Just days after his 1959 Le Mans-winning teammate, Carroll Shelby, and a matter of weeks since Ted Cutting, designer of the DBR1, both died, Roy Salvadori passed away. Despite his Italian surname and parentage, Roy Salvadori was born in the small seaside town of Dovercourt, Essex, England, and always looked the dapper English gent around motor racing paddocks for over 60 years. Like many racing drivers of the era, Salvadori began his working life as a car dealer. He became a regular part of the motor racing world, particularly in the UK, beginning in 1946, first in sprint events with a Riley Special and later racing the Alfa Romeo Tipo B that had taken Nuvolari to victory at the 1935 German GP. In the first major event at Silverstone, the 1948 RAC International GP, he drove a Maserati, finishing 8th some five laps down.
In 1951, while leading a production car race at Silverstone driving a Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica, he tangled with backmarkers at Stowe. His car rolled and he was partially thrown out, coming to rest only when the car hit a concrete marker post. So severe were his head injuries he was administered last rites. Fortunately, he survived and resumed racing within months of the accident. Such was his appetite for racing that he would enter a number of races at any one meeting whether it be driving formula, sports or production cars. He was particularly successful in these events, winning a number of national trophies.
His first entry in the F1 Grand Prix World Championship was for the 1952 British GP at Silverstone, driving a 4-cylinder Ferrari 500. He qualified 19th in a field of 32, and finished 8th, although three laps down. His Grand Prix career continued with teams such as Connaught and Gilby Engineering, and one off races for BRM and Vanwall, all without success. However, things changed in 1957 when he signed to race for Cooper. In his first race, the British GP at Aintree, he finished 5th. The 1958 Grand Prix season proved to be his most successful, results including a 4th place in the Dutch GP at Zandvoort, and a podium, 2nd place in the German GP at the Nürburgring. By the end of the season he had totalled 15 points and finished 4th in the World Championship. It would prove to be the zenith of his Grand Prix career. From 1959-1962 he competed in another 24 F1 World Championship races, most of which finished with mechanical retirements and only four best-placed finishes of 6th.
Salvadori was making his name racing Aston Martin sportscars and, of course, the most prestigious victory was the 1959 Le Mans win with Carroll Shelby driving a DBR1. However, when I last spoke to Roy, just before the onset of his long illness, he told me the Le Mans win was not the race that gave him the ultimate pleasure. He said, “It was the last race the Aston Martin team competed, the 1963 Monza Coppa Europe, just prior to the Formula One Grand Prix. Two GT Project 212 cars were entered for Bianchi and me, and the strongest opposition came from the four Ferrari GTOs that had been entered, the fastest driven by Mike Parkes, the Ferrari works driver. The race developed into a continuous battle between Parkes and me throughout the whole three hours of the race, and very often the lead changed two or three times in a lap of. At the time, Monza was one of the fastest European circuits, and I found the concentration needed to achieve the lap speeds required was more demanding than anything I had previously encountered. The heat in the car was practically unbearable, and I was thankful I was a racing against Mike, who was one of the most experienced and skilful GT drivers. At times our cars were very often just inches apart. Nevertheless I was able, by virtue of breaking the GT lap record at a speed of close to 125 mph, to beat the Ferrari by a couple of car lengths after three hours racing—most satisfying to beat Ferrari at Monza!’
Three further serious accidents, one driving a Cooper at Warwick Farm in Australia, in 1962, another in an E-Type Jaguar at the 1963 Le Mans race and a testing accident in a Ford GT at the 1964 Le Mans test heralded the twilight of his career. The last race of that formidable career came at the 1965 Goodwood Whitsun meeting, where he finished 2nd in a Ford GT40. After a short spell managing the Cooper Grand Prix team, Salvadori settled in Monaco. I was honored to be among the many guests who over the years were invited to visit him and his wife, Sue, at the apartment that not only overlooked the harbor, but also the start-finish line of the famous GP circuit. Salvadori’s spiritual home, in motor racing terms, was, however, Goodwood. It was he who reportedly said, “Give me Goodwood on a summer’s day and you can forget the rest of the world.” He last visited the circuit in September 2007, when Lord March organized a display of racing cars he once drove in homage to his illustrious career. Sir Stirling Moss was the chauffeur for what would prove to be his last lap of the circuit.
To his wife, Sue, his family and all his friends, Vintage Racecar offers sincere condolences.
