52 replies to this topic

[funformula]

Don´t know if it´s still common, but in the earlier years it seems quite usual especially for race mechanics to be called by a nickname.

I always found this very amusing.

 

Famous examples are the Lotus mechanics Bob "Vicar" Dance and Dave "Beaky" Sims.

Another one is Brabham composite workshop manager Jonathan "Wingnut" Greaves.

Long time McLaren employee Neil "Tinker" Trundle

 

As for the drivers Perry "Mad Dog" McCarthy revealed some of them in his book.

Damon "Secret Squirrel" Hill

Johnny "Lil'un" Herbert

Julian "Grumpy" Bailey

Martin "Yer Man" Donnelly

Mark "Mega" Blundell

 

Any more to add on to the list?

 

 

 

 

[Allen Brown]

John "Ace" Woodington

[GMACKIE]

My brother-in-law, Trevor Gerard, was known as "Trevor The Revver"...for obvious reasons.

[kyle936]

I've long wondered who was being referred to in this photo by Eric della Faille of Victory Lane at the end of the 1970 Daytona 24 Hours (the boot being on the other foot - JWAE-Gulf's mechanics giving someone else a nickname!)

 

https://purl.stanford.edu/wg285xq9938

 

(After you open the link, to view full screen, click on the four divergent arrows in the bottom right hand corner, then again to cancel or click Esc (you can click '+' or '-' to zoom in or out)*)

 

You'll see the banner reads 'CAPT. COOL STRIKES AGAIN'. I'm fairly sure 'Captain Cool' must be John Wyer, although it just might have been Pedro - he'd won Le Mans for Wyer two years before with Lucien Bianchi, and Wyer would have testified that Pedro, of whom he was exceptionally fond, was a cool dude... I've never heard of either being referred to by that nickname, though.

 

(*For anyone who doesn't know (I found out by accident), the way to view Revs Library photos full size is to click on 'View full citation page' on the first page that opens - doing so with the link below will take you to the link above)

 

https://revslib.stan...log/wg285xq9938

[Ray Bell]

'Captain Nice'...

Was that Mark or Roger?

[Tim Murray]

Lots more in this earlier thread:

Racing nicknames?

[E1pix]

I'd have to include my surrogate father "Fast Eddie" Miller in the mix!

[E1pix]

'Captain Nice'...Was that Mark or Roger?

Mark (Donohue).

Edited by E1pix, 25 November 2017 - 03:47.

[john aston]

So many -  a few favourites  are Brolly and Butcher (Booth) ; The Bear( Denny Hulme  ) ; The Monza Gorilla ( Vittorio Brambilla ) , Don 'The Snake' Prudhomme  , Damien 'Mad Dog' Magee and , the far less well known, but astonishingly quick rally driver, the now late  Mad Dan Grewer  

[2F-001]

So many -  a few favourites  are Brolly and Butcher (Booth) ; The Bear( Denny Hulme  ) ; The Monza Gorilla ( Vittorio Brambilla ) , Don 'The Snake' Prudhomme  , Damien 'Mad Dog' Magee and , the far less well known, but astonishingly quick rally driver, the now late  Mad Dan Grewer

Was Butcher Booth (later, a sometime F1 team principal) actually a meat-handler, or was the nickname more a product of his demeanour?
During his brief time at Mclaren, Scheckter was referred to as 'Baby Bear'.
Yes, Damien Magee - the original Mad Dog. I always assumed he was the insipration for 'Mad Dog' (Malone?) in Barry Foley's Catchpole strip; is that correct?

Edited by 2F-001, 25 November 2017 - 08:28.

[Ray Bell]

Not to mention Jack 'Blackie' Brabham...

Or just plain 'Black Jack'.

[Stephen W]

Niki Lauda = The Rat

Luigi Fagioli = The Abruzzi Robber

Jose Frolian Gonzalez = The Wild Bull of the Pampas

Alain Prost - The Professor

Ian Ashley = Crashley

James Hunt = Hunt the Shunt (or similar)

Larry Perkins = The Cowangie Kid

Henri Pescarolo = Hairy Henri or Pepsicola

Roger Penske = The Captain

[Michael Ferner]

Was Butcher Booth (later, a sometime F1 team principal) actually a meat-handler, or was the nickname more a product of his demeanour?

I always understood he was a butcher by trade. When was he an F1 principal, though?

