Originally posted by dmj
I will check my old magazines for exact date of Csaba's death. "My" date was stated by one Hungarian TNF member in this thread: http://www.atlasf1.c...highlight=csaba F2 reference was from my memory, obviously not working so good. But I believe Geza Sury should know this for sure.
Sorry Dino, I've just discovered your post. First of all the driver's name is Kesjár Csaba. The name is in the 'Hungarian order', so his family name is Kesjár, given name Csaba. I can confirm, he was killed on 14th July, 1988. After a long-long investigation, it was revealed, that the cause of the accident was actually a brake failure. I wrote about Csaba in a Reader's Comment's thread, but I copy it here:
Csaba Kesjár was the country's first hope for F1. He started his carrier in karts, and became a multiple national champion. BTW, he was a member of a Hungarian racing dynasty, already his grandfather had been a racing driver! After karting, Csaba graduated to the so called 'Formula Eastern' class, which was a category for formula cars made up by East European car parts. Csaba drove four years there, scoring one win. Why was he so unsuccesful? Well, because cheating was virtually allowed for the soviet teams. Kesjar's only victory came after a disqualification, when he launched a protest against the result of a Bulgarian race. As it turned out, the winning soviet driver used a 1400cc engine instead a 1300cc, which the rules had stipulated!
When the first Hungarian GP took place in 1986, Csaba graduated to Formula Ford. He won the Austrian Championship. One year later Horst Schübel signed him to race in German F3. He was blown away by team-mate Bernd Schneider, who walked away with the championship. Kesjar's best result was fourth place, but he won a non-championship F3 race at the end of the year. He was destined for better things, but he was tragically killed in 1988. Believe it or not, today an elementary school bears Kesjar's name in Hungary!
Excuse me for getting a bit carried away, but I admired that guy so much. He was one of my childhood heroes. I saw him racing in a hillclimb, and got his autograph.
Some more info: Kesjár drove three laps in a Zakspeed Turbo a couple of hours after the 1987 Hungarian GP was flagged. His best time was 1 min 52 sec which it was slower than he managed in his F3 car. (1 min 47) Kesjar was instructed not to change above third gear (and I think eventually the highest gear he had used was fourth). He studied at the Bánki Donát technical college in Budapest, so he had some technical knowledge. Still, he was much slower in F3 than his team-mates. Despite this he was one of my childhood heroes and his death shocked me since I was only 14 at that time. He was extremely popular in Hungary at that time, because he was a very charming guy.