Tony Rolt

Tony Rolt

Nation:	United Kingdom
Automobile world championship
First start:	Great Britain Grand Prix 1950
Last start:	1955 British Grand Prix
Constructors
1950  Peter Walker Racing 1953 and 1955 Rob Walker Racing
statistics
World Cup balance:	no World Cup placement
Starts Victories Poles SR 3 - - -
World Cup points :	-
Podiums :	-
Leadership laps :	-

Anthony Peter Roylance "Tony" Rolt (born October 16, 1918 in Bordon , Hampshire ; †  February 6, 2008 in Warwick , Warwickshire ) was a British automobile racing driver , award-winning officer as well as a technician and entrepreneur . Rolt, often respectfully referred to as "The Major" in both racing and business and personal life, lived in the Shakespearean town of Stratford-upon-Avon for 56 years . He died of pneumonia at Warwick Hospital at the age of 89 .

Schoolboy, racing amateur and soldier

After Rolt had spent his childhood in Llanelwy (English St Asaph; Denbighshire , Wales ), he began his racing career with a Morgan three-wheeler in student trials during his school days at Eton College and from the middle of the 1930s in automobile races. After initial successes at the 24-hour race at Spa-Francorchamps in 1936 and at various British club races, he acquired the ERA called "Remus" from Prince Bira . With that he won u. a. In 1939 he won the British Empire Trophy in Donington Park , before he also entered the military as the son of Brigadier-General Stuart Peter Rolt as part of an apprenticeship in Sandhurst . At the beginning of the Second World War he was a lieutenant and in May 1940, during the withdrawal of British troops from France near Calais , he was taken prisoner by the Germans.

After a total of seven unsuccessful escape attempts, he was taken to Colditz Castle , where he was significantly involved in the escape project of the so-called Colditz Glider from the spring of 1944 . Because of his services in the battle for Calais, Rolt was awarded the Military Cross , later he also received a so-called Medal Bar for repeated attempts to escape from captivity. With the rank of major, Rolt quit his military service after the end of the war because he saw a future in racing that seemed far more interesting to him.

Tony Rolt later avoided any fuss about his time as a soldier and also did not attend the meetings of the former Colditz inmates. Quote: “Escaping was not a game. Nor was it fun. It was a duty. " (" Escape wasn't a game. It wasn't fun either. It was our duty. ")

Professional racing driver

At the time of his death, Tony Rolt was the last member of the British Racing Drivers' Club (BRDC) to have participated in international motorsport events before World War II . Its membership had existed since 1936.

With Rolt, the last driver to participate in the debut Formula 1 world championship race , the British Grand Prix in 1950 , also died. There he took over the ERA , qualified by Peter Walker for starting position 10, but with which he suffered a gearbox damage after only four laps. Rolt competed three times in Formula 1, after 1950 also in 1953 and 1955, both at the British Grand Prix . However, he was unable to score points for the drivers' world championship because he had to retire from all three races due to technical problems. In 1953 his Connaught Type A had a drive shaft damage after 70 laps , in 1955 the throttle valve of his Connaught broke after 18 laps .

His greatest successes in motorsport celebrated Rolt as Jaguar - works driver and as an absolute highlight of 1953 a victory at the 24 Hours of Le Mans . As a partner of Duncan Hamilton , he drove a Jaguar C-Type . The following year, he and Hamilton drove one of the new Jaguar D-Type models in Le Mans to second place. Due to an additional oil filter change stop, they had to admit defeat to the Ferrari team José Froilán González and Maurice Trintignant . In 1955 Hamilton / Rolt were again at the 24 Heurs du Mans , but dropped out prematurely in second place. After Rolt and his wife Lois had witnessed the terrible accident at Pierre Levegh , he made the decision to dedicate himself only to his company in the future.

Technician and Entrepreneur

After his return from the war and the end of his military service, Rolt began working again with racing veteran Freddie Dixon , who had already improved and serviced his ERA racing car in the late 1930s. Together they developed all-wheel drives and all-wheel steering , initially the two traded under the name Dixon Rolt Developments . After Rolt was able to win over the previous tractor manufacturer Harry Ferguson ( Massey Ferguson ) in 1950, Dixon and Rolt parted ways again.

The newly founded company Ferguson Research Ltd. became more and more well-known over the years due to its achievements and produced a four-wheel drive system called Ferguson Formula (FF) , which was even used repeatedly in Formula 1 between 1961 and 1971 . The Jensen FF , which was produced in a small number of only 320 copies between 1966 and 1971 , also had this technical innovation . After Harry Ferguson died unexpectedly in October 1960, Rolt founded his own company called FF Developments in 1971, after the closure of Ferguson Research and with the consent of the Ferguson heirs . It became an important partner for Ford, Chrysler, Audi, Fiat / Lancia and General Motors before it was sold by Tony Rolt to Ricardo Consulting Engineers in 1994 .

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	Peter Walker	ERA E-Type	ERA 1.5 L6s	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
1953	Rob Walker Racing Team	Connaught Type A	Lea-Francis 2.0 L4	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
1955	Rob Walker Racing Team	Connaught Type B	Alta 2.5 L4	1	-	-	-	-	-	-	NC
total				3	-	-	-	-	-	-

Single results

season	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th	8th	9
1950
	DNF
1953
						7th
1955
						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
1949	RRC Walker Racing Team	Delahaye 135CS	Guy Jason-Henry	failure	Bearing damage
1950	Healey Motors Ltd.	Nash-Healey E.	Duncan Hamilton	Rank 4
1951	Donald Healey Motor Company	Nash-Healey Sport Coupe	Duncan Hamilton	Rank 6
1952	Jaguar Ltd.	Jaguar C-Type	Duncan Hamilton	failure	Cylinder overheated
1953	Jaguar Cars Ltd.	Jaguar C-Type	Duncan Hamilton	Overall victory
1954	Jaguar Cars Ltd.	Jaguar D-Type	Duncan Hamilton	Rank 2
1955	Jaguar Cars Ltd.	Jaguar D-Type	Duncan Hamilton	failure	Gearbox damage

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th
1953	jaguar	Jaguar C-Type	SEB	MIM	LEM	SPA	ONLY	RTT	CAP
				DNF	1			DNF
1954	jaguar	Jaguar D-Type	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	CAP
						2	DNF
1955	jaguar	Jaguar D-Type	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	TAR
						DNF

Web links

Commons : Tony Rolt  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Coventry Telegraph Rolt Obituary
• Times Rolt Obituary
• Telegraph Rolt Obituary
• Guardian Rolt Obituary