Andrew Hedges

Andrew Peter Hedges (born September 16, 1935 in Abington , † October 1, 2005 in Bahrain ) was a British racing car driver .

Activities beyond motorsport

Andrew Hedges was the son of a local butcher . He went to private schools during the Second World War and studied in Cambridge after the war . After completing his studies, he served for some time in a Household Cavalry in the British Army .

In the 1950s he worked as a vehicle dealer in London and then lived in Switzerland for a few years . There he came into contact with bobsleigh and was a member of the British bobsleigh team at the 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck . After the end of his racing career, he worked as an expert in the development of raw material deposits in Asia and the Middle East until his death .

Career in motorsport

Hedges competed sporadically as early as the late 1950s and began a serious racing career in 1960. He bought an Austin-Healey Sebring Sprite and took it to the start in the 1000 km race at the Nürburgring and the 1000 km race in Paris . He celebrated his first race win at the Coupes de Paris at the Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry .

These first successes earned him a works contract with MG , the automobile manufacturer in his hometown, in 1962 . Until the end of his career in 1973, he remained connected to the British sports car manufacturer and contested the majority of his races with MG racing versions. In 1962 he also made his debut at the 12-hour race at Sebring and in 1964 at Le Mans . In Le Mans, the best place in the final classification was eleventh in 1965 , with Paddy Hopkirk as a partner in the MG MGB hardtop . He finished tenth in Sebring in 1968 and celebrated a class win in 1965 . He also succeeded in doing this in 1964 in the 1000 km race on the Nürburgring .

In 1969 he was the driver of the ultimately unsuccessful Unipower project and tried his hand at the Ford GT40 in 1970 . After finishing 18th at the Targa Florio in 1973 , he retired from active racing.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1964	British Motor Corporation	MG MGB hardtop	Paddy Hopkirk	Rank 19
1965	British Motor Corporation	MG MGB hardtop	Paddy Hopkirk	Rank 11
1966	Donald Healey Motor Company	Austin-Healey Sprite Le Mans	Paddy Hopkirk	failure	Cylinder head gasket
1967	Donald Healey Motor Company	Austin Healey Sprite Le Mans	Clive Baker	Rank 15
1968	Donald Healey Motor Company	Healey SR	Clive Baker	failure	Clutch damage
1970	Donald Healey Motor Company	Healey SR XR37	Roger Enever	failure	Ignition damage

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1962	Ecurie Safety Fast	MGA	Jack Sears	Rank 16
1965	British Motor Corp.	MG Midget	Roger Mac	Rank 26 and class win
1966	British Motor Co	MGB	Paddy Hopkirk	failure	Connecting rod
1967	British Motor Corp.	MGB GT	Paddy Hopkirk	Rank 11
1968	British Motor Company	MGC	Paddy Hopkirk	Rank 10
1969	British Leyland Motor Corporation	MGC GT	Paddy Hopkirk	Rank 15
1970	Trevor Graham	Ford GT40	Piers Forester	failure	Engine failure

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12	13	14th	15th	16	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd
1961	Andrew Hedges	Austin-Healey Sprite	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	PES
					32
1962	Ecurie Safety Fast	MGA	DAY	SEB	SEB	MAY	TAR	BER	ONLY	LEM	TAV	CCA	RTT	ONLY	BRI	BRI	PAR
					16
1963	Richard Jacobs BMC	MG Midget MGB	DAY	SEB	SEB	TAR	SPA	MAY	ONLY	CON	ROS	LEM	MON	WIS	TAV	FRE	CCE	RTT	OVI	ONLY	MON	MON	TDF	BRI
									13									15th					DNF
1964	Dick Jacobs BMC Andrew Hedges	MG Midget MGB Aston Martin DB4	DAY	SEB	TAR	MON	SPA	CON	ONLY	ROS	LEM	REI	FRE	CCE	RTT	SIM	ONLY	MON	TDF	BRI	BRI	PAR
									24		19th						4th		DNF			DNF
1965	BMC	MG Midget	DAY	SEB	BOL	MON	MON	RTT	TAR	SPA	ONLY	MUG	ROS	LEM	REI	BOZ	FRE	CCE	OVI	ONLY	BRI	BRI
				26th					11		27			11
1966	BMC Julian Vernaeve Healey engine	MGB Austin-Healey Sprite	DAY	SEB	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	MUG	CCE	HOK	SIM	ONLY	ZEL
				DNF		19th	12	DNF	DNF	11
1967	BMC Healey engine	MGB Austin-Healey Sprite	DAY	SEB	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	HOK	MUG	BRH	CCE	ZEL	OVI	ONLY
				11			DNF		15th		27
1968	BMC Fawdington & Ramsay Healey engine	MGC Lotus 47 MGB Healey SR	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	ONLY	SPA	WAT	ZEL	LEM
				10	13		12					DNF
1969	Leyland	MGC	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	WAT	ZEL
				15th
1970	Trevor Graham Healey engine	Ford GT40 Healey SR XR37	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	WAT	ZEL
			DNF	DNF							DNF
1973	Comstock	Porsche Carrera RS	DAY	VAL	DIJ	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	ZEL	WAT
								18th

literature

• Christian Moity, Jean-Marc Teissèdre, Alain Bienvenu: 24 heures du Mans, 1923–1992. Éditions d'Art, Besançon 1992, ISBN 2-909-413-06-3 .

Web links

• Andrew Hedges at Racing Sports Cars
• Information on Andrew Hedges
• Andrew Hedges in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ^ Coupes de Paris 1960
2. ^ Targa Florio 1973