Can anyone give me any information about this driver? Apparently he used to run a Lotus-Brabham-BMW (?) in about 1966-7, but was killed testing an F2 car at Silverstone in about 1968. Anyone help?
Chris Williams
Started by
Gary C
, Oct 17 2001 18:41
5 replies to this topic
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#2
Felix Muelas
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Posted 17 October 2001 - 19:50
Gary,
With the invaluable help of the unpublished work of my friend Jose Luis Otero...
Chris WILLIAMS (1941 - 1969)
A brilliant racing driver that shone in F3 (he won, in 1967 with his Brabham BT21 the meetings at Oulton Park, Schleiz and Ingliston), to then upgrade to F2, driving some races in 1968 with a Lola-Ford.
Generally perceived as an experimented an secure driver, Chris died at the wheel of a F2 Merlyn on Thursday 26 March 1969 whilst testing the car at Silverstone, with a view of the opening race of the season, to be held at Thruxton.
He spun whilst cornering at Becketts and the car ended up crashing sideways so violently that poor Chris died on the spot.
Chris Williams was born in India in 1941, had raced in minor rallies before swapping to the closed tracks, at the wheel of a Lotus Seven. After this car he raced a BMW-engined Lotus 23 and then jumped to F3. During 1966 he obtained no less than four second places -one of them at the I Gran Premio de Barcelona/IV Trofeo Juan Jover, that was won by the Lola T60 driven by Mike Beckwith- those results being instrumental in his decission to race the whole 1967 F3 season.
As you will expect no less, a pair of pictures are available of both the man on the podium and driving a F3 car.
Felix
With the invaluable help of the unpublished work of my friend Jose Luis Otero...
Chris WILLIAMS (1941 - 1969)
A brilliant racing driver that shone in F3 (he won, in 1967 with his Brabham BT21 the meetings at Oulton Park, Schleiz and Ingliston), to then upgrade to F2, driving some races in 1968 with a Lola-Ford.
Generally perceived as an experimented an secure driver, Chris died at the wheel of a F2 Merlyn on Thursday 26 March 1969 whilst testing the car at Silverstone, with a view of the opening race of the season, to be held at Thruxton.
He spun whilst cornering at Becketts and the car ended up crashing sideways so violently that poor Chris died on the spot.
Chris Williams was born in India in 1941, had raced in minor rallies before swapping to the closed tracks, at the wheel of a Lotus Seven. After this car he raced a BMW-engined Lotus 23 and then jumped to F3. During 1966 he obtained no less than four second places -one of them at the I Gran Premio de Barcelona/IV Trofeo Juan Jover, that was won by the Lola T60 driven by Mike Beckwith- those results being instrumental in his decission to race the whole 1967 F3 season.
As you will expect no less, a pair of pictures are available of both the man on the podium and driving a F3 car.
Felix
#3
Gary C
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Posted 17 October 2001 - 20:02
Fantastic Felix! Tell me, do you have any other info on the BMW engined Lotus 23? Any ideas what happened to it? A friend of mine has said that he thought it might have been listed as a Lotus-Brabham-BMW, don't know why though.
#5
Felix Muelas
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- 1,216 posts
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Posted 05 November 2001 - 20:35
Gary,
I found this 1966 article by Paul Watson in a Sports Car magazine. I think you will enjoy knowing early details about Chris and his whereabouts. At least I tried...well, it´s a bit sad, let´s be honest.
It takes considerable courage, in these days of "judge a man by his degree", to chuck-up university for something as chancy as motor racing; but that's how Chris Williams first entered motor sport six seasons ago. After a hard struggle that would have discouraged more than one hopeful, Chris has finally emerged as one of this country's most promising single-seater drivers of the year—a model of consistency and style.
Born 26 years ago in Assam, India, of a military family, Chris was educated in England at Cheltenham before winning a scholarship to Oriel College, Oxford to read engineering.
However, his ability at school was not, regrettably, repeated at university, for during his stay at the varsity he met one John Brown of rally fame, and at once developed a fanatical interest in motor sport. Together they took up rallying (Chris' guardian forbade racing until he was 21), and with the occasional inclusion of Brian Culcheth enjoyed some minor success with a Mark I Sprite.
