The golden age of motor sport

There are heroes and then there are unsung ones, and I basically prefer the latter as I have known a few of them in my lifetime. The funny thing is that I grew up learning only about famous heroes, the Ancient Greek type, starting with the semi-God Achilles. Homer didn’t deal with unsung heroes; everyone was larger than life, and there were only winners and losers. The person I’ll tell you about this week would not have been a Homeric hero, but he certainly was one while participating in the most dangerous game in the world.

Lance Macklin was an Old Etonian, a second world war navy vet, and a dashing racing driver at a time when a shunt meant instant immolation and certain death. Just off the top of my head here are a few names of young top drivers that were lost while racing before the sport became safer than football or volleyball: Ascari, Castellotti, Levegh, Musso, von Trips, Behra, Collins, Bonnier, Portago, Bandini, Clark, Scarfiotti, Courage, Cevert, and hundreds more who died in the golden age of motor sport during the 1950s and 1960s.