Doug Nye: Stuart Lewis-Evans, a forgotten Goodwood star

That race meeting was reported for ‘Autosport’ magazine by my old friend Cyril Posthumus, and Stuart Seager. The front row of the grid formed up with Moss’s Vanwall on pole position, with a time of 1min 28.2secs (0.8sec quicker than his team-mate), Tony Brooks in the second Vanwall, then Archie Scott Brown’s Connaught B-Type outboard of him, what seems today an astonishing 2.2secs slower and Ron Flockhart’s BRM Type 25 on the outside of the front row, with a 1:32.6. While Scott Brown’s Connaught wore the standard B-Type model’s well-proportioned, if somewhat tubby body style, Stewart Lewis-Evans’s unpainted new works car – the ‘Toothpaste Tube’, sat behind with the quite extraordinary aerodynamic interpretation of an open-wheeled Grand Prix car that you see in the photos here. He started from the inside of the second grid row, with his best practice time of 1:33.6.

I suspect it was Stuart Seager who penned the race report, punctuated by a standing forest of exclamation marks – his breathless prose sounding like Cyril on speed: The report read:

“The lap times tell the practice story. The BRMs beset with pre-race troubles could not approach the Vanwall speeds, and Lewis-Evans, Connaught ‘new boy’ in Rodney Clarke’s startling new creation…separated Salvadori (second BRM) from Flockhart in grid positions.

“It was not Roy Salvadori’s day. On his very warming-up lap with the new high-sided BRM, one of the disc brakes locked on, and it took five men pushing hard to get the car to the grid, where Bourne mechanics set about freeing the brake. Not the happiest augury for the immediate future.

“The start was given by Mr. Dan M. Glover, donor of the all the Richmond race awards. As he swept the flag down, so Moss, Scott Brown, Brooks and Flockhart catapulted off in a splendid front line getaway. Incident came quickly. Scott-Brown, hard on Moss’s tail at St Mary’s, shot straight on to the glass, dropping to sixth place; then careering off in pursuit of the field, he dashed down to Woodcote, there to meet – and dexterously to dodge – Salvadori’s BRM stuck helplessly on the corner, facing the wrong way! That brake had locked again, and one BRM was out.

“Lap 2 and it was Moss and Brooks, their Vanwalls sounding fine, Lewis-Evans driving like a veteran, Scott-Brown already back to fourth, Fairman, Flockhart, Brabham, and Russell, way back and feeling his way in the Gilby Maserati. 

“Alas for Bourne, Flockhart’s car suddenly spun at St Mary’s, dropping a place, and on lap 3, though the Scotsman took the turn more warily, it spun again. Then ‘Oh – oh’ went the cry, and Brooks’s Vanwall suddenly sounded sick, and on lap 4 he pulled into the pits for a lengthy stop with an old Vanwall bogey – broken throttle linkage.

“So Scott-Brown moved up to second place until, woe and alas, the pressure gauge on his Wilson gearbox zeroed, retirement being preferred to possible seizure, after seven laps.

“Now an elated Lewis-Evans in that odd, unpainted Connaught which incidentally had the engine from Leston’s burned-out Syracuse (GP) car, found himself second, while the race itself looked like a cakewalk for Moss in No 7 – provided his Vanwall played no Syracuse tricks” – with unreliability. “Steadily he increased his lead, and suddenly Brooks’s car came to life and was back in the race, just after the leader had completed 13 laps. Then the PA commentary from St Mary’s rose to an excited babble – and Moss’s Vanwall came to an impotent halt on Lavant Straight! Throttle linkage again! Moss and helpers slaved to remedy things, but to no avail.

“That put Lewis-Evans ahead in this ten little….” – politically incorrect wording deleted – boys race “followed by Fairman in the private Connaught. Third came Flockhart, doggedly circulating in the BRM, followed by Brabham’s twin-cam Cooper, Russell now lapping faster, and Brooks, who had stopped a second time before really getting going.

“Vanwall’s number 2 careered round faster and faster, his face getting blacker and blacker as usual, with brake dust, and on lap 21 he equalled Moss’s 1956 lap record.

“Now Jack Fairman was closing imperceptibly on leader Lewis-Evans, until Send speeded the latter up to combat the danger. Suddenly Moss got his Vanwall going again, but only to motor round to the pits and retire officially, and next Brooks slipped in a 1min 29.6secs – a new official Goodwood lap record at 96.43mph.

“He continued to rocket round to the end, passing Lewis-Evans as though he was touring – as, indeed, he was relatively, with victory well in his grasp. The final order was thus: Lewis-Evans, Fairman, Flockhart, Brabham, Russell and Brooks – such a result could never, surely, have been anticipated beforehand. Verily, the bookmakers’ delight!”.

It was a terrific win for Lewis-Evans upon his Formula 1 debut, just like his exemplar Brooks two years before, again driving a Connaught, in the 1955 Syracuse GP. Stuart had been born in Luton in 1930, the son of Lewis ‘Pop’ Lewis-Evans, who had at one time worked as a mechanic for Earl Howe. Stuart served an apprenticeship with Vauxhall Motors before becoming a National Service despatch rider in the Army’s Royal Corps of Signals. His ambition to become a racing driver. ‘Pop’ had a small garage business in Walling, Kent, and a young wheeler-dealer operating nearby was one Bernard Charles ‘Bernie’ Ecclestone – who was another convert to 500 racing. Fifty-one years old ‘Pop’ Lewis-Evans and son Stuart shared the driving of their green and cream Cooper Mark IV through 1951 with sufficient success to invest in a pair of Mk Vs for the following year.