[2F-001]

Manor (and Virgin/Marussia) - currently doing something with Toro Rosso, I think.

I think he had a fairly robust reputation as a driver, didn't he?

[2F-001]

Nascar driver, Bill Elliot: "Awesome Bill from Dawsonville" always tickled me.

Dominique Delestre came from Nancy, in France; he was endlessly referred to in Autosport as 'Nancy-boy, Dominique Delestre'. I never knew if this was just a silly bit of word-play, or a thinly-coded (and rather crude) reference to something in his disposition.

Edited by 2F-001, 25 November 2017 - 10:24.

[RS250]

I always thought Damien Magee, like Alan Minshaw of Demon Tweeks, took his nickname from the Catchpole cartoon.
Wasn't the young Jody also called Fletcher after the wreckless bird in the movie 'Jonathan Livingston Seagull'?
My personal fave is Danny Ongais - so fast he had 2 nicknames - 'Danny On The Gas' and "The Flyin Hawaiian"

Edited by RS250, 25 November 2017 - 12:05.

[Allen Brown]

I believe Jack O'Mally's nickname was "Bruno".

[RS2000]

As confirmed in the just published book "Memories of a Rally Champion", Chris Sclater was known as "Slack Alice".

[E1pix]

My personal fave is Danny Ongais - so fast he had 2 nicknames - 'Danny On The Gas' and "The Flyin Hawaiian"

Right on, Thanks, we love Danny! We met a Hawaiian guy who was lifetime friends with him a few years ago -- at a dirt track, no less!

Danny deserved to win Indy. Natural talent and fearlessness by the bucketloads.

[Henk Vasmel]

I believe Jack O'Mally's nickname was "Bruno".

Wasn't it "Panda"?

Edited by Henk Vasmel, 25 November 2017 - 17:32.

[fbarrett]

"Dark Monohue"

[LittleChris]

Wasn't it "Panda"?

Thought that was Claudio Langes ?

 

Don't remember hearing the Henri Pescarolo ones before.

[AJCee]

Giacomelli certainly was that. Was it Motoring News that had the 'Panda on Pole' headline/heading in the 1980 Watkins Glen report?

[E1pix]

"Lone Star JR" Rutherford

 

"Supertex" AJ Foyt

 

"Little Al" Unser

 

"Rocket Rick" Mears

 

Duane "Pancho" Carter

[SJ Lambert]

Perhaps the actual names of some of the Elfin Race Car crew should be withheld to protect the guilty - a few that spring to mind are Quack, Devil and George!

[funformula]

Some more McLaren team members:

 

George "Teardrop" Langhorn (because he messed up the paint job of a Indy winning McLaren)

Steve "Forklift" Morrow

Steve "Tats" Cook

Gary "Wimp" Wheeler

Mike "Niggling" Negline

Gary "Waspy" Beresford

[RS250]

I can't believe Mansell never had a nickname.

[Collombin]

Duane "Pancho" Carter

Surely the most precocious nickname earner of all - his picture is captioned in the 1953 Clymer annual as Pancho, when aged about 2.

[Ray Bell]

Of course we're still missing "Fireball" Roberts...

NASCAR legend of the fifties and sixties.

[E1pix]

Surely the most precocious nickname earner of all - his picture is captioned in the 1953 Clymer annual as Pancho, when aged about 2.

Sombrero or raincoat?

[E1pix]

I can't believe Mansell never had a nickname.

Didn't the Tifosi call him "Il Leone?"

[JacnGille]

Peter "Rabbit" Gethin

 

David "Hobbo" Hobbs

 

Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins

[Henk Vasmel]

To mention  some Germans, Hans-Joachim Stuck was called "Strietzel" and Harald Ertl was called "Rübezahl" 

[kayemod]

I can't believe Mansell never had a nickname.

 

He had a few from people I knew who worked with him, few of those were repeatable.

[GMACKIE]

David "Sir Mal" McKay

Brian "Yogi" Muir

Peter "Skinny" Manton

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by E1pix
Didn't the Tifosi call him "Il Leone"?

Quite so...

And there was a lot of "Red Five" screaming as well.

And there was "De Crasherus" out there for a while too.

