Anglo-Swiss Racing

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Under the name Anglo-Swiss Racing , the British car racing drivers Piers Courage and Jonathan Williams registered two racing cars in numerous British and continental European Formula 3 competitions in 1964 . The name suggested the existence of a team that actually didn't exist. Anglo-Swiss Racing has a certain importance in the history of motorsport, as the later Formula 1 team boss Frank Williams , who was close friends with both racing drivers, worked as a mechanic for Courage and Williams at some races.

Anglo-Swiss Racing had no relationship with the Anglo-Suisse Racing Team of the Swedish racing driver Joakim Bonnier .

History of origin

Piers Courage

Formula 3, launched in 1964, attracted young racing drivers across Europe as a junior class, many of whom had little experience with monoposto vehicles. The established British racing car manufacturers supplied newly developed vehicles for Formula 3. They mostly had their own works teams with drivers who were employed by them, and independent teams also competed with customer cars. Drivers who were not tied to a factory team or a customer team could take part in the races as so-called private entries . In these cases, the entry was usually made under the names of the respective drivers.

One of the drivers who drove their first single-seaters in Formula 3 in 1964 was the British entrepreneur's son Piers Courage. His friend, Jonathan Williams, had slightly more experience with open single-seaters. Courage and Williams were not tied to a team in 1964, but organized the races themselves that year. In order to convey greater professionalism and "to impress the organizers," they avoided registering as private entries under their own names. Instead, the reports were made under the name Anglo-Swiss Racing, which should have its headquarters in Lausanne on Lake Geneva . In fact, there was no such team, either legally or organizationally; In particular, both racing drivers had their own budgets, which they managed separately. The use of the part of the name “Swiss” (for Switzerland) should convey the impression of economic solidity. The only reference to Lausanne and Switzerland was actually a garage that belonged to a friend of Courage and Williams and that the two racing drivers only visited a few times during the year. In reality, both of them, often with the support of Frank Williams, who is not related to Jonathan Williams, organized their races from a racing truck that also served them as living quarters during the season.

After the end of the 1964 season, there were no more reports from the Anglo-Swiss Racing Team. Courage and Williams drove for the Charles Lucas Engineering team in 1965 and soon after switched to higher racing classes.

Races

Lotus replicas

Cockpit of a Lotus 22 (largely identical to the Lotus 31)

In 1964, Courage and Williams were unable to buy any new Formula 3 cars due to insufficient funding. Instead, they had two cars built by a freelance mechanic that used the chassis of the Lotus 31 and purchased technical components from different origins. According to Courage, these self-made vehicles cost less than a third of the price of a new Lotus car. Regardless of their actual origin, Courage and Williams cars are usually listed in the statistics as Lotus 31 or Lotus 22 ; some sources also speak of a Lotus 31 clone. To give the impression of togetherness, Courage and Williams cars were painted identically.

Continental European races

Courage and Williams focused on continental European races in 1964 because the entry fee here was ten to twenty times higher than in Great Britain. From April to October 1964, Courage drove a total of 23 Formula 3 races for Anglo-Swiss, mostly in Italy , but also in the Federal Republic of Germany and the GDR .

The Anglo-Swiss Racing Team's first entry was for the 4th prize in Vienna , an airfield race that was held in Aspern on April 12, 1964 . Williams did not appear, but Courage went to the start. He finished the race sixth out of a total of nine drivers. Courage achieved his best result for Anglo-Swiss Racing at the Coupe Internationale de Vitesse in Reims-Gueux , which he finished behind Jackie Stewart in the works-supported Cooper of the Tyrrell Racing Organization and Lucien Bianchi in the works Alpine as third overall and also as the best privateer.

Jonathan Williams drove three races in Great Britain and 12 races in continental Europe in 1964. He achieved his best results in the second half of the season. Williams finished second in both the Astley Trophy at the Snetterton Motor Racing Circuit and the Tyrolean Prize in Innsbruck. There were also third places in the Bernauer Schleifenrennen in the GDR and in the Norbury Trophy in Crystal Palace .

literature

  • Adam Cooper: Piers Courage. Last of the gentleman racers . Haines Publishing, Sparkford 2010, ISBN 978-1-84425-863-5 .
  • Maurice Hamilton: Frank Williams. The inside story of the man behind Williams-Renault . London 1998, ISBN 0-333-71716-3 .
  • Alan Henry: Looking back on Piers Courage . In: Motor Sport. Issue 11/1984, pp. 1312-1314.

Remarks

  1. ↑ The Lotus 31 was technically a further development of the Lotus 22; see. David Hodges: Racing cars from A – Z after 1945. Stuttgart 1993, ISBN 3-613-01477-7 , p. 146.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Maurice Hamilton: Frank Williams. The inside story of the man behind Williams-Renault . London 1998, ISBN 0-333-71716-3 , p. 15.
  2. ^ Adam Cooper: CanAm-Star and Formula One Driver Jonathan Williams dies 71. www.autoweek.com, September 1, 2004, accessed July 6, 2016 .
  3. ^ Adam Cooper: Piers Courage. Last of the gentleman racers . Haines Publishing, Sparkford 2010, ISBN 978-1-84425-863-5 , p. 65.
  4. ^ A b Adam Cooper: Piers Courage. Last of the gentleman racers . Haines Publishing, Sparkford 2010, ISBN 978-1-84425-863-5 , p. 64.
  5. ↑ Statistics of the IVth Prize of Vienna 1964 on the website www.formula2.net (accessed on July 6, 2016).
  6. ↑ Statistics of the Coupe de Vitesse 1964 on the website www.formula2.net (accessed on July 5, 2016).