Vic Elford

Victor Henry Elford (10 June 1935 – 13 March 2022) was an English sports car racing, rallying, and Formula One driver. He participated in 13 World Championship F1 Grands Prix, debuting on 7 July 1968. He scored a total of 8 championship points.

Vic Elford

Elford in 2010 at Watkins Glen
Born	(1935-06-10)10 June 1935 Peckham, London, England
Died	13 March 2022(2022-03-13) (aged 86)
Formula One World Championship career
Nationality	British
Active years	1968–1969, 1971
Teams	Cooper, McLaren, BRM
Entries	13
Championships	0
Wins	0
Podiums	0
Career points	8
Pole positions	0
Fastest laps	0
First entry	1968 French Grand Prix
Last entry	1971 German Grand Prix

24 Hours of Le Mans career
Years	1967–1974, 1983
Teams	Porsche System Porsche Salzburg Martini Racing Autodelta SpA Automobiles Charles Pozzi Robert Buchet Rondeau
Best finish	6th (1973)
Class wins	2 (1967, 1973)

Nicknamed "Quick Vic" by his peers Elford was mainly a famous sports car competitor as well as a successful rally driver, associated often with Porsche.

Career

Elford started as a co-driver, partnering David Seigle-Morris in a Triumph TR3A. By 1961 he had acquired the confidence to see himself as a potential driver in his own right: the confidence was not shared by team manager Marcus Chambers, and Elford purchased a race-tuned Mini which he rallied as a privateer with limited success before selling it at the end of the season. 1962 found him achieving success in several UK rallies driving a factory sponsored DKW Junior. The next year saw a return to Triumph and Elford achieved impressively fast times with the Triumph TR4s, although reliability of the cars in Elford's hands was disappointing, and the following year Elford switched to Ford: this was the beginning of a successful three-year rallying stint with the Ford Cortinas.

In 1967 Elford was European rally champion in a works Porsche 911S. Among other victories he won the 1968 Rally Monte Carlo in a Porsche 911S and only a week later the 24 Hours of Daytona in a Porsche 907, Porsche's first ever overall win in a 24-hour race.

Winning the 1968 Targa Florio in this Porsche 907 with Umberto Maglioli.

Later that year, he also won the Targa Florio teamed with veteran Umberto Maglioli in a famous come-from-behind race after he lost 18 minutes in the first lap due to a tyre failure. Elford then entered the French Grand Prix and finished fourth in his first F1 race – a wet one, too.

By finishing the 1969 Monaco Grand Prix despite troubles, he became the only driver to do well in both famous events in Monte Carlo since Louis Chiron.

Racing in the World Sportscar Championship for Martini Racing against the mighty JWA Gulf team, he was clocked at over 380 km/h in the Porsche 917LH in practice for the 1971 24 Hours of Le Mans. He went on to win the 1971 12 Hours of Sebring in a Porsche 917K, as well as several 1000km Nürburgring races.

During the 1972 24 Hours of Le Mans, when he saw a burning Ferrari Daytona in front of him, Elford stopped in mid-race to save the driver. When opening the door, Elford found an empty cockpit, as the driver already had escaped. Elford then noticed the wreck of a Lola among the trees, with Jo Bonnier having been killed. Cameras caught the act and Elford was named Chevalier of the National Order of Merit by French President Georges Pompidou.

A Targa Florio, Sebring and Daytona winner, his favourite track was nonetheless the Nürburgring despite the disappointing results in his three F1 attempts there, of which the first two ended in lap 1 accidents. His two last GPs were at the Nürburgring. In addition to the 1000 km, Elford won some 500 km races there, winning a total of 6 major races. Only Rudolf Caracciola and Stirling Moss beat that record.

Elford lap records included: Targa Florio, Nürburgring, Daytona, Sebring, Norisring, Monza, Buenos Aires, Road Atlanta, Laguna Seca, Riverside and Le Mans.

On 4 February 1967 at Lydden Circuit, he won the first ever Rallycross event. Later that year he won the 84 Hour "Marathon de la Route" event at the Nürburgring, on the full 28 km long combined versions that was rarely used since the 1930s. Fellow pilots Hans Herrmann and Jochen Neerpasch preferred "the rally driver" to steer the Porsche 911 through the 7 hours long, four consecutive night turns in rainy and foggy conditions. The winning car was fitted with a semi-automatic Sportomatic transmission, as was another Porsche 911S entered by the factory team.

