing car he just came alive. He was the smoothest, cleanest, best racing driver in the world.

"He was one of those people who you never thought would crash and if he did crash he would never die. It seemed to be outwith Jimmy's brief that such a thing could happen. It told a lot of us that nobody's bulletproof. If Jim Clark could die, then any of us could die."

Death in the fast lane – the friends he lost

Jim Clark, 32: Winner of two World Championships in 1963 and 1965, at the time of his death, Clark had more pole positions (33) than any other driver. On 7 April, 1968, he was driving in a Formula Two race at Hockenheimring in Germany, when his Lotus 48 veered off the track and crashed into trees. He suffered a broken neck and skull fracture and died before reaching hospital.

Karl Jochen Rindt, 28: The German-Austrian was the only driver to posthumously win the Formula One World Drivers' Championship, after he was killed in practice for the Italian Grand Prix. On 5 September, 1970, Rindt was on his fifth lap when his car swerved into the crash barrier, hitting a stanchion head-on. He was pronounced dead shortly after reaching hospital. At the time he died, Rindt had won five of that year's ten Grands Prix, giving him a strong lead in the championship.

Jo Bonnier, 32: Joakim 'Jo' Bonnier . had begun managing a team but was tempted back into the driver's seat for Le Mans in 1972. His Lola-Cosworth T280 collided with a Ferrari Daytona driven by Swiss amateur Florian Vetsch. His car was catapulted into trees, killing him.

Jo Siffert, 35: Siffert's death in October 1971 forced the authorities to examine the issue of driver safety. He had recently won the Austrian Grand Prix and he was competing in the World Championship Victory Race at Brands Hatch. His BRM crashed and caught fire, but Siffert could not free himself from the burning car.