Macklin, Lance

I heard this morning that Lance Macklin died over the weekend, at the age of 82. I'm dreadfully sorry to hear this, he was a gentle soul, and cruelly served by the hand dealt to him.

His name may not be terribly familiar to some, but in the early fifties, he was one of Britain's bright motor racing talents. Until June 1955, when he became inadvertently involved in the Le Mans disaster, the worst tragedy ever to befall the sport of motor racing.

While now is not the moment to trawl through the various blames that were bandied around as to the cause of the crash, it is clear to most that Lance was the least culpable of all involved. By a sad quirk of fate, his car with its sloping tail was in just the position that made him into a ramp for a crashing Mercedes. And the rest is sorry history.

By another sad quirk of fate, he was witness to another ghastly accident a bare three months later, and it was at that time that he turned his back on motor racing forever.

Every time I heard him speak, I heard a mournful, melancholy man. A man haunted by the sights he had witnessed, and with the insidious knowledge that he was in some part involved. Sometimes he was bitter, cynical, in his dark moments suggesting that the horror was what the crowd had hoped to see.

And now he's gone. And I hope that now, after all this time, Lance Macklin can find peace.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,60-403105,00.html (This seems to have disappeared now!-JT)

I saw that as well Tim. A very sad fate for a person to be faced with. I gather that he raced for fun, not money. He did achieve quite a few results but will always be remembered for that fateful day in 1955 when a seeming racing incident turned into disaster.

Simon

thanks Tim for putting up the link to that story, was good to get some more information about his life other than Lemans and him being unfortunately at the wrong place at the wrong time.

Sad to here that, I never realised he turned his back on motorsport soon after Le mans.

Thanks for putting that up Tim.

In the book 'Death Race Le Mans 1955" by Mark Kahn, there's a very detailed biography of Lance. I seem to remember there was 'family money' from his father, who was into weapons manufacturing - some sort of machine gun and motor torpedo boats seems to ring a bell. Incidentally, apart from the title, that book is well worth a read and comes at the '55 Le Mans tragedy from an interesting angle.

The Motor Torpedo Boat company was called Fairmile Marine and was owned by Noel Macklin, Lance's father. Noel Macklin also set up both Railton and Invicta cars.

Lance Macklin was a boyhood hero of mine and I recall how thrilled I was to see him win the 1952 International Trophy race, the first meeting that I attended. I spoke to Lance in the Silverstone paddock after the 1955 Trophy meeting where, despite preparing to leave the circuit in his Austin-Healey he still spared the time to chat with us bleary eyed, sunburned youngsters who had cycled up from London the night before. In contrast to us, Lance was immmaculate in his light blue racing overalls, brown suede jacket and tinted glasses. When I suggested that Vanwall would be looking for a driver for Monaco after Ken Wharton's fiery crash Lance laughed and said that Mr Vandervell didnt approve of racing drivers being married. Later that year I saw him drive the Stirling Moss 250F in the British Grand prix at Aintree and the works HWM-Jaguar in the Goodwood 9 hours in which he finished 4th with the ill fated young Billl Smith. I believe Lance's last race was the 1956 Sebring 12 hours in which he shared an Austin-Healey with Archie Scott-Brown. I remember Lance Macklin as being a fine driver and a nice man.