At 21 he was still at Oxford, but academically things were not going well: his mind was not on his work. and although he passed his preliminaries, he little relished the idea of more study and probably years of further slog before he could enjoy his burning ambition in life—to race.
On coming of age, plus a few days, he took the plunge, sent a letter of resignation to his tutor, and set about modifying his Sprite to Sebring specification.
It was in 1961 that 'the world' first saw the name of Chris Williams in a race programme, but he wasn't in the results sheets much, and by July of the following season had changed the Sprite for a 1,500 cc Martin-Ford engined Lotus 23. Unfortunately, although he won four races with the car. he could barely stay with the smaller 1100s.
Being of the opinion that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, Chris fitted an 1100 engine for 1963, and at once began bringing home the bacon. Going from strength to strength, he won at least ten races and was placed in virtually all the others, making it, on number of wins, his most successful season yet, although the competition these days is much more severe.
A 1,600 cc Lotus 23B twin-cam came next, on paper a real winner. But this was the first year of the Brabham BT8— probably one of the finest sports-racing cars ever built—and poor Chris wallowed for most of the season in their wake, giving away 400 cc and only picking up a handful of wins.
Over the winter of '64-'65, Chris dreamed of his own BT8, but the bank manager hadn't the same romanticism, so when the day of decision came it was back to the 23B, but with a special body by Peel's of Kingston and a BMW 1800 engine enlarged to 2 litres. The car was, frankly, a bit of a 'bitza', but although suffering from the presence of Denny Hulme and the Sid Taylor BT8, Chris usually kept his end up. at least until retirement, which came rather too regularly with this car.
By January 1966 Chris had spent a dreadful amount of money on motor racing, a garage had been opened in Shere, near Guildford, and a wife arrived as an extra mouth to feed. From now on, either his motor racing was going to have to pay for itself, or if not then he had to stop. With this in mind, he ordered a brand-new Formula 3 Brabham, complete with Ford-Cosworth engine, and later in the season a spare mill, too.
Sparing little expense, he gathered together a team consisting of his faithful mechanic and friend Dave Wilson (one of the best in the business), his wife Molly to handle the paper work when abroad and keep things ship-shape, skilled mechanics Deryck Cook and Peter Clare to help Dave Wilson with engine and chassis rebuilds and an agent to look after entries, starting money and general publicity.
The money was well spent, and with Chris driving on top of his form, and against works supported cars from Lotus and Brabham, not to mention Matra, Alpine and de Sanctis, the Chris Williams Racing equipe have been placed in the first six on practically every occasion, with only the minimum of retirements. Second places have been won at Pau, Barcelona, Chimay and Oporto, with thirds at Cascais, Crystal Palace and the recent European F3 Championship at Brands Hatch where, incidentally, he was the first truly private entry home.
For next year, Chris will definitely continue in Formula 3, but would dearly like the opportunity of racing for a works or leading private team—which surely he deserves? Looking further ahead, he hopes to graduate to Formula 2 and, who knows, perhaps F1, for he sincerely believes that the best way to reach the top is through
formula racing.
Always ready to praise the other person rather than himself, this shy and retiring driver, with a name for quietly getting on with the job in hand, and with a skill that comes from complete dedication to the sport, must be a likely candidate for the top—that is if 1966 is anything to go by.
Felix
I found this 1966 article by Paul Watson in a Sports Car magazine. I think you will enjoy knowing early details about Chris and his whereabouts. At least I tried...well, it´s a bit sad, let´s be honest.
It takes considerable courage, in these days of "judge a man by his degree", to chuck-up university for something as chancy as motor racing; but that's how Chris Williams first entered motor sport six seasons ago. After a hard struggle that would have discouraged more than one hopeful, Chris has finally emerged as one of this country's most promising single-seater drivers of the year—a model of consistency and style.
Born 26 years ago in Assam, India, of a military family, Chris was educated in England at Cheltenham before winning a scholarship to Oriel College, Oxford to read engineering.
