Mike Spence

Mike Spence

Nation:	United Kingdom
Automobile world championship
First start:	1963 Italian Grand Prix
Last start:	1968 Grand Prix of South Africa
Constructors
1963–1966 Lotus • 1967–1968 BRM
statistics
World Cup balance:	World Cup eighth ( 1965 )
Starts Victories Poles SR 36 - - -
World Cup points :	27
Podiums :	1
Leadership laps :	-

Michael "Mike" Henderson Spence (born December 30, 1936 in Croydon , Great Britain , † May 7, 1968 in Indianapolis , USA ) was a British automobile racing driver .

Motorsport career

From 1960 to 1963 Spence drove in Formula Junior . In the automobile world championship he started for the first time in 1960 on an Emeryson Climax in a race on the Solitude race track that was not part of the world championship .

1967: Mike Spence in the Chaparral 2F on the Nürburgring

On September 8, 1963, Spence completed his first race in the automobile world championship at the Italian Grand Prix when he replaced the injured Trevor Taylor at Lotus . Spence started from ninth place, 3.6 seconds behind John Surtees, who was fastest in training . In the race, he retired on the 73rd of 86 laps after a problem with the oil pressure of his engine.

Spence won the Race of Champions in 1965 and the Grand Prix of South Africa in 1966 , both events that were not part of the World Cup. At world championship races Spence only managed a podium finish once: on October 24, 1965 at the Mexican Grand Prix , he was third behind the winner Richie Ginther and second-placed Dan Gurney .

Spence achieved a total of 27 World Championship points in 36 Grand Prix races.

On May 7, 1968, a week before the actual race, he had an accident at the age of 31 as a substitute driver for Jim Clark , who had died exactly one month earlier, during training for the 500-mile race in Indianapolis in a Lotus 56 with all-wheel drive and gas turbine also deadly. Spence, who started for Andy Granatelli and Colin Chapman's STP Indy team , lost control of the car, hit the concrete wall of the track and was hit on the helmet by his right front wheel. A few hours later he died of severe head injuries in the hospital.

statistics

Statistics in the automobile world championship

These statistics include all of the driver's participations in the World Automobile Championship, which is now known as the Formula 1 World Championship .

general overview

season	team	chassis	engine	run	Victories	Second	Third	Poles	nice Race laps	Points	WM-Pos.
1963	Team Lotus	Lotus 25	Climax 1.5 V8	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
1964	Team Lotus	Lotus 25	Climax 1.5 V8	2	-	-	-	-	-	4th	12.
		Lotus 33		4th	-	-	-	-	-
1965	Team Lotus	Lotus 33	Climax 1.5 V8	8th	-	-	1	-	-	10	8th.
		Lotus 25		1	-	-	-	-	-
1966	Reg Parnell Racing Ltd.	Lotus 25	BRM 2.0 V8	1	-	-	-	-	-	4th	13.
		Lotus 33		1	-	-	-	-	-
1967	Owen Racing Organization	BRM P83	BRM 3.0 H16	11	-	-	-	-	-	9	10.
1968	Owen Racing Organization	BRM P115	BRM 3.0 H16	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
total				36	-	-	1	-	-	27

Single results

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9	10	11	12
1963
							13
1964
					9	8th	DNF	6th	7th	4th
1965
	4th		7th	7th	4th	8th	DNF	11	DNF	3
1966
	DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF	5	DNF	5	DNF	DNS
1967
	DNF	6th	8th	5	DNF	DNF	DNF	5	5	DNF	5
1968
	DNF

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
1967	Chaparral Cars Ltd.	Chaparral 2F	Phil Hill	failure	Power transmission

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1967	Chaparral Cars	Chaparral 2F	Jim Hall	failure	differential

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
1966	Vixen Investments Nick Cussons	Ford GT40	DAY	SEB	MON	TAR	SPA	ONLY	LEM	MUG	CCE	HOK	SIM	ONLY	ZEL
								12							DNF
1967	Chaparral Cars	Chaparral 2F	DAY	SEB	MON	SPA	TAR	ONLY	LEM	HOK	MUG	BRH	CCE	ZEL	OVI	ONLY
			DNF	DNF	DNF	DNF		DNF	DNF			1
1968	Alan Mann Racing	Ford P68	DAY	SEB	BRH	MON	TAR	ONLY	SPA	WAT	ZEL	LEM
					DNF

See also

• List of fatally injured Formula 1 drivers

Web links

Commons : Mike Spence  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Mike Spence at Racing Sports Cars