Australians:

Frank Kleinig - Dirt Track Charlie

Alf Barrett - Maestro

John Snow - The Master (Betsy, his wife - The Mistress)

John Crouch - The Trump

Curly Brydon - The Mouse (as if 'Curly' wasn't good enough)

Jack Saywell - Essing J the B (smiling Jack the B...)

Arthur Rizzo - The Knife (his wife, The Sheath)

Jack Jeffery - Toad of Toad Hall

Bill Patterson - Champagne Charlie

Lex Davison - The Millionaire Grazier

Jack Murray - Gelignite Jack

Arnold Glass - Trinkets

Rex Marshall - Baldy or The Dome

Bill Reynolds - The Ziff

Alf Najar - The Black Prince

Paul Samuels - Sartorial Sam

Gordon Stewart - The Trainer

Geoff Surtees (engineer) - Scraper

Jack Myers - The Little Master

John Barraclough - Backoff

Geoff McGrath - Quickstraw or Quickie

Ray Winter - Speedy

Paul Hamilton - Streak

Dave Mawer - Big Dave

Bob Pritchett - The Brain

Peter Brock - Peter Perfect (known to his friends as 'PB' from the earliest times)

Philip Brock - Splitpin (a common nickname for tall and skinny Australians)

And in their small circle, Alan Tomlinson was 'The Driver' and Clem Dwyer was another 'Trainer', as I recall.

Some begin as a name within a small group, some stay that way and some leak out.

[AAGR]

In rallying in the 1970s, Roger Clark was often nicknamed as 'Albert' - because that was his second name ....

 

And because of the way that Phil Short had to fold himself into the co-driver's seat of many rally cars - he was sometimes known as 'Angle Iron'

 

Then there were several for Russell Brookes, who was - shall we say - not tall, but I'd better not quote them as his wife hates me already ....

 

  - and, back in motor racing, didn't I hear that John Wyer was known (out of his hearing) as 'Death Ray' ?

 

And, to end on an affectionate note, wasn't Jack Sears always known as 'Gentleman Jack' ?

[john aston]

The not very tall Jackie Oliver was sometimes referred to as 'man in a hole'.   

[Alan Baker]

Surprised nobody has mentioned Mike Blash, and how he came to be Herbie...........

[d j fox]

It's been covered before but I always liked Mike Hailwood's description of "Mad Ronald" Peterson

There's also Aussie V8 Supercar Ford Racer Mark Winterbottom-- known to all as "Frosty"

[nexfast]

Derek "ding-dong" Bell comes to mind

[Allen Brown]

There are some that we take for granted of course, such as Gianclaudio 'Clay' Regazzoni, Ernesto 'Tino' Brambilla, and Tommy 'Slim' Borgudd.  Has Anthony 'Bubbles' Horsley been mentioned yet?  

[Allen Brown]

And team bosses of course.  Ken Tyrrell was Chopper.  I recall that Frank Williams also had a nickname in the pre-WGPE days

[AAGR]

Have we mentioned 'Monza Gorilla' for Brambilla yet ?

 

Or 'Quick Vic'', for Vic Elford ?

 

[RS250]

Admirable restraint there Allen......
In a similar vein, James younger brother David Hunt had a good one in his Cellnet F3 days......

[GMACKIE]

Norm "Stormin' Norman" Beechey.

[chr1s]

Carlos "Lole" Reutemann

[Ray Bell]

Originally posted by d j fox
.....There's also Aussie V8 Supercar Ford Racer Mark Winterbottom-- known to all as "Frosty"

I just hope this doesn't deteriorate into a list of those fake nicknames invented by Mike Raymond in the early V8 Supercar days...

Going back a bit further, "Cowangie Kid" has been mentioned for Larry Perkins. I'm not sure, but I think that was a name he adopted for himself, it was certainly painted on his helmet.

A common nickname for him was "Larrikin".

"Unstable" was Geoff Sykes' (privately uttered) nickname for Mike Kable.

As Norm Beechey has been mentioned, in the Peter Brock circle of friends of the mid-sixties he was known as "Splawfoot"; Bob Jane was known (very appropriately) as "Surly One".

[Ray Bell]

Some people would readily identify this one:

"Haberfield Fats".

As a clue, he was the brother of "Likeable Leo"...

[Richard Worboys]

Some people would readily identify this one:

"Haberfield Fats".

As a clue, he was the brother of "Likeable Leo"...

And referred to himself as "Big fat round & bulky"