However, his ability at school was not, regrettably, repeated at university, for during his stay at the varsity he met one John Brown of rally fame, and at once developed a fanatical interest in motor sport. Together they took up rallying (Chris' guardian forbade racing until he was 21), and with the occasional inclusion of Brian Culcheth enjoyed some minor success with a Mark I Sprite.
At 21 he was still at Oxford, but academically things were not going well: his mind was not on his work. and although he passed his preliminaries, he little relished the idea of more study and probably years of further slog before he could enjoy his burning ambition in life—to race.
On coming of age, plus a few days, he took the plunge, sent a letter of resignation to his tutor, and set about modifying his Sprite to Sebring specification.
It was in 1961 that 'the world' first saw the name of Chris Williams in a race programme, but he wasn't in the results sheets much, and by July of the following season had changed the Sprite for a 1,500 cc Martin-Ford engined Lotus 23. Unfortunately, although he won four races with the car. he could barely stay with the smaller 1100s.
Being of the opinion that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, Chris fitted an 1100 engine for 1963, and at once began bringing home the bacon. Going from strength to strength, he won at least ten races and was placed in virtually all the others, making it, on number of wins, his most successful season yet, although the competition these days is much more severe.
A 1,600 cc Lotus 23B twin-cam came next, on paper a real winner. But this was the first year of the Brabham BT8— probably one of the finest sports-racing cars ever built—and poor Chris wallowed for most of the season in their wake, giving away 400 cc and only picking up a handful of wins.
Over the winter of '64-'65, Chris dreamed of his own BT8, but the bank manager hadn't the same romanticism, so when the day of decision came it was back to the 23B, but with a special body by Peel's of Kingston and a BMW 1800 engine enlarged to 2 litres. The car was, frankly, a bit of a 'bitza', but although suffering from the presence of Denny Hulme and the Sid Taylor BT8, Chris usually kept his end up. at least until retirement, which came rather too regularly with this car.
By January 1966 Chris had spent a dreadful amount of money on motor racing, a garage had been opened in Shere, near Guildford, and a wife arrived as an extra mouth to feed. From now on, either his motor racing was going to have to pay for itself, or if not then he had to stop. With this in mind, he ordered a brand-new Formula 3 Brabham, complete with Ford-Cosworth engine, and later in the season a spare mill, too.
Sparing little expense, he gathered together a team consisting of his faithful mechanic and friend Dave Wilson (one of the best in the business), his wife Molly to handle the paper work when abroad and keep things ship-shape, skilled mechanics Deryck Cook and Peter Clare to help Dave Wilson with engine and chassis rebuilds and an agent to look after entries, starting money and general publicity.
The money was well spent, and with Chris driving on top of his form, and against works supported cars from Lotus and Brabham, not to mention Matra, Alpine and de Sanctis, the Chris Williams Racing equipe have been placed in the first six on practically every occasion, with only the minimum of retirements. Second places have been won at Pau, Barcelona, Chimay and Oporto, with thirds at Cascais, Crystal Palace and the recent European F3 Championship at Brands Hatch where, incidentally, he was the first truly private entry home.
For next year, Chris will definitely continue in Formula 3, but would dearly like the opportunity of racing for a works or leading private team—which surely he deserves? Looking further ahead, he hopes to graduate to Formula 2 and, who knows, perhaps F1, for he sincerely believes that the best way to reach the top is through
formula racing.
Always ready to praise the other person rather than himself, this shy and retiring driver, with a name for quietly getting on with the job in hand, and with a skill that comes from complete dedication to the sport, must be a likely candidate for the top—that is if 1966 is anything to go by.
Felix
#6
leegle
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- 499 posts
- Joined: June 01
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Posted 05 November 2001 - 23:43
Originally posted by Gary C
Fantastic Felix! Tell me, do you have any other info on the BMW engined Lotus 23? Any ideas what happened to it? A friend of mine has said that he thought it might have been listed as a Lotus-Brabham-BMW, don't know why though.
The conclusion of another thread was that it had some suspension from a Brabham on it.;)
