Our new ‘Racing Rarities’ puzzle: A famous name

Mostly drawn from the archives of our photo partners XPB and Grand Prix Photo, every week from Tuesday we present a little piece of motorsport history. Tell us who you can recognise (Example: Jo Siffert, Monza, 1970) and join in the guessing game for the honour of it – there’s nothing to be won. Send your answer to: mathias.brunner@speedweek.com. The closing date for entries is midnight on Sunday of the current week.

Entry is free of charge. The competition is open to anyone aged 18 or over. Employees of the participating companies are excluded. The decision is final.

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Here’s a clue for the new quiz: this driver made a name for himself with a famous name.

Our clue for the last task was: ‘This driver brought more courage to the racetrack than most other drivers.’ That was a little play on words, as the picture shows the Englishman Piers Courage during practice for the 1967 Race of Champions at Brands Hatch, with the Briton sitting in a Lotus-Martin. He failed to qualify for this Formula 1 race, which did not count towards the World Championship.

Courage – whose trademark was a silver helmet bearing the logo of the elite school Eton – came from the beer-brewing dynasty of the same name. But the family business held no appeal for Piers; he had long since become hooked on motor racing.

During his time at Eton, Courage met his future companions Bubbles Horsley and Sheridan Thynne, as well as the racing driver Jonathan Williams (no relation to team principal Frank Williams); their flat on Pinner Road in London was the epicentre for racing enthusiasts.

At first, the Courage family believed that Piers’ passion for racing was just a whim; his father even bought him his first racing cars in 1962 and 1963. When it became clear that Courage was serious about the sport, he fell out with his family.

Piers Courage and his model girlfriend Sally Curzon were regarded as the perfect couple; they were featured just as prominently in the celebrity pages of the tabloids as they were in the sports sections. As no money came from the Courage family, the budget was always tight, and Sally’s earnings often had to be used to fund his racing.

Courage worked his way up through the traditional racing ranks: club races, Formula 3, Formula 2. Piers was fast, but initially often lacked control. It was not until the Tasman Series in early 1968 that he cemented his reputation and set to work with renewed confidence. He finished third overall in the series behind the aces Jim Clark and Chris Amon.

Frank Williams and Piers Courage became an inseparable pair, initially in Formula 2. Piers had turned down an offer from Colin Chapman to become Graham Hill’s team-mate following Jim Clark’s death. Courage felt that the number 2 driver at Lotus was not treated well enough.

Courage established himself as a top driver in Formula 2; in 1969, he moved up to the top flight with Williams, driving Brabham customer cars. Courage often retired because the cars were unreliable, but he turned heads with second-place finishes at Monaco and Watkins Glen. He finished a respectable eighth in the World Championship.

In 1970, Piers Courage remained with Williams (despite an offer from Enzo Ferrari); Frank had commissioned an F1 car from the Italian Gianpaolo Dallara, funded by the entrepreneur Alejandro de Tomaso. Courage secured ninth on the grid in both Monaco and Zandvoort, but was unable to score any points until the Dutch Grand Prix.

At Zandvoort, Courage went off the track due to a front suspension failure; the Briton was struck and killed by a wheel, after which the magnesium chassis burnt out completely.