National Driver Thread 1: England

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amp88

amp88

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After seeing the positive responses to the Interest Check thread I've decided to go ahead and put the contest into motion. The first thread is for English drivers.

Any English driver is eligible for entry. Dead or alive, past or present, any form of racing.

I've gone for Stirling Moss. One of the best Formula One drivers never to win the World Championship, a master of many different kinds of cars and circuits and a true gentleman.
 
Damn you beat me to the punch with Moss, so I'm going for my back-up plan, and one worthy of a nomination in his own right.

Nigel Mansell.

With his own brand of very physical driving style he flew the flag in the 80's and 90's. always putting 100% into every drive. Also the only person to be the F1 and CART champion at the same time.

Still a driver with the desire to win as witnessed in his GP Masters performances.


My second nomination goes to John Surtess, quite simply for being the only man to have been World Champion on both two and four wheels.


Regards

Scaff
 
I have two nominations - both F1 drivers yet both polar opposites:

Boy Racer James "Hunt the Shunt"

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And the true gentleman Graham Hill

Graham_Hill_tn.jpg
 
Im gonna go with Damon Hill. Why? Because im too young to know everything about the others:p..

d_pic_win8.jpg


And he was the world champion when i started watching F1, he never gave up and even won in a Jordan! From when i started watching F1 to when he retired he was my faviroute driver, commited, skilled and as i said, never gave up.
 
I was going to go with Moss too.

Both Hills were, whilst never being the very best of drivers, determined and never gave up. I don't mean anything bad by that. I think they both admitted it. And doesn't Graham Hill look exactly like you'd imagine a racing driver to look like?
 
Not going purely for the sympathy vote, but rather because I think he was a damn good driver, I nominate Richard Burns. He became England's only World Rally Champion in 2001, and was in the running going into the last round in 2003. He was busy winning when I first started watching rallying and he encouraged my interest in the sport, in the same way Damon Hill did for me in Formula 1.

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I also reckon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Wheldon is worth a shout too. Most wins in an IRL season in 2005, including the Indy 500; also won the Daytona 24hrs this year with Casey Mears and Scott Dixon.

Indy_Brit_Flag_Borg.jpg
 
Nominations for England will close tonight at midnight GMT or tomorrow afternoon (depending on if I'm in the house at the time or not).
 
Everyone i would have picked is up there.

Would it not have been better to go for Brittish Driver? Or are we going to have Best Scottish, Welsh etc as well?
 
Oooohh I have time to throw in another quick one

Derek Bell MBE

While a sucessful open-wheel driver in his early years it was in sport car racing that Bell found his niche, winning the the World Sportscar Championship twice, the 24hrs of Daytona three times and Le Mans five times.

Should be more than enough for a nomination.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derek_Bell_(auto_racer)



We have however missed out the greatest (maybe English) driver of all time.

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Thats right The Stig (who was Perry McCarthy for the first two series - so he was English for a while).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stig

Ta

Scaff
 
So many english drivers to choose from, mostly from different eras making it especially hard to draw a suitable conclusion.

Moss, Mansell, Surtees, Hill (Jr or Snr), Bell, Burns, Hunt all great drivers...

...but i'm going to go for someone slightly left-of-field - just to play devil's advocate.

Gerry Marshall
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerry_Marshall

Not strictly an international, or even full time professional driver, but his record and reputation are as good as anyones. In equal machinery, as long as he could fit in it, he'd be as quick as any of the above.
 
TheCracker
So many english drivers to choose from, mostly from different eras making it especially hard to draw a suitable conclusion.

Moss, Mansell, Surtees, Hill (Jr or Snr), Bell, Burns, Hunt all great drivers...

...but i'm going to go for someone slightly left-of-field - just to play devil's advocate.

Gerry Marshall
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerry_Marshall

Not strictly an international, or even full time professional driver, but his record and reputation are as good as anyones. In equal machinery, as long as he could fit in it, he'd be as quick as any of the above.
Click to expand...

Thats who my dad would vote for in a heartbeat, he used to go and watch him racing the Bertha's.

Good nomination.

Scaff
 
I'm adding a second nomination for Martin Brundle. One of the only drivers to give Ayrton Senna a run for his money (in F3) and perhaps one of the unluckiest drivers when it came to getting a seat. When he finally got into one of the big teams (McLaren in 1994) they had the ill-fated Peugeot engines, which enjoyed grenading themselves at regular intervals.
 

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