Lance Macklin

A polished and extremely stylish driver, Macklin spent the bulk of his career driving for John Heath’s underfinanced HWM team, and his Grand Prix career suffered through the cars’ lack of reliability.

Early experience with an Invicta, and then a Maserati, led to him joining HWM for 1950 and he immediately made his mark with a second place at Naples and a third at Mettet and Perigueux. The minor Continental races provided a happy hunting ground for the team at this time with good starting and prize money on offer. Macklin continued to pick up many good places over the next few seasons, highlighted by a superb win in the 1952 International Trophy at Silverstone.

Lance also raced occasionally for Aston Martin, finishing third at Le Mans in 1951, but four years later he became involved in the catastrophic accident at the Sarthe that claimed so many lives when ‘Levegh’s Mercedes was launched off the back of his Healey and wreckage flew into the crowd. Macklin survived unhurt and raced on, but after a narrow escape in the Tourist Trophy at Dundrod, when he crashed to avoid a multiple accident in which two drivers were killed and another seriously injured, he decided to call it a day.