Innes Ireland Artwork
Wally Thomason conjures a revealing image of the British racer.
Like many of his compatriots of the pre-corporate days of racing, Ireland lived and raced for the same reason – to have FUN. Capable enough to have defeated Stirling Moss in fair fights twice in the same day, he gave Team Lotus its first Grand Prix victory and knew the singular experience of driving up the wall and unto the ceiling of Monaco’s tunnel. (After the Monaco incident, Ireland, with a broken knee and severed artery, asked, “Tell me, have I lost any vital bits?”) A few months before he died of cancer in 1993, he was seen driving an elderly open Ferrari through a Scottish monsoon, grinning. A really great character.
