Eliseo Salazar

A virtual unknown when he came to Britain in 1979 to contest the Vandervell F3 championship, Salazar made a good impression with some gritty performances, despite being saddled with the initially temperamental 'ground-effect' Ralt RT3 while his rivals ran more proven machinery. For 1980 the Chilean switched to the Aurora British F1 series with the RAM Racing Williams FW07 and won three races (including the once prestigious International Trophy), but finished second to his team-mate, Emilio de Villota, in the championship.

With much-needed financial backing available, Salazar joined the revamped March team the following season but soon became disillusioned and took his cash to Ensign, where he put in some excellent performances, finishing in sixth place at Zandvoort. For 1982, Eliseo joined the autocratic Gunther Schmid's ATS team but, apart from a fifth place at Imola, he was largely in the shadow of Manfred Winkelhock. However, he was involved in a much-publicised incident at Hockenheim after being involved in a collision with Nelson Piquet, when he was assaulted by the irate Brazilian.

His options now limited if he wished to stay in Formula 1, Salazar went back to RAM for 1983 but, perhaps predictably, things rapidly disintegrated, and after a string of non-qualifications he found himself out of a drive.

The Chilean then spent many years racing in sports cars and, after a good 1994 season in IMSA, found the backing to join Dick Simon's Indy Car team for 1995. Salazar did surprisingly well in this highly competitive series, appearing particularly comfortable on the ovals. Fourth place in the Indianapolis 500 was the year's high point, and the veteran stayed with Simon in 1996 as he moved to the rival Indy Racing League.

In this dangerous open-wheel formula Salazar's grit and determination was certainly tested, the Chilean returning on three separate occasions from huge accidents in which he suffered broken limbs. He has one IRL victory, at Las Vegas in 1997, to his credit and his best year overall was in 2001 by finishing fourth in the standings driving for the legendary AJ Foyt.

Elisio has also continued a parallel career in sports car racing, in a Ferrari 333SP and latterly a Riley & Scott.