Tommy Spychiger

In a Ferrari 365P2 from Scuderia Filipinetti , Tommy Spychiger had a fatal accident in the 1965 Monza 1000 km race

Thomas "Tommy" Spychiger (born September 29, 1934 in Langenthal ; † April 25, 1965 in Monza ) was a Swiss racing driver .

Career

Tommy Spychiger, whose family ran a restaurant in Lugano, began his motorsport career in 1950 with an Osca 1100S . In 1959 and 1960 he competed in two Formula Junior seasons with a Cooper T52 and then returned to sports car racing.

He became a works driver at Abarth and competed for the Italian racing team in hill climbs and sports car races. In 1960 he made his debut at the 24 Hours of Le Mans , where he competed twice. Both times it was canceled prematurely due to technical defects.

He took part in all major European sports car races, such as the 1000 km race in Paris , the 1000 km race at the Nürburgring and the 1000 km race in Spa-Francorchamps . At the 1962 Targa Florio , he drove a works Porsche 718 RSK .

In 1960 he had a serious accident at the Gaisberg race in which he broke an elbow. Just a few minutes earlier, the German racing driver Walter Häderle had a fatal accident at the same point .

In 1965 he started for the Scuderia Filipinetti in the sports car world championship . At the 1000 km race in Monza in 1965 , after the first refueling stop, he took over the Ferrari 365P2 from his compatriot Herbert Müller . In his first fast lap he drove straight ahead in the Parabolica with no apparent braking effect. The car overturned over an earth wall and burned out completely in the forest behind the racetrack. Spychiger succumbed to his serious injuries at the scene of the accident.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1960	Abarth Corse & Cie	Fiat-Abarth 850S Bialbero	Jacques Féret	failure	malfunction
1962	Abarth Corse & Cie	Abarth-Simca 1300 Bialbero	Henri Oreiller	failure	Engine failure

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1963	Abarth Corse	Abarth-Simca 1300 Bialbero	Teddy Pilette	Rank 21 and class win

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
1960	Abarth	Fiat-Abarth 850	BUA	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM
							DNF
1961	Porsche	Porsche 718	SEB	TAR	ONLY	LEM	PES
							DNF
1962	Scuderia Sant 'Ambroeus Abarth	Porsche 718 Abarth-Simca 1300 Bialbero Fiat-Abarth 700 Bialbero	DAY	SEB	SEB	MAY	TAR	BER	ONLY	LEM	TAV	CCA	RTT	ONLY	BRI	BRI	PAR
							DNF			DNF	13			2			19th
1963	Abarth	Abarth-Simca 1300 Bialbero Abarth 1300S Fiat-Abarth 1000 Abarth 2000 Sport Fiat-Abarth 1000SP	DAY	SEB	SEB	TAR	SPA	MAY	ONLY	CON	ROS	LEM	MON	WIS	TAV	FRE	CCE	RTT	OVI	ONLY	MON	MON	TDF	BRI
					21st				DNF	7th	58					7th			12		1
1964	Abarth	Abarth-Simca 2000 Abarth-Simca 1300 Bialbero Fiat-Abarth 1000 Fiat-Abarth 850	DAY	SEB	TAR	MON	SPA	CON	ONLY	ROS	LEM	REI	FRE	CCE	RTT	SIM	ONLY	MON	TDF	BRI	BRI	PAR
					DNF	3			22nd				24				DNF
1965	Scuderia Filipinetti	Ferrari 365P2	DAY	SEB	BOL	MON	MON	RTT	TAR	SPA	ONLY	MUG	ROS	LEM	REI	BOZ	FRE	CCE	OVI	ONLY	BRI	BRI
							DNF

Web links

Commons : Tommy Spychiger  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Tommy Spychiger at Racing Sports Cars