Help with a photo needed - Mike Salmon
#1
Posted 01 November 2004 - 20:21
My boss met this gentleman recently and has asked me if I knew who he was. Th man pictured gave his name as "Mike Salmon" and said he had driven Ferraris in the 60's. I said I would ask some people.
Does anyone know who this is??
Any replies would be gratefully received.
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#2
Posted 01 November 2004 - 21:17
Knew him well, but lost touch. I think he lives in Jersey now.
#3
Posted 01 November 2004 - 21:25
DCN
#4
Posted 01 November 2004 - 22:26
Cheeky I know, but does anyone have a shot of him in action?
#5
Posted 01 November 2004 - 22:44
1966 Snetterton : Mike Salmon : Ford Mustang (Source:Motor Sport magazine)
1984 Le Mans : Mike Salmon : Aston Martin Nimrod (Source:Automobile Year)
#6
Posted 02 November 2004 - 08:59
Thanks everyone.
#7
Posted 02 November 2004 - 17:20
#8
Posted 02 November 2004 - 17:55
#9
Posted 02 November 2004 - 21:52
#10
Posted 03 November 2004 - 22:02
Thereafter he drove the Project 212 Aston Martin in historic racing for Viscount Downe from 1973 and later an Aston Martin DBR1/300 as well as a modern prototype Nimrod Aston at Le Mans in the early 1980s. In more recent times he has made many other appearances in historic racing notably at the Goodwood Revival meetings, most recently with a Jaguar MkVII.
No doubt there are other cars and races but this is all from memory. A very fine racer and a tribute to an era when motor sport was less artificial and still an adventure, albeit a very risky one.
#11
Posted 04 November 2004 - 21:02
“So we went to the Nurburgring but instead of working on the car they (the mechanics) went off to see the Queen Mother who was visiting Bonn. When they got back I said to Richard Birks, who was our senior mechanic, ‘You’ve always said you wanted to go round the circuit, now is your chance. Hop in and I’ll take you.’ I took him round absolutely flat out. He got out shaking and very white and we had no more trouble again….ever.”
#12
Posted 05 November 2004 - 13:40
#13
Posted 05 November 2004 - 14:31
There is a famous photo of Salmon's GT40 in flames, I believe.
Paul M
#14
Posted 14 June 2015 - 01:51
Mike Salmon lives here in Jersey. I speak to him frequently. I bought my first ever Ferrari 308GT4, new, from him in the mid eighties, when he was running Melbourne Garage, St. John. Cost me a staggering £12,000 !!! Remember Mike taking me out for a run in it along the New North Road, St. John which is about one mile long with cliffs on one side. Although we have a strict 40M.P.H. limit here in Jersey, Mike managed to reach speeds of 85 M.P.H. His only comment when we arrived back at Melbourne Garages was "well she should run a lot better now, after I have given her a good clear out". Mike Salmon certainly knew how to drive Ferrari's! Mike takes it very easy now as age (81) is slowing him down. Mike has sold his a very rare Ferrari. Not absolutely sure which model it was, but it had a four cam engine, might have been the 275GTB/4. I will ask him the next time I see him. Of course he still has the terrible facial injuries he suffered at Le Mans back in 1967, when his Ford GT40 caught fire at the end of the Mulsanne straight, while he was braking sharply. The pit crew had not closed the fuel filler cap and burning fuel engulfed the cockpit.
Edited by FERRARINIGEL, 16 January 2016 - 04:02.
#15
Posted 15 June 2015 - 06:20
During the 1980's the Ferrari Owners Club used to hold a members meeting at Donington Park. This gave menbers the chance to drive their cars on the circuit. It was open to the general public (if you knew it was on) and also the chance to be taken round the circuit by members (if you could persuade them). The local dealership (Greypaul) used to supply a demonstrator Ferrari car and if you were lucky you could 'hitch' a ride around the circuit. One year the driver was Mike Salmon and I was lucky enough to get three laps with him. What a thrill to go round Donington Park with someone who knew what they were doing. I had over several years been driven by Ferrari owners (with mixed results on their driving skills).
#16
Posted 16 January 2016 - 03:58
Mike Salmon,has died at the age of 82 in Jersey after a prolonged illness. An Island racing legend, Mike was a long-time racer with 13 starts at the Le Mans 24 Hours to his name.
Mike's career as an amateur driver spanned six decades and included a top-six finish at Le Mans and a British Touring Car Championship race victory, and he was still competing into his 70s.
The first of Mike's 13 Le Mans participations came in 1962 with his own Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato, but it was the following year that he made his name at the French enduro with what turned out to be his best result.
Sharing a Maranello Concessionaires-run Ferrari 330LMB with Jack Sears, he finished fifth overall.
"We made up our minds that we were going to drive to finish rather than drive to impress," says Sears.
"There were three four-litre 330LMBs in the race and ours was the only one to get to the end, although we had our problems along the way."
Mike would go on to race for Maranello Concessionaires, the UK Ferrari importer run by Col Ronnie Hoare, at Le Mans in 1965 and '66, driving a 250LM and then a Dino 206S.
An appearance in a JW Automotive-run Ford GT40 at Le Mans in 1967 left him with serious burns to his arms and face after the fuel cap was incorrectly replaced at the car's first pitstop.
After one more Le Mans start, also in a GT40, he made what turned out to be a temporary decision to retire from racing: he would return to the cockpit in the historic ranks in the mid-1970s, driving among other things the Aston Martin 'project car' he had taken to Le Mans in 1964.
Mike was back at Le Mans at the wheel of Robin Hamilton's Aston Martin AMV8 RHAM in 1977 and '79 and would become a regular on the grid for the 24 Hours in the early-1980s.
Mike raced Group 5 Ferrari 512BBs in 1980 and '81 and became a stalwart member of the Viscount Downe's Aston Martin-Nimrod squad through the 1982, '83 and '84 seasons.
Together with Ray Mallock and Simon Phillips, Mike finished seventh at Le Mans in the first of those years and would have ended up much higher but for a dropped valve.
"Mike was a very smooth and sympathetic driver," says Mallock, whose fledgling team took over development of the Lola-built Nimrod NRA/C2 for 1983.
Richard Williams, who was team manager for Viscount Downe, recalls a "perfectionist with a lot of talent".
Those talents stretched to mimicry: so good was his impression of Ronnie Hoare, reckons Sears, that "you would think he was in the room with you".
"Mike was always great fun to be with; I respected him not just as a driver but also as a man," says Sears of a universally popular man.
Mallock, who describes him as a "real character", even named his children after Salmon and his wife.
Mike started racing in Jaguars in the mid-1950s and claimed major national-level victories with an ex-Ecurie Ecosse D-type in the Martini Trophy at Silverstone and the Autosport 3 Hours in 1961.
Mike also enjoyed success in touring cars in the first half of the 1960s, initially in a Jaguar MkII and then a Ford Mustang.
Mike claimed a European Touring Car Championship victory at Brands Hatch in 1963 in the Jag together with Peter Sutcliffe, only to be disqualified for engine irregularities, and then took his lone victory in the BTCC, then known as the British Saloon Car Championship, in the Mustang at Snetterton in '65.
Involved in the motor trade throughout his career, Mike was sales director at Maranello Concessionaires before moving to Jersey, where he set up a dealership specialising in Ferraris and Alfa Romeos.
Mike is survived by his wife Jean (nee Bloxham), who was also an enthusiastic club racer before their marriage.
Edited by FERRARINIGEL, 16 January 2016 - 03:59.