Johnny Claes

Johnny Claes

Nation:	Belgium
Automobile world championship
First start:	Great Britain Grand Prix 1950
Last start:	1955 Dutch Grand Prix
Constructors
1950  Ecurie Belge 1951 Ecurie Belge 1952 Ecurie Belge - Equipe Gordini - HWM - Vicomtesse de Walckiers 1953 Ecurie Belge - Maserati 1955 Stirling Moss Ltd - Equipe Nationale Belge
statistics
World Cup balance:	no World Cup placement
Starts Victories Poles SR 23 - - -
World Cup points :	-
Podiums :	-
Leadership laps :	-

John Octave Claes (born August 11, 1916 in London , † February 3, 1956 in Brussels ) was a Belgian jazz musician and racing car driver .

Live and act

Johnny Claes had a Scottish mother and a Belgian father. He spent his youth in England and received his education at Lord Williams School.

Claes received trumpet lessons from Nat Gonella in the early 1930s . He was initially active as a cornet player and trumpeter; In 1935 he became a professional musician and played in the Nest Club in London. In the summer of 1937 he was part of Coleman Hawkins' band in Holland . He later played with Gerry Moore and His Chicago Brethern as well as with Valaida Snow and Vic Lewis , with whom there were recordings in London between 1937 and 1939. Then he performed with Jack Kluger and His Swing Orchestra in Belgium. After returning to England he first played in the Boogie Woogie Club and in 1940 with Teddy Joyce. Then he founded his own big band, the Clay Pigeons , with which several tracks were recorded in 1941. The band included musicians such as Ronnie Scott , Tommy Pollard, Norman Stenfalt, Harry Hayes, Max Jones and Kenny Graham . Further recordings were made in 1942; In 1945 the band, which was then Tommy Whittle , played in the musical film George in Civvy Street .

When Claes had to take care of his family's business in Belgium after the end of the Second World War , he also belonged to the small group of gentlemen's drivers who were slowly starting to take up motorsport again in Europe. He made his debut in Grand Prix racing in 1948 at the wheel of his private Talbot , which, however, was used under the banner of the Ecurie Belge .

Although Claes could not achieve a single world championship point in 23 world championship races between 1950 and 1955, in the early 1950s he belonged to the top field of European racing drivers. He celebrated his success in the Grand Prix races that were not part of the world championship and in sports car races.

He achieved his first victory in a monoposto in 1950 at the Grand Prix des Frontières in Chimay . In 1951, Claes had a fatal accident while training for a race in San Remo when his Talbot raced into the crowd. One bystander was killed and three other people were seriously injured. In 1953 he won the Liège – Rome – Liège rally.

Claes competed three times in the 24 Hours of Le Mans . After a class win in 1954 in a works Porsche 550 , together with Pierre Stasse , he came third in the overall standings a year later. This time the partner was Jacques Swaters and the vehicle was a Jaguar D-Type from Ecurie Francorchamps.

In 1955, Claes fell seriously ill with tuberculosis and had to limit his racing activities. The great jazz lover, who stopped making music in the last few years of his life but ran his own club in England and wrote for Jazz Hot magazine, died in 1956 of a serious illness at the age of 39.

statistics

Statistics in the automobile world championship

general overview

season	team	chassis	engine	run	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	nice Race laps	Points	WM-Pos.
1950	Ecurie Belge	Talbot-Lago T26C	Talbot 4.5 L6	6th	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
1951	Ecurie Belge	Talbot-Lago T26C-DA	Talbot 4.5 L6	7th	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
1952	Equipe Gordini	Gordini T16	Gordini 2.0 L6	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
	Ecurie Belge	Simca-Gordini T15	Gordini 1.5 L4	2	-	-	-	-	-
	HW Motors	HWM 52	Alta 2.0 L4	1	-	-	-	-	-
1953	Ecurie Belge	Connaught Type A	Lea-Francis 2.0 L4	4th	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
	Officine Alfieri Maserati	Maserati A6GCM	Maserati 2.0 L6	1	-	-	-	-	-
1955	Equipe Nationale Belge	Ferrari 500 / Ferrari 625	Ferrari 2.5 L4	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
total				23	-	-	-	-	-	-

Single results

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9
1950
	11	7th		10	8th	DNF	DNF
1951
	13		7th	DNF	13	11	DNF	DNF
1952
			8th	DNF	14th	10		DNQ
1953
			DNF	DNF	12		DNF		DNF
1955
				DNS	11

Legend
colour	abbreviation	meaning
gold	-	victory
silver	-	2nd place
bronze	-	3rd place
green	-	Placement in the points
blue	-	Classified outside the point ranks
violet	DNF	Race not finished (did not finish)
	NC	not classified
red	DNQ	did not qualify
	DNPQ	failed in pre-qualification (did not pre-qualify)
black	DSQ	disqualified
White	DNS	not at the start (did not start)
	WD	withdrawn
Light Blue	PO	only participated in the training (practiced only)
	TD	Friday test driver
without	DNP	did not participate in the training (did not practice)
	INJ	injured or sick
	EX	excluded
	DNA	did not arrive
	C.	Race canceled
		no participation in the World Cup
other	P / bold	Pole position
	SR / italic	Fastest race lap
	*	not at the finish, but counted due to the distance covered
	()	Streak results
	underlined	Leader in the overall standings

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1951	Bill Spear	Ferrari 340 America Barchetta	Bill Spear	failure	Clutch damage
1954	Porsche KG	Porsche 550 Spyder	Pierre Stasse	Rank 12 and class win
1955	Ecurie Francorchamps	Jaguar D-Type	Jacques Swaters	Rank 3

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th
1954	Porsche	Marino-Fiat Coupé Porsche 550	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	CAP
					159	12
1955	Ecurie Francorchamps Equipe Nationale Belge	Jaguar D-Type Ferrari 750 Monza	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	TAR
						3	13

Web links

Commons : Johnny Claes  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Johnny Claes at Allmusic (English)
• Johnny Claes at the Internet Movie Database (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Tom Lord : The Jazz Discography (online, October 19, 2013)