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Mike HawthornMike Hawthorn's Fatal Crash: On the 22nd of January 1959 John Michael (Mike) Hawthorn, Britain's first World Champion Driver, was killed after losing control of his Jaguar whilst driving along the A3 Guildford by-pass.To this day controversy surrounds the cause of his crash. The hand throttle he had fitted to the car stuck open - the car was fitted with experimental Dunlop tyres that were unsuitable for the wet conditions. Maybe in the end he was just going too fast and lost it.By chance he had come across an acquaintance just prior to the crash, the famous entrant of that time, Rob Walker. Walker was driving a Mercedes-Benz 300SL, which must have been like a red rag to a bull for Mike, in those perhaps more patriotic times. Hawthorn had spent much of his racing life driving his beloved Jaguars against all types of foreign cars on the race tracks of the world. As he saw the car up ahead and recognized its driver, no doubt it was just another opportunity for his specially modified Jaguar to uphold British "honour" one more time.Hawthorn accelerated past the Mercedes and gave its driver a cheery wave. They were now doing over 100 MPH going slightly down-hill on what was a wet and narrow road. As the Jaguar entered a right hand bend, the rear end broke away and clipped the kerb spinning it through 180 degrees. It continued backwards for an instant before clipping a traffic island and then ended its journey sideways against a tree.Mike Hawthorn was found in the Jaguar's back seat, alive but dying.In the days that followed, thousands came to drive quietly past the spot where Hawthorn had died, hundreds of wreaths were laid to mark the spot where a racing legend's luck had finally run out. Mike's own garage business was the Tourist Trophy Garage in East Street, Farnham from where he sold and serviced Jaguar, Ferrari, Riley and other marques until his death in 1959. One garage employee vividly recalls lying in bed during the late evening at him home up Folly Hill. He would listen to Mike returning from his Frensham Ponds Hotel watering hole some 6 miles away in the Mk1. Brian Taylor says "VDU didn’t have a straight through exhaust; initially it had XK 120 silencers on it. But the note was very distinctive — where we lived down below his cottage in Folly Hill, I would lay in bed and I could hear every gear change as Mike drove back late at night from the Frensham Ponds Hotel, which was a fair bit away, and in Farnham until it died down. Then up Castle Street I could hear him accelerate and I knew exactly where he was on each bend, from the note of the Jaguar. He would scream along...". PC Tony Keefe at the scene Notes made at the time The scene then and now Click on picture for more Click photo to read his entry in the Hall of Fame http://www.mike-hawthorn.org.uk/handt.php http://www.formula1.com/teams_and_drivers/hall_of_fame/471/Surrey Constabulary 'For those who served' 1851 - 1992 Editor: Robert Bartlett. Website Design & Maintenance: Denis Turner. This website was created using MAGIX Website Maker You will need the current version of Adobe Flash Player to view it. Further information can be found at magix.info - the Multimedia Knowledge Community by MAGIX, the market leader for music, photo, and video software. |