At the 1952 BRDC Silverstone May meeting, Stuart scored his first big win, defeating the established stars, Alan Brown and Stirling Moss. He became a 500cc Formula 3 star driver. His sparse physical frame made him ideally suited to the class. Since that time, many references have been made to his ability to maintain incredible pace for short periods, before he would begin to tire. He certainly looked frail, and he did develop a problem with stomach ulcers.

Bernie Ecclestone became his friend and advisor, and when Stuart graduated to Formula 1 – as with the Connaught at Goodwood in ’57 – he would accompany him to many events. Mr. E still goes quiet, thoughtful and genuinely misty-eyed in unguarded moments if one speaks to him about Lewis-Evans. “He was a really good bloke” – he will admit – “and yes, I did carry milk around for him to get him comfortable before a long race”.

Stuart Lewis-Evans’s 500cc race wins included particularly fine drives in the wet at Silverstone in 1952, a hat-trick at Orleans, France, 1953-5, Italian race wins at such romantic road-racing venues as Senigallia and Teramo.

Rodney Clarke of Connaught first asked him to drive for the team at Brands Hatch in October 1956. As a 500cc regular he was a Brands expert, and he immediately finished second behind little one-handed Archie Scott-Brown’s sister car. Into 1957 his second outing as a works Connaught driver produced the Glover Trophy win. He ran second in the Naples GP, before the ailing Connaught team – fast running out of money, and hope – went to Monaco. When Connaught collapsed, Ferrari offered the young Englishman a sports car drive at Le Mans. He certainly showed sufficient stamina co-drove the first Ferrari home, fifth, sharing with Martino Severi.

The Reims Formula 1 race was a non-Championship event that year as the French GP proper had been moved to Rouen-les-Essarts. Vanwall had lost Moss’s services since one dunking too many while water skiing on the French Riviera had given him a nasty sinus infection. Tony Brooks had hurt himself by up-ending a works Aston Martin at Le Mans. Tony Vandervell’s Vanwall team invited Stuart to stand-in for Stirling at Rouen. He found himself in a strange car, on a strange circuit, but he drove most competently, running fifth before the car failed.

A second Vanwall drive at Reims then saw the slender Lewis-Evans qualify his Vanwall on the front row of the grid alongside Fangio and tear away into an increasing lead. He absolutely shone before an oil leak slowed him down, and he finished third. Vandervell signed him on as third-string full-time works driver, team-mate to Moss and Brooks. Thrown in at the deep end he would prove he was a great swimmer…

At Pescara Moss won for Vanwall, beating the hated red cars of Ferrari and Maserati on their home soil – and Lewis-Evans’s Vanwall was third.

For the Italian GP at Monza – he qualified on pole position.

He led at quarter-distance when his Vanwall engine’s cylinder head cracked. And in the non-Championship Moroccan GP at Casablanca, he finished second to Jean Behra's works Maserati.

He was a pleasant, polite, friendly young man. The Vanwall team staff really warmed to him. ‘The Old Man’ – Vandervell himself – thought he was great, recognizing a wonderful third talent to his all-British team.

Through our northern hemisphere winter of 1957-58, Bernie Ecclestone ran the ‘Toothpaste Tube’ Connaught – which he had bought at Connaught’s closing-down sale – for Stuart to drive in New Zealand. Its engine failed in the New Zealand GP when he was running second behind Jack Brabham's Cooper with not many laps remaining. In the Lady Wigram Trophy race at Christchurch, he finished a misfiring third.

Mr. E would say of him: “He was superb, oozing with talent. He would have been one of the greats, he was already as quick or quicker than Moss. He was a thinking man and he thought of nothing else but driving”.

Cyril Posthumus wrote "Stuart was…modest about his achievements and never bragged, but he was confident in himself. I thought of him like a little bantam. He was extremely approachable, if you asked sensible questions, and was as a racing driver should be, lots of guts and push”.

The 1958 Dutch GP at Zandvoort again saw Stuart Lewis-Evans qualify on pole, beating both Moss and Brooks in their sister Vanwalls – despite Stirling having precedence with his absolute choice of best chassis, engine, gearbox, suspension – all written into his contract – while Tony Brooks had as much sheer God-given talent as Stirling, and more experience than the new boy. . .

In Formula Two that year he BRP-run Coopers, and he finished third in the Belgian GP, won by Brooks, then fourth in his home British GP at Silverstone.

His ulcer problem continued. His Formula 2 team manager Ken Gregory described him as being “brave as a lion” and he took third place in the Portuguese GP. After retiring from the Italian race only the Moroccan GP remained in the 1958 calendar – which was to decide that year’s World Championship – Hawthorn of Ferrari, or Moss of Vanwall.

Stirling would “do a Hamilton” by achieving everything within his grasp in that decisive race – winning hands down – but Hawthorn “did a Rosberg”, coming home second to clinch the World title.

Stuart Lewis-Evans had qualified third, on the front row, alongside Moss and Hawthorn. But his engine ran poorly from the start. His third-string Vanwall in truth comprised many high-time parts – it was something of a tired old nail.

On lap 41, mechanical failure saw the car’s rear wheels lock-up, spinning Stuart off the circuit into trackside boulders, the impact against them bursting open the rear-mounted fuel tank. He was engulfed by blazing fuel, scrambled from the deep cockpit and ran, tragically away from marshals rushing to his aid. He sustained mortal burns, and while Vandervell flew him immediately back to England – where Sir Archibald McIndoe’s legendary burns unit at East Grinstead in Sussex did everything possible to save him, this married young man of 28, with two small children, died six days later, on October 25^th, 1958.

Images courtesy of The GP Library