Elford in a Porsche 908/3, in practice for the 1971 1000km Nürburgring

Although he raced five years for Porsche, Elford also raced for Ford, Triumph, Lancia, Alfa-Romeo, Ferrari, Chaparral, Shadow, Cooper, Lola, Chevron, and Subaru. He also drove McLaren in F1 & CanAm, Chevrolet in TransAm.

Overseas, Elford was also racing in CanAm and the Daytona 500 of NASCAR.

On 25 January 2015, Elford received the 2015 Phil Hill Award from Road Racing Drivers Club. It was presented to him by club president Bobby Rahal.

Personal life

After retiring, Elford lived in South Florida in the United States. Elford died on 13 March 2022, at the age of 86. At the time of his death he had been suffering from cancer for roughly a year.

Racing record

Complete British Saloon Car Championship results

(key) (Races in bold indicate pole position; races in italics indicate fastest lap.)

Year	Team	Car	Class	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	Pos.	Pts	Class
1961	Don Moore	Morris Mini Minor	A	SNE	GOO	AIN	SIL	CRY	SIL	BRH	OUL ?	SNE			21st	6	8th
1967	AFN	Porsche 911	C	BRH 3	SNE Ret	SIL Ret	SIL 2	MAL	SIL 5	SIL 5	BRH 3	OUL 5†	BRH Ret		7th	40	1st
1968	Bill Bradley	Porsche 911 L	C	BRH 2	THR 17	SIL 3	CRY	MAL	BRH	SIL	CRO	OUL	BRH	BRH	14th	18	4th

† Events with 2 races staged for the different classes.

Complete Formula One World Championship results

Vic Elford in the cockpit of an incomplete McLaren M7B, prior to the 1969 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring

(key)

Year	Entrant	Chassis	Engine	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	WDC	Pts.
1968	Cooper Car Company	Cooper T86B	BRM P101 3.0 V12	RSA	ESP	MON	BEL	NED	FRA 4	GBR Ret	GER Ret	ITA Ret	CAN 5	USA Ret	MEX 8	18th	5
1969	Antique Automobiles Racing Team	Cooper T86	Maserati 10/F1 3.0 V12	RSA	ESP	MON 7										14th	3
		McLaren M7B	Ford Cosworth DFV 3.0 V8				NED 10	FRA 5	GBR 6	GER Ret	ITA	CAN	USA	MEX
1971	Yardley Team BRM	BRM P160	BRM P142 3.0 V12	RSA	ESP	MON	NED	FRA	GBR	GER 11	AUT	ITA	CAN	USA		NC	0

Complete 24 Hours of Le Mans results

Year	Team	Co-Drivers	Car	Class	Laps	Pos.	Class Pos.
1967	Porsche System Engineering	Ben Pon	Porsche 906K Carrera 6	S 2.0	327	7th	1st
1968	Porsche System Engineering	Gerhard Mitter	Porsche 908	S 3.0	111	DNF	DNF
1969	Porsche System Engineering	Richard Attwood	Porsche 917L	S 5.0	327	DNF	DNF
1970	Porsche KG Salzburg	Kurt Ahrens Jr.	Porsche 917L	S 5.0	225	DNF	DNF
1971	Martini Racing Team	Gérard Larrousse	Porsche 917LH	S 5.0	74	DNF	DNF
1972	Autodelta SpA	Helmut Marko	Alfa Romeo Tipo 33TT3	S 3.0	232	DNF	DNF
1973	Automobiles Charles Pozzi	Claude Ballot-Léna	Ferrari 365 GTB/4	GT 5.0	316	6th	1st
1974	Robert Buchet	Claude Ballot-Léna	Porsche 911 Carrera RSR	GT	117	DNF	DNF
1983	Automobiles Jean Rondeau	Joël Gouhier Anny-Charlotte Verney	Rondeau M379C	Gr. C	136	DNF	DNF

Bibliography

Elford has authored a number of books on the subject of motorsport:

• Porsche High Performance Driving Handbook ISBN 0-87938-849-8 (1994)
• Vic Elford: Reflections on a Golden Era in Motorsports ISBN 1-893618-52-8 (2005)

External links

• "The Official Web Site" of Vic Elford
• "Reflections on a golden era of motorsports" interview of Vic Elford